“Writing has kept me off the news at 5, 6 and 10,” said author and Aminia Books publisher Yulonda Brown. “It’s definitely a form of therapy.”
In her book, Who’s Loving Me? One Woman’s Journey to Understanding what Self-Preservation and Self-Love Mean, Brown reflects on her life experience and her battle with depression, which she says stemmed from an abusive childhood.
“Verbal and physical abuse tore me apart and I became a bag lady,” Brown said.
She chronicles her life from the early years and as an adult coming to terms with the pain of her past.
While “Chick Lit” remains popular in urban literature, authors like Brown, Antoine D. Anderson and Kenneth “Kennyboy” Boyd have published their thoughts, feelings and experiences in an effort to help giving readers an opportunity to relate.
“I see the trend, but for me – right now – my thing is its about reality,” Anderson said.
“Sharing my world with somebody else changes the world,” Anderson said. “And that’s basically what I’m doing because you never know who you might meet and what you have in common.”
Anderson’s book ,Walk on the Sidewalk and See What I see: A Written History as I Cry Inside, is part poetry collection and part memoir, exposing the good and bad that connect to create his life experiences. “I’m sharing my story,” Anderson said. “ It doesn’t have to be the greatest story but everybody has a story.”
Anderson’s story veers from student-athlete, to the streets of the Northside and a recording career with Northsida. Even with all of the twist and turns of his life – including the untimely death of both parents – ultimately ends up becoming a married family man (including grandchildren) working as a lab technician.
“It’s actually a book of me saying I’m sorry and thank you at the same time,” Anderson said of his book.
Unlike Anderson, Boyd’s bout with street life resulted in nearly 20 years of incarceration. But he came out with a burning desire to keep others – young black men in particular – from traveling the path that ultimately led him to prison.
“I want to get the message out there that there’s a better way to life,” said Boyd, author of Know Thyself Psychologically. “The only way to change a man is to change the way he thinks.”
“The Spirit guided me to research psychology -which is the foundation for my book.”
Boyd says that it was divine intervention that led him behind bars and that being locked up saved his life now works with organizations and gives presentations in order to get at – risk youths back on the straight and narrow. “God put me in prison as they say ‘in hiding’ to get me,” Boyd said. “If I hadn’t been in the penitentiary all of those years, I would probably be dead.”
In her early twenties – about the same age that Boyd and Anderson nearly became casualties of the streets – Brown was suffering an emotional death by way of depression, hopelessness and rage. In Who’s Loving Me?, she spares no details in her battle with unhappiness which according to Brown, has been both responsive and supportive to the mutual therapy she offers through her writing.
“I had a woman e-mail me and say that she never understood the power of the tongue until she read my book.”
The authors agree that creating a buzz around their work has been a constant struggle, but the effort put forth is for the greater good of those who are impacted by their stories.
“There are days where I say, ‘how and how am I gonna do this?’” Brown said. “But it’s not just about you. You’re doing something for you and for them and the community needs to be touched really badly.”
For more information on Antoine Anderson, visit www.myspace.com/daoutsida.
For more information about Yulonda Brown, visit www.aminiapublishing.com or call. She will be holding a Books and Beauty Bash at Halo Salon on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. For more information call (314) 495-1399.
Kenneth “Kennyboy” Boyd can be reached at kenneth0560@sbcglobal.net