Kevin M. Weeks
Celebrates  Black History 2010
. . .and the 100 Year Anniversary of the National Urban League
February 1, 2010 - February 28, 2010



"America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes. It is this hope that has sustained us
through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis.
And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge
more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before."
~Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America



Seventy years from the era when renowned author Margaret Mitchell published the American Classic novel Gone With The Wind, Kevin M. Weeks published his crime fiction novel (The Street Life Series: Is It Rags or Riches?) which also captures the culture, political climate, and historical setting of the south. The 2010 Black History theme of economic empowerment is also explored as we celebrate the 100 Year Anniversary of the National Urban League.  (See Table 1. Comparative Analysis)

In 1910, a group of dedicated reformers, black and white, gathered to create The National Urban League in order to address the needs of African-Americans as they migrated to American cities such as Atlanta, Georgia.1  Written for historians, librarians, teachers, and readers alike, the novel (It Rags or Riches?) demonstrates the positive outcome of the National Urban League and other organizations in elevating the standard of living across the metro-Atlanta area. 

See the book trailer  for the book description and a recent book review below.  Then add Is It Rags or Riches? to your Black History book collection.



Celebrating the 100 Year Anniversary of the National Urban League



The Street Life Series:
IS IT RAGS OR RICHES?
Book Trailer






Book Review Highlights



The Street Life Series: Is it Rags or Riches? by Kevin M. Weeks
Reviewer: Peter M. Fitzpatrick, The USA Book Review

"The street life and the corporate life aren't that different. There are just very opposing rules." 

Picasso's famous dictum that art is a lie that tells the truth can also describe fiction writing. Such truths are not always easily discernible. The mystery and illusion in cubist and other masterpieces is essential to their power. Rags or Riches is also formed with fractured perspective and shifting identity. Essentially urban, the novel combines no less than three major metropolitan areas. Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Atlanta law enforcement must band together to wage literal war on a former special-forces operative lost in his own private world of cold-blooded murder and mayhem. Yet his vendetta is motivated by a skewed sense of justice. A detective who successfully solves crimes with six-sided dice and a villain who plots his destruction by treating the city of Atlanta like a chessboard are just some of the puzzles and games that make up this scenario of puppets and string-pullers.

Contradiction, ambiguity, and enigma permeate the narrative and characters. Twin sisters on opposite sides of the drug trade. Or are they? Two brothers, one doing hard time for ten years for a murder he didn't commit; the other a hard-bitten drug lord intent on dominating the drug trade in greater metropolitan Atlanta - free man. Then there is Atlanta itself, where the story is set. Burned by Sherman in the Civil War because of its function as a munitions depot for the railroad system of the Confederacy, it is now one of the most multicultural cities in America, with one of the largest and wealthiest African American communities in the country. The author shows his love and admiration for the city while painting a gritty and realistic picture of the power of drugs and the pull of the street life. Possibilities of redemption and renewal emerge against an aggressive background of entrapment and menace. Plenty of action and plot twists make this third novel in the Street Life series a page-turner that is both ultra-modern and unique.


Literature that Explicates the World

A Comparative Analysis of
Gone with the Wind and The Street Life Series: Is It Rags or Riches?

 

Comparative Analysis of


 

Gone With The Wind

by Margaret Mitchell

(Published 1939)

 

 

The Street Life Series:

Is It Rags or Riches?

by Kevin M. Weeks

(Published 2009)

 

 

Comparative analysis

of economic empowerment

American Civil War

War On Drugs

The backdrop for Gone With The Wind is the era of the American Civil War. (1861-1865)

 

In The Street Life Series: Is It Rags or Riches?, the novel is set during the 21st century War on Drugs.  The novel begs to answer the question:  For those who aspire to leave the street life, is it rags or riches?

Big Sam, Scarlett O’Hara’s former slave

Teco Jackson, main character

18th century Big Sam is epitomized as a faithful servant without civil rights.

21st century Teco Jackson is afforded the opportunity to realize a more fruitful life than Big Sam due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that serve the general public.2

As an aside, in both novels, Big Sam and Teco Jackson prove that chivalry is not dead.

Prissy, slave girl

Detective Hanae Troop, Washington, D.C. Homicide Detective.

In Gone With the Wind, Prissy is characterized as an aloof young female slave.

In Is It Rags or Riches?, quick-witted Hanae Troop is portrayed as one of the best detectives in her field with a high percentile in closing criminal cases. In fact, out of 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers, approximately 12 percent are females.3

Mammy, house servant

The Beautiful Restaurant, southern cooking (Founded 1979)

Unlike the days of the 18th century house servant, people of all colors dine together at public establishments such as The Beautiful Restaurant in Atlanta.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2002 estimates, Georgia is the fourth state with the largest number of black owned businesses.4

18th century slave children

21st century African American children

For children in the 1800’s, life offered the slave child little hope of obtaining an equal lifestyle as their slave masters.

Throughout the novel (Is It Rags or Riches?), Teco Jackson listens to radio stations as he travels across the state of Georgia. Many dub Atlanta, Georgia as the “Hip Hop Capital of the World” where several prominent descendants of American slaves are now acclaimed music artists who possess significant financial economic empowerment.

Table 1. Comparative Analysis


History of Book Cover


Because Kevin M. Weeks is an advocate for the arts, The Street Life Series crime fiction book covers are drawn by Atlanta, Georgia artists. Weeks highlights a character from each novel on the book covers of The Street Life Series. Detective Paul Yeomans’ character was chosen for Is It Rags or Riches? because Detective Yeomans is a crucial and pivotal character in determining whether or not the multijurisdictional law enforcement team will catch The Paradox, a delusional killer who incites mayhem across metro-Atlanta, Georgia. Matt Brumelow is the book cover artist for The Street Life Series: Is It Rags or Riches?

For a closer look behind the book series, visit The Street Life Series website.


Kevin Weeks 2010 Black History Marta Bus Stop Ad

2010 Black History Advertisement
(Ponce de Leon at City Hall East in Atlanta, Georgia)

Works cited:

1“The 2010 Black History Theme: The History of Black Economic Empowerment." Association for the Study of African American Life and History. http://asalh.or/files/2010_Executive_Summary.doc. 11 November 2009.

2“Civil Rights Act 1964.” . Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964. 2010. 11 January 2010.

3“Law Enforcement Facts.” National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. 2009.  http://www.sinclair.edu/academics/bps/departments/cjta/pub/LEF09.pdf. 11 January 2010.

4“Revenues for Black-Owned Firms.” 2006. U.S. Census Bureau. 11 January 2010 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/business_ownership/006711.html. 11 January 2010.

 

Note:  “Gone With the Wind" its character names and elements are trademarks of. Turner Entertainment Co. and the Stephens Mitchell Trusts.  “The Street Life Series” is a trademark of Kevin M. Weeks.
 

© Copyright 2009 Kevin M. Weeks. | 2451 Cumberland Parkway; Suite 3279; Atlanta, GA 30339 | 
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