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Akbar Pray Foundation for Change

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WE ARE THE SOLUTION TO OUR OWN PROBLEMS

Issue 3 June 14, 2012

Looking for the next great read by Akbar Pray?

LAST OF A DYING BREED

COMING SUMMER OF 2012

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He will want to challenge the length of his sentence or try and overturn his conviction. However, the law books were written for college students and Rasheed reads on a fourth grade level.

Each and every one of us knows Rasheed. We have watched him mull words that in a perfect world he should have mastered in the sixth grade. We have heard him once, perhaps twice read aloud and shook our heads. We know he is challenged, but we fail to challenge him, challenge him to take education serious, to take himself serious. So Rasheed goes along, figuring that he'll get along. He won't.

Down the road, but not that far down, life will pose to Rasheed questions, present him with challenges. There will be question that he is ill equipped to answer, and challenges he won't be able to meet. The Rasheed and Rasheeda's of the world,

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It is not that the teachers in

Rasheed's schools are sub-par. It is not that the books are woefully outdated or sub-standard. It is not that the administration is uninterested or uninspired. You see, Rasheed can't read because he doesn't care to learn. Rasheed is disengaged.

Rasheed knows that he doesn't read well, but he's okay with that, as neither do most of his friends. Rasheed is not all that certain that good reading, or for that matter education, will play a major role in his life. You see Rasheed is part of a growing culture, pointedly not African American culture, but street culture, where little to no emphasis is placed on education and the idea of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) could just as easily be referring to a crack bottle stem.

Rasheed is disinterested and disengaged.

. Rasheed wants to blow up, but

he doesn't want to grow up. Rasheed has rarely read a book, that wasn’t a " hood novel " pays scant attention to the news and only opens up the paper to the Sports Section. Rasheed knows Kobe's stats, but doesn't know how to balance a checkbook. Rasheed doesn't know that there is a direct correlation between his amount of education and the probability of his spending and inordinate amount of his life behind bars. Rasheed could know if he read, but Rasheed doesn't read. Hence, he doesn't know. If, Reasheed is ever caught up in the Criminal Justice system, the indictment will look near Greek to him. Rasheed has never seen the word exculpatory and the word disproportionate is equally foreign to him. In the FEDS Rasheed will be forced to get a GED, but he won't be forced to read. Over time the seriousness of his situation will began to dawn on him.

Why Rasheed Can’t Read: A Culture of Disengagement

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Letter to the Editor “I have dreams and you gave me the courage to keep trying to do better.”

-David Dunham

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In closing, if you ever feel the need to reach out to me, don't hesitate. To the extent that my circumstance permits, I am here for you. Be well David and stay safe. Sincerely, Akbar Pray

Dear Mr. Pray, My name is David Dunham. I am an inmate at Turbeville Correctional Institution. I just got through reading your book The Death of the Game. I would like to thank you for writing it. This book makes me think twice about the choices I make in my future. I am on a sentence, which is called YOA (youthful Offender’s Act). The State of South Carolina hands it out like welfare. Although I will go up for parole after 10 months, I will still be on papers until 2012. I am in here for dealing with the so called “game.”

I am dealing with the bad choices I made. Before I read your book, I had the devil in my ear telling me that it will be okay to go back out there and deal. I know it wasn’t right, but like other convicts I was thinking I will be hard to finda job on the street. Now I understand this game is dead. It’s a dead end. It can only lead two places. I already am at one and don’t want to go to the other. Every night I try to think of a plan for the future. The more I think, the scared I become. I don’t know what to do. I know hustling is not the way of life.

I have to make the right choices. I will be 21 this year. I pray I live long enough to have kids and a family. This book made me realize this dope game is not cool at all. Thank you Mr. Pray. You made me look at selling drugs in a new light, It is still ways I can hustle and make money. I call it “legit hustling” or “legit balling,” working hard or even owning my own company one day. I have dreams and you gave me the courage to keep trying to do better. Thanks, David Dunham

Hello David, David, first let me thank you very much my brother for taking the time out to write me. David, I have received hundreds of letters in response to my book Death of the Game. However, I say this with no air in it, none of them have touched and moved me in the manner that yours did. Your letter showed me clearer than any communication that I had yet to receive, that the message that I wanted desperately to share

with young brothers like yourself was taking hold. That the cautionary tale, that I attempted to outline in my book, was being felt and in your case adhered to. David, if Death of the Game never makes a dime, I will have received all the reward that I could ever ask for, as I know through you that I have changed the trajectory of someone's life for the better. I pray David, that you continue on the course that you have now charted for yourself and if "Legit Ballin " remains your ultimate goal, then David, I pray that you blow it through the roof.

“If Death of the Game never makes a dime, I will have received all the reward that I could ever ask for, as I know through you that I have changed the trajectory of

someone's life for the better.”–Akbar Pray

Issue 3, June 16, 2012

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Why Rasheed Can’t Read Continued from page 1 many of them fatherless, needs mentors. Someone to sturdy the ladder as they start their climb from it's bottom rung.

There is a generation being lost. A generation left to their own devices, by the generation that preceded them. However, all is not lost. Each one of us can make a difference, if, we are willing to step to the plate. If, not you then who? If not now, then when? Akbar Pray, Editor-in-Chief Want to become an APFFC mentor? If so, log on to www.apffc.com

Issue 3, June 16, 2012 www.apffc.org

The Reason I Write A Manifesto

By Rudy Williams

I am a scribe; I write for multiple reasons--edification, escape, self-discovery, pleasure, posterity, et al--but the main reason I write is to combat the daily vicious lies and subtle racism of the mainstream corporate media. Our communities are so ravished by killer cops, gangs, guns, drugs, HIVS, crime, violence, joblessness and want--the obvious culprits--most of us are completely oblivious to the savage carnage that the mainstream media wreaks on our minds. The media's relentless propaganda is the most lethal "WMD"(weapons of mass destruction) of them all. Its damage is so viral, pernicious and widespread; it cannot be adequately measured or contained. Thus, I consider the media's nonstop bombardment of neo-racist propaganda to be no less than an act of all out war and genocide on our hearts, minds and souls, and our natural rights. Brothers, thugs, gangstas and gangbangers: put up your puny Glocks and UZIs, pick up pens and become cultural warriors before it's too late--and stop being mere glorified pawns and pied pipers for the Clive Davises and Liar Cohens of the music, prisons and coffin industries. STOP THE MADNESS--NOW!!!!!!!!! "Real art" is supposed to be "neutral, nonpolitical and propaganda-free"-- yeah right. The Amerikkkan ruling class has always feared, outlawed, tabooed, co-opted and corrupted any art--Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock and Roll, Voodoo, astrology, witchcraft, bitchcraft, etc., that's a threat or potential threat to its power. Same thing in Russia and China: after

THE REASON I WRITE

HEAR YE, HEAR YE, ALL YE RICH AND FAMOUS RAPPERS,

POETS, PAINTERS, SINGERS AND DANCERS, AND YE

GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS,

NOVELISTS AND PLAYWRIGHTS: HEAR YE,

HEAR YE! Be not afraid nor ashamed to rise to the occasion, because, more than ever, now is the time for you to come down from Mount Olympus and your ivory tower mansions and townhouses to put your talents, money and powerful art to work in the service of a truly mighty, urgent and worthy cause: repairing our rapidly dying families and communities.

This is the reason I write ... and the reason you should.

their revolutions, the new rulers crushed and "reformed” the ancient regime's religious and secular leaders, educators, writers, musicians, painters and poets, much longer and harder than what they did to even the greedy bankers and fledging capitalists, their erstwhile arch-enemies. A "culture revolution" was needed practically every other day, after the political and economic one, to eradicate the lingering influences of

the dispossessed literati. Guns and Molotov cocktails will

get you only so far. Thus, to preserve its political dominance, a closet tyranny such as the United Snakes must secure and maintain its hold on the minds of the masses by constantly co-opting and corrupting the popular culture: music, art, literature, cinema, sports, etc. Proletarians don't read Marx or Shakespeare; they read James Patterson, listen to Lady Gaga, and watch KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS, and party-hardy with Li'l Wayne and Kanye West. All art is political. However, to be socially relevant and effective, our art (and artists) must be grounded in the realities and needs of our communities, and truly uplifting. As a writer, the novel is my primary art form. I utilize it to present knowledge, wisdom and ideas to the minds of my readers, and this, I hope, will help us reverse the racist divisions, lies, stereotypes and intransigent pathologies imposed on us and our subculture by the fascist corporate media.

"The ink of the scholar is more precious the

blood of the martyr."

-- Prophet Muhammad

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The APFFC Mission The Akbar Pray Foundation For Change (APFC) is a not for profit grassroots organization, dedicated to redirecting the lives of our urban at risk youth. It has been and remains our organization’s mantra that " we are the solution to our own problems." It is our core belief that there are those within our communities, if so engaged, who can help turn the tide of crime, delinquency and recidivism which grips the lives of so many of our inner city youth. Operating from the premise that to effectively attack or address any problem you must start at its root, we have begun a program in some of our city’s schools and group homes, where we supply speakers, mentors, CDs and written material from the organization’s founder, which cuts to the heart of the problem experienced by many of these youths. Some times working with former gang members, inner city icons and others that have what is referred to as ‘street cred’, we have been able to achieve remarkable results. Expanding on our mission, we continuously recruit individuals from various work disciplines to aid in educating young men and woman with marketable skills. To those ends we have engaged people both inside and outside our community to come to our classes and or workshops to share and discuss the ups and downs, ins and outs of a wide range of work disciplines and careers. Never favoring one career path over any other, we have invited professors, urban fiction writers, successful members of the hip hop industry, general construction contractors and a Superior Court Judge to these open discussions and Socratic Circle seminars. Again, it is our core belief that " we are the solution, to our own problems. " In closing. We invite your participation in this noble undertaking.

IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO? IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?

CHS SJA Give a Triumphant Performance of “I Am Newark”

I truly hope that SJA continues to develop ways to support the growth of its students. Many doors were opened in the minds of the youth last night and all through the process leading up to the performance. I hope that their paradigm shift receives continuous support. Imagine how much more they can create! -Nina Mercer, Playwright

Shanae Jones sings a beautiful rendition of

“Lean on Me”

Amanda Holland, Ariana Reid, Mammu Kamara and Tamiyah Chisholm tell stories of urban violence.

Taking that leap of faith opened a window of opportunity for the greatness of 17 young people to peak through, some of whom may have experienced that greatness in themselves through the impact of their own thoughts, words and voices for the first time last night. I am glad I was there to help, and proud to have been a witness of how the work in the classroom and the calm, yet determined, forward motion of worthy professionals paid off for the young people in the best way. Art rocks. Bravo! -Nikkole Salter Acting Coach

Devin Huff offers solutions to urban

violence

Today these kids stood proudly, proclaiming themselves: “I am Newark.”

“The Unstoppable Crew”

“I Am Newark” Debuts at NJPAC’s Black Box Theater

On June 7, 2012, seventeen students from Central High School’s Social Justice Academy performed a multi-media presentation of their own creation, in front of an audience of family, friends, faculty and fans. It was the culminating event of a yearlong collaboration between the SJA and the wonderful teaching artist of New Jersey Performing Arts Center, under the direction of Sandra Bowie. Supported by NJPAC incredible cadre of playwrights, actors, directors, musicians, dancers and film experts, who doubled as mentors and teachers, the kids delved into their experiences with urban violence, while offering ideas on how to change their city into a place of hope. The final presentation included an intergenerational conversation with elders who had lived through the Newark Rebellion, filmed with equipment purchased through a Facebook grant received earlier this year.

Issue 3, June 16, 2012 www.apffc.org