by Nikki Grimes
Thanks to Colin North and Jennifer Larratt-Smith, who shared memories with me that helped to enrich this text.
Thanks to Dalene Parker for reading and critiquing an early draft of this work. The gift of your time is precious.
Thanks to Julie Weatherford for introducing me to and leading lively book discussions of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. The study of this book and the necessarily difficult conversations that followed lit a fire under me. Here, that fire led to the creation of Marcel Dixon and the story of how the War on Drugs impacted him and the life of his family.
Thanks to Kristi Perez of Inspire Life Skills and Rhonda Sciortino for guiding me to resources for foster teens who age out of the system.
Thanks, always, to my agent and friend, Elizabeth Harding, and to Montage, my arts group, for unwavering support and valuable feedback.
Thanks, finally, to the hundreds of thousands of readers of Bronx Masquerade who embraced the stories that issued from Mr. Ward’s class, and who encouraged me to revisit that classroom for this new round of characters and stories.
Enjoy!
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