Book Event - Not In My Name: Reparations Now

From the Author

My first semester at Howard University (1969), marked the start of a spiritual quest to reclaim, restore, preserve and pass on my identity as an African in the world. As much of my life has been in a classroom, I have always looked for different media to affect learning, be it lecture, music, poetry, or drama.

My birth (first) mother planted the seed of poetry with in me at and early age, be it the spoken word or the lyrical majesty of song. She, a young black woman in a virtually all white school was able to craft a poem which could not be denied and was published in the school’s journal. Following in her footsteps my first book, The Itongo Speaks (by Lee Cook, my given name) was an essay and a collection of poems.

In 1977, I wrote and copyrighted a play entitled, A Virgin…