Debut of collections is now available and his memoir the cookoff will be released in may. Nice. And can we have a hand please . [applause] [inaudible] and awardwinning poet and journalist, critic and poet, his books are the New York Times best seller and book show of the month raising fences. Claims a l novel also americas and collection of essay, the life and death of tupac and hes a professor of english at lola Marymount University in los angeles. [applause] seated next to me is nirk coal raised in bronx, new york. Hand for the bronx. [laughter] a masters degree of psychology and worked as a counselor for teenagers and families in crisis situations. She also has mfa in creative writing for a new school. Her first novel won Los Angeles Times book prize for young adult literature and novel kendra and bronxwood selected by American Library association as best book for young adults. Her first middle grade novel kind of elected as an ala notable book for children, and an npr best book of 2014. Lets have a hand for ms. Bruce. So what were going to do is im going to post a couple of questions in between each question, each author will read from their work. So the first question will be started with one, and then next and then next. Five, seven minutes for each. So first, well start at the other end of the table. [inaudible] who was your intended audience and what do you want them to understand about shaping memories and adulthood . So my opinion on audience is what most of us identify as being nontraditional readers. I write for young people who hate books because you know, i think about how reading has transformed me and how its a tool that brings about freedom and complex starts and things that any and other person needs to navigate society. So everyone a lot of people are readings my bookses and dirchts people take Different Things away from them. I think kids from neighborhoods like where i come from get the opportunity to see themselves in the book which is which was, you know, exist you have to do like mark twain and all of that. So now young people are able to see themselves in books and i think from people from far removed people like about suburbs they get the humanity that exist within the black Community Something that the news and media is really good at skipping. So you know, i think an audience and im proud of that. Am i reading . Okay. Not now after each person. Okay, cool l. Thanks for being here. As a pleasure to be on the panel. Audience for my books are young people looking to find a way to have survival and a context of antiblackness, a young person trying to survive now, youre encountering people looking at you as not fully human. Books are also aimed at parents foxes raising kids who have children in the audience by a show of hands. Okay. If youre raising kids, i know youre concerned ive got two children, two daughters and as a parent always trying to find creative ways to prepare them for the way ahead. Creative strategies to train them how to be confident and successful, how to love themselves so i have two daughters again modern context because of how gender power works women have to work harder to feel good about themselves because so many message it is that women are not as valuable or as beautiful or perfect as they actually are. When youre female and black, the double pressure is added as a result of that. So my own family for example, my daughters, i tell them constantly that they are smart. And fun youre so smart and youre so beautiful. Always probably in a day not exaggerating at least in a day 20 times kind of fun joking way at times or serious ways easer day. Youre so smart, baby youre so smart and books are always reminding people that they are beautiful, smart, and also its okay to at times be broken or to be imperfect and books also aimed aim many wayses as a lighter public as we know at times folks when we know black people well who know lil wayne or know us through snoop dogg they dont know our humanity. In a way we read a book its a e slow process reading novel for example. You spend time with a novel and when people read a whole novel they get to know these characters in a way thats very full and complete and remind them how complex black folks are. And not viewed as complex beings and you can walk down the street with skittles and get shot the hell up. I agree with most of my panelists here. My book is written for teenagers its a young adult novel. And when i started it i wanted my novel to be for reluctant readers an something my brother would have read when he was a teenager and he never read anything i dont think. Never read anything as a kid so i was thinking kids like him and when i started writing it, that was my audience. But as i u now have four books and kind of done a lot of talking and stuff like that gone around country and u now ive kind of opened up my mind a little bit and like mike was saying i want any books to be read not just by those kids but by every kid. Because i do see a lot of in the suburbs of illinois, and a teenager, english teacher literally asked me shes like she said in our School District we have only two ethnic kids so not making this up. [laughter] so she goes so why should or kids read your books it was leak wow. This reminded me like when i was a kid growing up in the bronx in all black School Nobody ever said there are no white kids in this school so why read the great gatsby and like mike was saying open their minds and see not just what they see on the news or what they see like to get a Bigger Picture of what it means to be a black kid in this country. And a interior you know ting that you see on the news you see these stories. But books can bring you inside of the childs head and inside of their lives, and just get a fuller picture. So now i say i write for everybody. You know . Thats what i should have said. Wonderful. Now, lets hear piece of writing from each author. This book is america is my newest book and a skin disease called Michael Jackson disease black and brown lose their skin but skin tone is splotches so you have to imagine youre a kid age ten, darker skin and begin to literally fade away in spots and imagine the stares you get to happen to you as a social subject. And this book, this really charismatic young boy goes from being a young kid to becoming a bitter angry and challenged son. And the book the father is concerned about his kids as our parents are, and tries to prepare them as saying before by offering them strait ji and one thing by age of five he stops giving kids a gift and creates map for them and buries their birthday presents in the backyard so heres your map go find your gift. Should i find within an hour to forfeit them to me and training kids that a man works for everything that he gets in logic for preparing for a complicated world an saying 13 miles from ferguson in 1917 with ul start the fathers name is kip. Kip have been burying his sons birthday present since they were five years old. It allowed him to combine his love of math making and man making. He inherented his own father skill with maps but was determined to shape the patriarch child rearing approach and shake off his effects, a slow process. Kip still had the selfconscience look of a criticals only child beneath seemless skin was a puzzled face with pieces jammed to fit. Kip had learned from experience that tough love without hugs play a ride on a knees and tender kisses wasnt tough love. It was just tough. Thats why such a good father last week when the twins big rusty butts tumble into the library and ask for his bucking bronchoknees he enjoyed more than his boys. Care that long kip birthdays would officially start theiring right passage into manhood and told him that kip was a number of perfection and went into labor 1883, he knew there was going to be Something Special about his child. What kip detective know was that come in twos from the day that baby us face head of the twins from exhausted wife to elated father kip began plotting how to build his little boys into perfect men. [applause] sorry choking here. My book is written 14 but it has some language so if thats something that is bothering you a good time to leave. Im going to read a little bit from my book tyrell and its about a 15yearold whose dad is locked up and he and his mom and little brother are homeless as a result and theyre in the e. A. U. System here in new york bounced around from one motel to the next, and i guess thats all you really need to know about that a 15 boy who is speaking. Sending us to the Bennett Hotel some niga told me rolling and one dude said his room had bullet holes in the walls and bloodstains on the rug. This other guy said roaches was getting paid to run bennett and signed you and took you to your room that bennett hired romps to come to your room to kill roaches. That is hit was funny but nothing funny anymore. A bombed out building like something outside like in the old war movies. Inside it aint no better. Place looked stink like old sneakers probably because they aint got no fresh air in here. Thats first thing i noticed. Another thing is how busted the lobby look with old chair and coaches with holes and stuff hanging out of them. Or floors is dirty look like they aint never been mopped one quarter of the room burger king and shit all over the floor ands plastic flowers on the table. Look thats going to make the look nice and feel right at home here. As holes. Second we get to the room our mom shakes heads. Kentucky can you believe why got us here . I have a sevenyearold child. I dont say nothing. This whole situation got me so mad i have to keep my mouth closed. I need to keep all of this shit inside and watt until it all settle back down again. How do this they asked . Children sleeping here three nights i dont get this but i stop listening im tired of the way she act like everyone supposed to do everything for her all of the time. Even if she dont do nothing and even when my pop is home never did something for herself and expected him to buy her things no matter how he got them. Troy are starts crying and mom do nothing to help him and i find stuff for him to sleep in and go to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Five seconds later he call me because of the roach in the sink. I take off my beat up old jacket and beat him with toilet paper and kill more on the wall. My mom is talking to her friend thats my phone i said trying to snatch it away from her. Using all of my minutes, damn. I sit down on a bed, mad and why take my shit without asking. I hate that. Troy out the bathroom. I dont him staying up and seeing how jacked this room really is. Hes so tired he dont fight e me and laid on other bed an pulled blank the over him which is good because theres a roach on the wall by the bed. I dont kill it because it wont matter. This got more problems than just roaches. Our room aint got no bullet holes but paint is all dirty and peeling and rug is all worn out and shit. Two double rooms with no sheets and mattress is u up. Bennett is worst so far. My mom used up last ten minutes and throw my cell on the bed and turn on me. Whats your with lazy ass doing . Man i cant got time for this. It mean what you doing for this family . Why arent you doing something so your mother and brother dont got to live like this for a second i try to hold it in because i want troy to sleep but before i know it im screaming back what am i supposed to do in you never do nothing. You dont go to school too damn lazy and when you get your black ass to school you fight and get in trouble and ive got to go down there and talk to that god damned vice principal. Talk about lazy what you doing for this family . She dont hear me she keep on going you dont go to school and dont work. Damn near 16 what kind of man you going to be some lazy ass niga what you want, me selling weed thats what yowpght. She dont back down. We wouldnt be at bennett if you would be. Start Walking Around room like shes an animal trying to get out of her cage. Youve got to do something this stuff is serious now. Aint screaming anymore but look scared you spend your time Walking Around streets screwing that little girl. That dont make you a man. A man got to take care of his family. What your man doing for his family i ask her. You want me to take care of you because your man keep his ass out of rikers i open the door and gone. I get in the hall like i want to punch ore kick something. I can feel blood pounding in my brain. I have to do something and go somewhere. I dont got nowhere to go. Go girl [applause] so im going to read a piece of that introduction from my book the b side its the collection that covers range of topics from racism to why poor schools exist to street harassment to what they eat right like food. So if i put all of the these things in a Historic Context and i use my own story as the back drop so im going to read a piece of it. All right first time reading all of this outloud but im ready. One night i participated in a peaceful protest in downtown baltimore. My fellow protesters and i standing with citizens of ferguson, missouri. Over the murder of mike brown. The innocent afn american teen who was on his way to college when had he was cut down by a policemans bullets. It felt good to unit with so many different people for the same cause but thats first group would hand science and share sense of outrage but even as we shouted for justice it wasnt enough for my experiences and rallying for the six and trayvon martin. I do have an immense amount of rpght for marchers and organizers but in the end after that changting and marching Darren Wilson cop who murdered brown went free still. And comings in america still feel comfortable killing innocent black people. Every time a black body dies at the hands of a cop same protesting on one side an same is naive voices echo on other. Well if they were innocent, why did they run . Why did they attack an officer . Why didnt they obey . I get what had these come from in a perfect world. Innocent people shouldnt have to run or protect themselves from people responsible for protecting them. However america is far from perfect. Africanamericans are about as safe as chunk of steak in a din full of starve lions it doesnt matter if you stay or fight back or run. Either way theyll murder you. Ran and when they caught him he was murdered. One in South Carolina murdered too. Oakland face down on the ground with a cuffs on and they murdered him. John was minding his own business, shot, hold with a bb gun and officer opened fire within seconds interacting with him. Mike brown put his hands up and cop threw holes through him and eric in Staten Island pleaded for his life easer he was in custody on video in broad daitle and he still killed him. Edwards death and hanging low enpolice tasers him. One in South Carolina wanted help because he was in a car accident they shot him to death as he reached up or per assistance. One 12 being a kid cant save you because he was gunned down too. In st. Louis killed because he had a knife. One in chicago killed by an officer who adopted alley. Tried run to his home and they got him. Katherine johnson 92yearold woman in atlanta relaxing in her home and police stampede and killed her in a botched drug raid and they happened to be in his stairwell minding his own business with no weapon and killed from that. You can be from africa like im in new york or known as nice guy around Baltimore Anthony anderson it doesnt matter. No black person is safe. Kids, city workers, hugs her prom queens. Theyll murtd you. These kills happen every day in america so much that had the newspapers should print a daily death count with photo of the casual it it because for black a this is wartime. What is disgusting that all of these officer who is commit heinous acts are found innocent and many not charged due to the Law Enforcement officers brights that exist in every state. In maryland where i live Police Officers gets ten days before they have to speak about the killing theyre involved in. Girch them ample time to assemble mountain of lies that give them up. The guardian reported they kill blacks twice the rate of whites and this is the l norm. [applause] extra are question in there based on everything that we just heard you read, have students have young people read your work an how do they respond to that because im from here, from brooklyn born and raised in brownsville and one of the places with the most crime in the city. And we have more gangs, we have basically more shelters, jails and projects. And most of them prisons are for kids. So a lot of our kids are working around with this mentality you know if i have a gun im straight and then realize how theyre being used so i would think when they read your work that it would make them a little more knowledgeable about whats going on in the world so can you tell me like how they respond to that . Biggest is that we raise money for small private donors, foundations and donate it over 1500 copies of my book Public School made it for tenth graders next year. Thank you. [applause] im in schools this d. C. , virginia two times a week so one thing that im extremely proud of is that young people, young black students who again they dont identify traditional readers are getting the b side and finishing it up a like two or three days reason is because one they see themselves in the book and susceptible not in this language that needs to be decoded with someone with 37 degreeses its in a conversational tone and it speaks directly to them and three it puts all of these issues you know some of the issues took 500 years to create like why, why school in a black neighborhood so messed up . Yacht just pose that question but i talk about how why students a 42 head start and gi bill and needs and how that money allocated and basically different policies that created realities so i use any own experience, but i also put in a Historical Context and language that is easy to read and it explains these things and gives you the option to figure out what you can do in which place is so i read part of an introduction and if i would have continued to the end, basically talked about best way for me to make a difference is not too much of a down street for me. Best thing for me to do is to create content that gets people excited about reading and then go to schools and encourage people to tell their own stories and help them to the begs of my ability understand how important their