I finally got a chance to visit Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi the other day (and man it was heaven) and of course upon entering I went in search of my next purchase for my birthday month of February.

After a super cool conversation with one of the employees at the store, a person who happened to be the subject of a recent article about how hard it is to be a teacher in Mississippi, he led me to this book by Kiese Laymon.

Kiese is a native of Mississippi by way of Jackson and he currently holds a professorship at The University of Mississippi. This memoir, Heavy, is described on his site as an eloquently and honestly written piece about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi; however, the conversation the employee and I had centered on his being a young black man of promise and how that can be problematic in the African American community – especially when coupled with being black in America period. We spoke in-depth about how important his mother is to the book as well and all of this made me feel a familiarity with the author that went beyond sharing the same home state.

I too had a lot of promise and experienced some difficulty leveraging that with my immediate community and the world at large. This difficulty derailed me for a bit and it also shaped me – plus, I also have an extremely close relationship with my mom. So with these things in mind, this was an easy choice and I can’t wait to see if these conversations are on point in regard to the experience I have reading it. I hope you get a chance to read it with me! Peace + Light to you.

~ Akili