I'm at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, in Cleveland, OH in a couple hours.

Pictures from our talk at the Univ of D.C. -- William, Juan, Philippe, Rev Dr E Gail Anderson Holness, Perry Pidgeon Hooks, good people:

and...

These are some photos from the Miami Book Fair and surroundings. Mitchell Kaplan (Books & Books) and others have done an amazing job. My co-presenters, Helen Thorpe and Po Bronson--thank you !

Books & Books @ the airport:

the Miami River is a working river:

We met a young man at UDC, he told my guys about his life and struggles and overcoming hard times. He wrote to me and my blog won't POST anything, so here is Corey's POST:

Michael & Sons,
Thank you for coming to school I attend yesterday afternoon, The
University of the District of Columbia. I wish you all could have
stayed a little longer. However, I realize that you all have your own
lives.

The lecture series yesterday was very thought provoking. The discussion
had very real everyday issues of people's struggles and hardships
including your own. I do want to point out as you all already know,that
there has been a lot of good times, achievements, and successes in your
lives. You all seem to have a commonality, and that is,to help people
in anyway you can along thier and your journey in life.

One of the many things I got out of the lecture is that on the part of
Michael, he acknowledged the need to be a part of the boys' lives (now
his sons today). Subsequently, Michael became a caring figure of
support, and through time he became thier father. It was the
willingness of the "ENTIRE" family to make it work and for everyone to
be successful as a "family unit".

I wanted to peronally say this. When you do things in life for someone
or for people,do it because you want to, do it without looking for
anything in return, and do it with enthusiasm. People have to question
themselves, am I looking for something in return? Am I doing it to talk
about what you did for someone? Honestly ask yourself, what are your
intentions and motives. If you are not sincere and genuine about
reaching out to help your fellow man or woman in need, then you are
most certainly not doing that person and yourself a disservice,
especially the one you are supposedly helping.
When you lend a helping hand to someone in need in life, and show that
you are sincere in your words and actions, you may never truly know
what a profound inpact you have made in thier life.

You also talked about subjects and your own personal real life
experiences that are very real and exist in our society. The sensitive
issues is of race relations and socioeconomic barriers for the minority
communities. Examples of this are race relations:(racism, racial
profiling, etc.,- past and present generations. Another Example was
socioeconomical classes/communities:(poverty, middle class, ghettos,
the projects-past and present generations).

There needs to be a forum for on-going open dialogues to discuss these
challenging matters that all are difficult for others to discuss openly
and honestly.

Although you covered so many topics, I just wanted you all to know that
race relations was not the only important things talked about.
I look forward to seeing you in the near future.
Wonderful! I really enjoyed it.
So, thank you all again for sharing your lives with others and myself.
See you again soon.
Until then, take care.
Corey Lewis