Frustrated with our understanding of urban fiction, a.k.a. street lit, we, the staff of Minneapolis Central Library, have decided to create our own ‘Urban Fiction Book Club’.
UFBC Goals:
- To increase our knowledge of urban fiction in order to
* better serve library patrons
* seriously ponder socio-economic questions
* enjoy lively discussions among comrades
* get drunk - To read one urban fiction book each month, chosen in rotating order by a UFBC member
- To meet monthly at various locations outside of our normal sphere of patronage in order to
* place ourselves outside of our ‘comfort zones’
* meet new people
* get drunk in strange places
December 13, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Happy Monday,
I wanted to connect about an upcoming book you might be interested in for your blog.
For more than a decade Rev. Harry Williams has counseled gang members, prisoners of the state, the formerly incarcerated, prostitutes, the addicted, and the homeless in East Oakland, California.
A passionate believer in the potential of young men and women living in the ghettos of America, he uses the urban fiction subgenre, in the tradition of Donald Goines, to give voice to real people caught up in difficult urban situations.
He has mentored people through the same issues raised his books, including drugs and street violence, which he tackled in his first novel, Straight Outta East Oakland. Likened to the HBO series “The Wire,” Straight Outta East Oakland won the ForeWord Magazine award for Multicultural Fiction in 2008.
Addressing another aspect of “the urban disaster,” his second novel, Straight Outta East Oakland II: Trapped On The Track (February 2011), centers on human trafficking, the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the U.S. His research included extensive interviews with former prostitutes.
Would you be interested in receiving an advanced review copy?
Thanks for your consideration.
Babs Chandrasoma
(512) 501-4399 x706
babs@prbythebook.com
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Redeeming East Oakland
Teacher, mentor to at-risk youth gives voice to Oakland’s child prostitutes
OAKLAND, Calif. – Reverend and social activist Harry Williams recalls the first time he overheard gunfire outside his front door. In East Oakland, it was part and parcel of the neighborhood’s heated criminal culture, where drugs, thug life, and prostitution marked every corner.
Williams could have moved. But instead, he remained in East Oakland as a school teacher, imparting history, English, creative writing, and non-violent communication lessons to crime-entangled teens. Their plight inspired him to start a nonprofit, hoodmovement 21, which offers technical assistance to ministries seeking to affect positive change in inner city communities.
Today, Williams uses his communication lessons to other means: He is a successful novelist. His first novel, Straight Outta East Oakland, based on the street life of his home, won a literary award from Foreword Magazine. Now, its sequel, Straight Outta East Oakland II: Trapped On The Track (February 2011, Soul Shaker Publishing), addresses another spectrum of the urban disaster: Human trafficking.
Human trafficking, or “modern-day slavery,” is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the U.S. – at least 100,000 underage children in the U.S. are trafficked [Source: The Polaris Project]. National media has recently turned its attention to Oakland’s growing population of child prostitutes. And “The Track,” as it is know by Oakland police, is a reference to Oakland’s International Boulevard, a breeding ground for child prostitution, where the average female prostitute is 12 years old.
Straight Outta East Oakland II gives a voice to the issue and follows Crayon, a 15-year-old-prostitute working on “The Track.” When a friend is recruited to rescue to her, he is met by her violent pimp – a paid killer and drug-dealing gunrunner. As he tries to save Crayon, he must face his own demons, and the temptation to return to thug life.
Williams hopes the new book will make this gruesome social problem impossible to ignore.
“Too many blacks have abandoned the communities that most need their help and the necessary mentorship, role-modeling and leadership have disappeared, as well,” Williams recently told The Oakland Tribune.
A teacher and mentor to at-risk youth, Williams dresses and talks like the streets. Because he listens with love and lack of judgment, students confide in him about things they are too afraid to share with anyone else.
“I have seen countless lost souls in baggy jeans and black hoodies weighed down by a violent past become empowered by Rev. Williams,” says Antoine Lagarde, a teacher at a San Francisco charter school. “He helps them regain their confidence and become agents in their own positive transformation.”
REVEREND HARRY WILLIAMS is currently a counselor serving the homeless, recent immigrants, the financially ship-wrecked, survivors of domestic violence, victims of violent crime, those wrestling with drug abuse and mental illness, as well as ex-felons. His first novel, Straight Outta East Oakland II, is his second novel. He is a visiting preacher at correctional institutions and founder of Hood Movement 21: an organization dedicated to empowering the urban poor. Learn more at http://www.revharrywilliams.com.
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To receive a review copy or to set up an interview, contact Babs Chandrasoma:
Babs@prbythebook.com or 512-501-4399 x706.
January 28, 2011 at 8:07 pm
I moved to Minneapolis, last year and have been searching for a book club here.I love,love,love,Urban Fiction,and is an avid reader.My friends and family always come to me for books because they know i have a large collection.Unfortunately I dont always get them back,but such is life.I want to meet with peolpe that have the same interest in these books as i do.How do i join your club and find out about meet-ups ect…