23 December 2011

Happy Holidays from StreetLiterature.com!

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 
FROM STREETLITERATURE.COM! 

Just wanted to drop a quick note to 
THANK YOU 
from the bottom of my heart
for your wonderful support of this blog
for 2011.


We look forward to continuing 
to keep you up-to-date on 
all things Street Lit in 2012.


Look for new additions to the blog:
GUEST POSTS!
VIDEO BOOKTALKS!
and more ....!


Many blessings to you and yours
during this festive time. :-) <3

SEE YOU IN 2012! 

18 December 2011

New Reads: My 2011 Holiday Picks


Greetings!
As you are enjoying the end-of-year holidays, here are some of my top recently published picks for Street Lit that will go great with a log fire, a blanket, and some coffee or hot cocoa on a snowy day.

MYSTERY
Image credit: Amazon.com
 My Amazon.com review of NY'S FINEST: Masquerade:

5.0 out of 5 stars All I can say is ... WOW!, December 17, 2011
"Teri Woods hits it out the ballpark with the presentation of New York's Finest: Masquerade,  authored by Sam Black. This novel offers a fast-paced, suspense-filled romp that will keep you distracted from your life as you sit on the edge of your seat, not able to put the book down (at least that's what happened to me!). You'll be fascinated by the intertwining connections of the characters and the intricate attention paid to details for a very fulfilling plot. Woods/Black turns the table on gender roles - the women have the upper hand in this intricate, complicated tale that is carefully laid out before you as you read who does what to whom, while watching a chess game of life played out in entertaining fashion. When they say that street lit/urban fiction is "like a movie in your head" - Teri Woods has mastered this craft. Read this - you'll have a good time! Can't wait for part 2! -- Vanessa Irvin Morris (c/o streetliterature.com)"

To order NY'S Finest: Masquerade: http://www.amazon.com/NYs-Finest-Masquerade-Sam-Black/dp/0977323463/

POETRY/YA
Image credit: funkybook.yolasite.com
My 2cents: This is a debut release from Indie author and poet, Christian Loriel. I greatly enjoyed this book: it is lyrical, real, raw, gritty, and creatively done. I read the poems and was transported to the hood of FunkY; I felt like I had a seat on one of the stoops, for sure. The author's arrangement of the book is awesome too: via free-form verse poetry, you meet the residents of FunkY right where they live - up close and personal, at home and on the streets. If you can add this creative verse novel to your library collection, adults and teens will grab it, for sure.

Author's Synopsis:
FunkY is a look at the South Memphis I know, love, and yet question. In South Memphis, a part of town exhausted by drugs, crime, and deferred dreams, there is "Funky" Avenue, a street full of people who have things to tell you. You will go door-to-door and hear each of their secrets, joys, sorrows, regrets, and even their opinions of what's going on in the house next door. It all begins with a missing black teen.

To order FunkY: http://funkybook.yolasite.com/ 

SCIENCE FICTION
Image credit: bravinpublishing.com
My 2cents: This is a good debut effort by author, Trevis Moore. I really liked how he kept the authenticity of inner-city language and lifestyle, taking his time to develop the characters before introducing the science fiction element of the story. A while ago I said that there is everything in the hood: life, death, mystery, drama, magic, fantasy, and yes, science fiction. Moore proves the point well. All in all, Hood Titans is a very good and welcomed read for street lit!

Publisher's Synopsis:
"Hood Titans" from author Trevis Moore. Every Hood needs heroes. Someone to protect the people from the forces who profit from crime, poverty and degradation in Urban neighborhoods. Find out what happens when a black geneticist decides enough is enough. As he sets out to change the neighborhood he has fought he way up and out of only to return a doctor. If his efforts to give back he launches his ultimate plan of protection for the brothers and sisters in the city. The Black Brotherhood Brigade is born. But how do you create these protectors? What happens if the secret gets out? What if you've been created to think the hard life your living is all there was? What happens when the genes you're carrying are truly special and designed for a greater purpose?


TRILOGY
If you're in the mood for a staycation with characters that will be with you for the duration, I suggest author Silk White's trilogy: Tears of a Hustler, 1, 2, and 3.

Author and publisher Silk White has gathered a significant following of readers who enjoy his trilogy, Tears of a Hustler. Part 3 was just released September, 2011. All 3 novels are available in print and eBook format.

With a 5-star Amazon.com rating, customers are raving about this series with responses like, "awesome!" "best book ever" "in-freakin-credible!" and "hooked!" A streetliterature.com reader, Jasmine, commented on my earlier blog post about this series: "Wonderful book. I read it in 1 day. It kept my attention all the way through. I recommend that everybody read this book. You will not be disappointed."

Publisher Synopsis - Good 2 Go Publishing
Tears of a Hustler 3 picks up right where part two left off. Things get serious when Marvin, the leader of a powerful up coming gang, decides he wants to take over Pauleena's empire.

With her back against the wall, Pauleena defends her territory by any means necessary; even if it means killing everything moving. With her main soldier gone Pauleena has to step up to the plate and get her hands dirty. The streets will rain money or blood - it’sdefinitely a choice, but giving up her throne is not an option, for the formidable Pauleena. Who will be the last hustler standing?

To order Tears of a Hustler 1, 2, 3: http://www.good2gofilms.com/home

YA/TEEN
If you have teens on school break needing a good read, I recommend the following:
 
















My 2cents: Author Ericka Williams pulls a twist on the traditional 'hood story' - she sets her story, The Robbin Hoods, in the suburbs, to show how survivalist living is alive and well in the hoods of supposed quiet and safe suburbia.  

Author Kia Dupree offers a wonderful sophomore novel, riding off the success of her debut novel, Damaged (see KC Boyd's review). In Silenced, Dupree gives readers a deep, insider's view between mother and teen daughter as their family struggles to conquer the lure of the streets of Washington, D.C.

Author Synposis - The Robbin Hoods:
What started out as a petty crime with teenagers who would cut school and break and enter into houses, on foot, turned into a multi-million dollar empire when the crew took their craft to a higher level. They graduated from boys to men, who made millions of dollars when they began venturing into exclusive upper class neighborhoods. The story is about the unattainable "American Dream", when the only dream hopeless and uneducated men have is to steal someone else's "Dream Come True ".The Robbin Hoods is about what happens when you take from others, instead of building your own.
Book Description - Silenced: 
She gets lost in the fantasy of books and poetry. But in Tinka Hampton's all-too-real world, her mother Nicola has lost her job and is struggling to stop her family's fall into poverty. With her sons turning to drug dealing-and worse-Nicola wants better things for her daughter. Yet the more pressure she puts on Tinka to do everything right, the more she drives her away . . . straight into the arms of Nine, a man as irresistible as he is lethal. Now Nicola must make unimaginable choices that will put Tinka at a dangerous crossroads. Will standing up for her seemingly impossible dreams be her way out-or will they trap her on D.C.'s merciless streets forever?



14 December 2011

Video: OccupyEducated.org Creates Online Library for Occupy Movement

Greetings: I realize that I've been posting a lot of videos of late, but I share what comes. Lately, a lot of things relevant to street literature have been visual in nature. I believe this is a good thing, as I believe that video is just another form of text. This particular video is very poignant ... please take the time to view it at your earliest convenience ... Time: 03:49 //

This video was originally uploaded to YouTube: December 4, 2011

12 December 2011

My 100th Post: A video, short-documentary, STREET BOOKS


Isn't it nice to know that there IS such a thing as a "Street Librarian"?

Isn't it great to know that EVERYBODY reads, regardless of ...?

Isn't it also wonderful to know that there is a website called streetbooks.org ...

01 December 2011

Poem: This jawn right here on street lit

This Jawn Right Here on Street Lit
by Vanessa Irvin Morris



Street Lit is all about stories:
Stories that come from real lives lived in neighborhoods where streets, sidewalks and corners interweave and intersect and connect...

Stories about human beings who walk, talk, and think, laugh, cry, and drink, fight, make love and raise kids, sometimes right on stoops and porches...

Stories about communities where money can be seemingly scarce or - found hidden underground a mainstream economy...as above, so below...

Street Lit is all about the truth:
Truths told creatively, realistically, authentically, uncompromisingly...Fuck you if you can't take a joke...because street lit's fictions are also necessary...

These truths are for the thick-boned and thick-skinned...don't read if you easily offend...read Captain Underpants or somethin'...

These truths are told in everyday language by everyday writers, thinkers, dreamers, ex-cons and wifeys ... all of them have voices screaming to be heard...
and so - 
they scream. 
and readers read and listen, regardless of who don't like it .... they readin' it, they buyin' it, they makin' New York Times Bestsellers outta it...

Street Lit is all about audacity:
The audacity for people from the hood to document their own his-stories and her-stories...

The audacity for street lit authors to read their lives and then to write that shit out...morphing reality into memory so it doesn't have to be lived anymore...

The audacity for street lit readers to read their lives reflected in story, as they gasp, laugh, ooo and ahhh, shucks BREATHE ...  all while what ... 

heightening their literacy practices, becoming more literate, because by osmosis, that's what the act of reading does ... 

so who are they to engage ...in magic, you might ask? 

They are, 
we are ... 
readers of the stories of life. 
----------------------
This poem was performed by Vanessa Irvin Morris at the  "Street Lit & Inner-City Literacy" forum, November 30, 2011, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

StreetLiterature site *ON HIATUS*

Greetings, This site is *on hiatus* until further notice. There are reasons: 1/ Since street lit has become pretty mainstream in publicat...