Revised edition (May, 2021), seasoned and spiced with a deep gumbo pot of new stories.
Father to Son: Ode to Our Black Young is a spoken word celebration and drum call to duty. A blazing testimony to the phenomenal journey of African American and African Diaspora people. In the title poem, a dying father's inspired and hopeful last conversation with his 17-year-old son serves as the opening context for this uplifting, ancestral, powerful narrative. Jaiya John's compassionate, hopeful voice weaves a rich Kente cloth tapestry of Love, celebration, challenge, and honor.
Father to Son, with its rich rhythmic wordplay, flavored with a gumbo recipe for self-Love, frames the journey of Black boys into manhood and personhood, and African Diaspora people into healing and soulful freedom. Here is a role call for the spirit warrior in us who wants our families to be whole. Come beat the drum.
Father to Son is a generational resource for young people, families, parents and caregivers, leaders, youth programs, agencies, schools, libraries, places of worship, sororities and fraternities, and community initiatives. Among many social issues, the book addresses the following: parenting, fatherhood, womanhood, family and community, Love relationships, education and empowerment, history and heritage, ancestry, positive identity and self-Love, leadership and role modeling, spirituality and sacredness, healing from trauma, anger and violence, racism and sexism, stigma and prejudice, purpose and giftedness, the power of creativity and self-expression, dehumanization and oppression, rehumanization, resilience, holistic wellbeing, and rites of passage.
Author Biography:
Dr. Jaiya John was orphan-born on Ancient Puebloan lands in the high desert of New Mexico, and is an internationally recognized freedom worker, author, and poet. Jaiya is the founder of Soul Water Rising, a global rehumanizing mission that has donated thousands of Jaiya's books in support of social healing, and offers scholarships to displaced and vulnerable youth. He is the author of numerous books, including Daughter Drink This Water, and, Freedom: Medicine Words for your Brave Revolution. Jaiya writes, narrates, and produces the podcast, I Will Read for You: The Voice and Writings of Jaiya John, and is the founder of Freedom Project, a global initiative reviving traditional gathering and storytelling practices to fertilize social healing and liberation. He is a former professor of social psychology at Howard University, and has spoken to over a million people worldwide and audiences as large as several thousand. Jaiya is a former National Science Foundation fellow, and holds doctorate and master's degrees in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on intergroup and race relations. As an undergraduate, he attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he studied Tibetan Holistic Medicine through independent research with Tibetan doctors. His Indigenous soul dreams of frybread, sweetgrass, bamboo in the breeze, and turtle lakes whose poetry is peace.
