I’ve read many fantastic books in 2023. It was hard to whittle that list down to just 3 books, but here it is.
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This interview with The Writer’s Digest took place with the release of my Rainbow Award winning second novel: A Blind Eye.
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Special needs children of color experience far more aggressive disciplinary practices in school settings than their White counterparts.
Positional asphyxiation: restriction of the neck, chest wall or diaphragm during the use of holds for behavioral de-escalation techniques that leads to inability to breathe.
Basket Hold: A physical restraint in which a person deemed to be ‘out of control’ is immobilized from behind, ostensibly to assist the person regain self control.
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Over 800 authors and book lovers chose their top three reads from the many books they’ve read in 2023. Have you read any from this list? This is a great list! It helps remind me of the books I’ve been meaning to get to. It also reminds me of some of the great books I’ve read. (Like the one in the thumbnail)
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In Unlawful Disorder (2022 Jaded Ibis Press) Bowie Long uses the exhibition of his body through dancing to reclaim his sexual identity in a room full of heterosexual men. He is using his fear of being ‘othered’ as the outsider and reclaiming his othered status through deliberate dance. This is much the same as the use of the ‘N’ word being reappropriated by African Americans to battle its historical use as a weapon by the dominant culture.
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Solitary confinement has a few monikers that work to minimize what it really is, protective custody, isolation, etc. But what it consists of is twenty four hours of confinement in a room approximately the size of a bathroom, with no access to books, letters, phone contact, often lit for the entire time, where there is no interaction with any human beings.
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New York Amsterdam News reports on disproportionate use of solitary confinement as punishment for People of Color
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Anosognosia is the: "lack of insight," symptomatic in people with severe mental illness (SMI) experienced by some that impairs a person’s ability to understand and perceive his or her illness. It is the single largest reason why people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder refuse medications or do not seek treatment.
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Unfortunately, many individuals with mental illness have encounters with the criminal justice system. Here is a list of resources to help prevent arrest.
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Statistics from Prison Policy Initiative show the correlation of people with serious mental illness and incarceration. In my new novel, Unlawful DISorder, Bowie’s initial encounter with police exacerbates rather than defuses the situation, leading to enforced treatment at an acute inpatient mental hospital, and sets off a whirlwind of repercussions for him as well as the other people in his orbit.
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Couch Surfing is homelessness - call a thing a thing
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The characters in Unlawful DISorder (pub date June 2022 are all acting and responding to events based upon what was once called a generational curse. Advances in psychiatry have applied a less damning phrase; inter-generational trauma.
Bowie has been molded by events that have happened even before he was born. His mother, Magdelene, and her sister Lilith are locked in a psychic battle that originated in their childhood, or perhaps before then. Eden is trying to help Bowie find his voice, and navigate the intricacies of societal bias and institutional racism, but he is also responding to events based upon his own history of navigating an earlier mental health system that was much different in the ‘70’s - when his own father battled with schizophrenia.
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People with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement, according to a new study released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center.
The report, “Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters,” urges lawmakers to reduce loss of life and the many social costs associated with police shootings by enacting public policies that will:
Restore the mental health system so that individuals with severe mental illness are not left to deteriorate until their actions provoke a police response;
Fund reliable federal tracking and reporting of all incidents involving the use of deadly force by law enforcement, whether lethal or not; and
Assure that the role of mental illness in fatal police shootings is identified and reported in government data collection.
The underlying messages of basement spaces in literature.
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How haircare acts as a space for healing and political discourse in A BLIND EYE & STATE OF THE NATION
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As an Asian-American, Drew does not see taking care of his grandmother as ‘eldercare’; it is just what is expected.
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Stalking is much more common than many of us believe, and it is oftentimes difficult to recognize. The other alarming part is how many of us minimize or make light of it, despite the sometimes deadly outcome.
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Discussion of themes from A BLIND EYE (NineStar Press) with Chestnut Hill Local
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1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men have been stalked during their lifetime. Does Babe’s response to Matthew’s stalking behavior lead to increasingly desperate demonstrations?
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Were Alise’s actions that of a parent in the role of caretaker? Or was she an abuser? A BLIND EYE now available for pre-order.
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