Just before I embarked upon my most recent road trip, I was fortunate enough to connect with an old friend from college (U of P), who is a renowned journalist. James Spady has over 2,000 articles out there in the world, and has interviewed some of the most interesting people—so to sit with him at the Penn bookstore café on Thursday, 3/5, and just kick it about his work, projects, my work, was an awesome experience. Then James dropped some science on me… after we talked about Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Tupac, et al, and went into a history fusion of the minds. He has a project (among the many he’s penned) that took nine years to compile with H. Samy Alim and Samir Meghelli, entitled: “Tha Global Cipha,” published by Umum Press, ISBN# 978-0-9671741-2-9 (James Spady).

Okay, this is more than a shout out—this is a bibliophile’s dream. This book is A MUST to have on your shelf and in your library if you are an educator or a parent, as it delves into the true history of Hip Hop Culture, shows its vast expression across the Diaspora, and these creators of the 4 inch text went around the world for nine years interviewing everyone from Eve, Rick James, Jay-Z, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Pit Bull, Snoop Dog… hundreds of people too numerous to name here. So, you might still ask, “Why is Leslie tripping and so excited about this work?” Several reasons.

To understand the cultural shifts in music is to understand societal shifts in values, the issues they find most pressing and urgent, and deals with the politics of an era—simply stated, it’s the sound track of a generation’s life.

Yes, Hip Hop has misogynistic issues embedded within it, along with violence. But at the same time, that’s not all it’s been… and even within the “dark side” of the genre, there’s still something to be taken away from that, perhaps an “Oh, wow,” epiphany that something bigger than the music is broken and it is incumbent upon a generation ahead of the newest curve to step up (socially/politically/economically, not via censorship) to fix it.

Which brings me to a great segue about writing; in order to layer politics, economics, social issues, and drama into one’s work, you have to be open to researching and reading an eclectic mix of information.

The recently completed VHL series was so rich in layers because of following trends economically, seeing new breakthroughs in scientific research, military weaponry, going back and exploring the history of many cultures (as well as their religions), people-watching on the streets, and listening to current events happening in the world news.

A book like James Spady’s is one that allows intelligent discourse between generations and can help conquer some of the knee-jerk reaction to what folks my age might call “young people’s music,” once we realize that every generation has an explosion of self-expression that is directly correlated to what’s going on worldwide. Therefore, when I fell upon this tome, I had to share it with you all because people always ask me, “Leslie, where do you go for your research?” This is one of those sources; talking to experts in their respective fields is another—James and I sat for what was to be an hour and a half interview beginning at 1:30pm and didn’t move from the table until 6:00pm… and only then because his next interview tapped him on the shoulder to interrupt! LOL! That’s what happens when you get two writers together and they go “out” into the mind-bend zone—BIG SMILE! We hadn’t even realized that so much time had gone by!

That said… whew… DC! I had A BALL at Borders (Bailey’s Crossing)! It was a full house with lots of new faces—Street Team member Craig came with his fabulous toddler, Cameron—who is a cutie pie (laughing)… Cameron stole the show and my heart (I’m waiting on pics, Craig–grin), that little boy just just giggled and had himself a wonderful time (a true ball of energy and was so well behaved that I’ll have to ask Craig if he would consider giving up his family secrets about harnessing little boy energy for 2 hours—seriously, Cameron was a doll.) My fellow writer buddy, Chip Armstrong, packed the house (gotta consider that brother honorary Street Team)… bringing a slew of friends from his writing circle to the event, so we had a really solid dialogue about more than the books, but also about the rigors of writing, the process of getting published, and all many of things related to the craft of putting pen to paper.

Following that, a bunch of us went out to dinner at Fin & Porter, which was delightful. George, a professional magician and friend of Chip’s, (as well as his lovely wife Janet), wowed our table with slight of hand, turning stacks of one dollar bills into twenties, to which we all voted that he should go work on Capitol Hill to help out with the budget crisis, LOL! Seriously, George was awesome!

The next day I headed to Baltimore, but confess that I got caught in Saturday grid lock traffic that I hadn’t anticipated on 295, got turned around prior to that and had trouble just getting out of DC with the circular navigation of those streets, and then was all twisted around when I got downtown B-More, OMG, LOL! Yes, I need one of those GPS thingies… but I stand by MapQuest, ha ha ha—old school. I was a half hour late, but the folks in Baltimore showed me much love. Everybody stayed and again, we had a full house at the Enoch Pratt Library. We closed the joint down! ‘Cilla from Bevland, Ms. Amy, Toks and her protégée (my Temple Alum sister), too many folks to name without forgetting someone, and many new readers to the series came out. Ms. Virginia Fore (the organizer and Library Director there) let us stay until the very last person got their book signed, even with the security guard tapping his foot—because folks brought BAGS of books with EVERY title… romances that went as far back as Sundance, through the Betrayal of the Trust series, and then all 12 of the VHL series… chile!

People were apologizing as they stacked books up for me to sign, but I told everybody that to me a dog-eared book and a stack is an honor to sign. That says someone loved my work enough to read it, pass it to a friend, drag it around with them in a pocketbook or backpack to work, take it with them to get it greasy while they ate lunch—hey (smile!) As an author, I’m like the Statue of Liberty—bring me your tired book, bring me your poor, downtrodden, dog-eared text… if it has my name on it, any of my pen names on it, I’ll sign it—BIG SMILE! So, up in B-More, that’s what I did… I signed and signed and we laughed and talked trash from a little after 2pm till well past 5pm, and then we got put out (in a nice way.)

My girl, and angel expert, Althea Wills, came and she got in my car, catching me up on all the latest… which was another hour before I pulled off to head home. I love the road, LOVE meeting all the people and placing faces with the names I have from the on-line communities… the only problem with touring is trying to squeeze in book deadlines. The beauty is—and I take this as a HIGH compliment from you all, much like a dogged book… the more I write the more stories you guys want, which means the less I should be touring, but the more books come out the more you want the signings, LOL! That’s all OK by me! THANK YOU for the LOVE and for sharing in my world by peeking into the craziness of my mind in print. I so deeply appreciate you all, there are simply not enough words.

Well, I’ve gotta get back to writing this werewolf book so we have a follow up to Undead on Arrival (due out 3/31/09)… next stop is Ramsey NJ this weekend, and then up to NYC for “The Hueman Experience,” and then the Brooklyn (Medgar Evers College) NY National Black Writer’s Conference. Gotta get this book done before I hit the road again, so I will be AWOL on email and Facebook for the duration.

BIG HUG and Much Love, Leslie!