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While attending a press conference at Yale University for filmmaker Spike Lee and actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, author Kelvin De’Marcus Allen was fascinated by Lee’s response to a question from one of the reporters. When Lee was asked what inspires the topics he chooses for his films, Lee avoided answering the question directly. Instead, he responded to the reporter’s question by pointing out that he was only “one of millions of black people who have stories to tell.” It was an epiphany of sorts, Allen recalls. The recently published Looking Back to Move Forward is Allen’s debut title inspired by the seed planted by Spike Lee. Awakening an always-quiet voice in Allen,the autobiographical text is his struggle for self-expression -- the struggle for healing. Conscious of the shaping power of sharing (and shedding) familial histories, Looking Back to Move Forward is an authenticating attempt to meaningfully gauge effects of the past upon the present. In his unique exploration of selfhood, Allen risks it all as he divulges his family origins and breaks a socially-imposed silence with true stories that are oftentimes painful, heart wrenching and haunting. Looking Back to Move Forward is a straight-from-the-belly exercise in purging. The distinct collection of select episodes spans 25 years of Allen’s life -- starting in Jim Crow-era 1964. As the youngest of seven siblings growing up in Durham, North Carolina’s sprawling Hayti District (pronounced HAY-teye), an area lauded as the Mecca for African Americans, Kelvin’s view of the world was from the window of a broken-down wood-framed shack. The story touches on the fragile childhood of a “bastard child” and his feeble relationship with an eternally distant father (“the man I called daddy”) -- and a sage mother, who despite being a “scorned woman” -- was by all accounts a woman of substance. Uneducated, and a product of abusive and adulterous relationships, she nevertheless provided a sturdy family core -- bravely pushing her offspring to do better. An emotionally-deprived Allen pines for some show of affection, approval or acceptance from his father throughout most of the book -- only to overhear his makeshift dad denying that he’s his son mere days before his death. Equally doused with warmth, piss and vinegar, Allen wisely chronicles snapshots of the coming of age of a young boy -- and the shame, insecurity and despair of growing up illegitimate, poor and black in a society in which those who are stigmatized as different or those who fail to meet social standards of adequacy are made to feel inferior or deficient, sometimes both. As Allen calls attention to the relationship between fathers and the social formation of black men in his autobiographical reflections, he reveals multidimensional, profound experiences -- that mold a man who beat the stereotypical odds. The salvation of characters like “Mickey” show up to play a pivotal surrogate-father role in Allen’s life -- illustrating how peripheral mentoring, no matter how primitive -- impacts the outcome for many black men. The book sequels to present life sound bytes of the author, now 45. From a scattered childhood of displacement, Allen has risen to become a documentary filmmaker, marketing and public relations agent, and consultant to universities such as the University of North Carolina, and Duke University. Subtler short essays in the second half of the book are vignettes that skim the emotional soul of a once-wounded boy turned self-made man and devoted father. Nuggets of humorous and heartwarming observations about his three offspring are dispersed throughout his parting chapters. Other chapters offer lethal-doses of common sense, humility and compassion -- on topics ranging from forgiveness to voting privileges. The book is dedicated to Allen’s mother, Sadie, whose values he gleaned from his hardscrabble upbringing -- of the communal need for families to cling together in the face of adversity, of compassion for others less fortunate, and to give back unselfishly -- anecdotes and illuminating lessons that capture the essence of the book -- and that remind us that character can be cultivated in the most unlikely of circumstances. Kelvin De’Marcus Allen is a graduate of North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C.; and holds a Master of Arts degree in Leadership and Liberal Studies from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Allen is an accomplished writer and producer, with over 30 published articles and essays to his credit. He has produced television specials and training videos for ABC affiliate station WTNH- TV, New Haven, Ct., the National Cancer Institute, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1992, Allen’s video documentary “Imagine If” received the Connecticut Higher Education Association’s Screening Room Award for entertainment programming. To his credit, Allen has interviewed some of the most notable names in Arts/Entertainment, including actress Ruby Dee, filmmaker Haile Gerima, author and filmmaker, the late Gordon Parks, gospel music great John P. Kee, and up and coming conductor, Andre Raphel Smith. He is producer/ host of "Body and Soul" Peer Counseling training video, the National Cancer Institute's national campaign designed to encourage African Americans to eat healthier in an effort to reduce the risks of cancer. The interactive DVD is distributed nationally to Black Churches and promoted on Urban Radio Stations throughout the country. Allen is the president and CEO of Kelvin Allen and Associates; a marketing and public relations firm based in North Carolina.
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