Coming Clean: A Tale Told from the Heart

It's a real life coming of age story for a black manchild in urban America. It's about love and the lack thereof. It's gangs, drugs, violence and sex. It's about brotherhood and wanting to belong. Coming Clean is about choices... the wrong choices and survival. It's living and dying, life and death, blue steel, concrete and jungles! It's 4 years, 1968 through 1971. It's young men at the heart of Kansas City's Black East Side, living life on the edge, having fun, but at the same time lucky and happy to be alive.

Bakari Shabazz has been a life long resident of Kansas City,Mo. but has traveled extensively through the years. I've spent time in Las Vagas Nevada, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Il., New Orleans, La., Atlanta, Ga., Oakland and San Fransico, Ca., and have traveled to Mexico, Canada and the Philippines for brief stays. I graduated from high school in 1974 and have attended Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA., Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City Kansas Community College in Kansas City Kansas where I'm currently enrolled. I'm a member of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, am on the Presidents Honor Roll at Penn Valley and Kansas City Kansas Community Colleges with a current GPA of 3.84 I plan to earn an associates degree in Liberal Arts and a Bachelors degree in Journalism from a Historically Black College.

I've worked a number of jobs from driving a city bus in Las Vagas, Nv. to working for the U.S. Postal Service in Kansas City as a letter carrier. I worked for the Internal Revenue Service in Kansas City for 8 years in a number of positions including as a tax examiner in the examination branch. I currently do volunteer work at the youth detention (family Services) center in Kansas City, Mo. I spend one hour a week with youth between the ages of 13 & 17. I try to expose them to new and higher visions of living and encourage them to develop their reading and writing skills so that they'll be better prepared to live life to their fullest potential as they grow and develop.

I just finished the first draft of my second book. My plans are to dedicate my activities to marketing and distributing Coming Clean and putting the finishing touches on the novel I just completed. I also hope to serve as a motivating force for at risk young people.