San Diego City College Release Events: Tuesday 3/10 at 12:45 in MS 140 and Wednesday 3/18 at 11:10 in MS 162
San Diego City Works Press is proud to announce the release of Reclaiming Our Stories 2.
Reclaiming Our Stories 2 is the sequel to San Diego City Works Press’s wildly successful Reclaiming Our Stories: Narratives of Identity, Resilience and Empowerment that went through multiple print runs. As editors Khalid (Paul) Alexander, Manuel Paul López, Darius Spearman, and Ebony Tyree put it in the introduction to this anthology, Reclaiming Our Stories 2 is in –
the tradition of a literature—beginning with the slave narrative—that counters hegemony and white supremacy. These stories offer a glimpse into the lives of real people in their own words; they put a human face to members of our communities who have been marginalized, labeled as criminals, and discarded by our society.
Most of the authors are first-generation college students who have all survived and continue their struggle to overcome the constant challenges of being Black, Brown, and poor in San Diego. These narratives deal with complex issues encompassing race, class, place, family, mental and physical health, gender, disability, and identity. Above all, they are stories of life, loss, and determination to thrive.
Reclaiming is the product of the work being done in Southeast San Diego by Pillars of the Community. As editor and founder of Pillars Khalid (Paul) Alexander explains,
“The original idea of Reclaiming our Stories (ROS) was to create an environment where community members could come together to share their stories with friends and family and celebrate how amazing they were. Although many of the stories were of traumatic events in their lives, the fact that they had overcome those events was a testament to their strength and resilience.”
This volume, Alexander tells us, is “a critique of a broken society, a society with systems like incarceration, failed safety nets for the poor, and school districts that often fail our children.” But it is also, “a celebration of our humanity and our ability to survive those systems and shape new narratives.”
San Diego City Works Press is pleased to be able to help share these new narratives of community grit, pride, and transcendence that comprise Reclaiming Our Stories 2. Our mission has long been to share voices from the San Diego tourists never see, and this collection is yet another hidden jewel. We hope that you come out to hear those voices sing. To buy a copy of Reclaiming Our Stories 2, go here
San Diego City Works Press is the 15-year old project of the San Diego Writers Collective, which is a group of San Diego writers, poets, artists, and patrons dedicated to the publication and promotion of the work of San Diego area artists of all sorts. Our specific interests include local, ethnic, and border writing as well as formal innovation and progressive politics. The Collective’s main focus is local, but we have engaged in occasional collaborations with writers from around the world. City Works Press is an all-volunteer non-profit, funded by local writers and friends of the arts, committed to the publication of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and art by members of the San Diego City College community and beyond.
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