David Jackson Ambrose
Please join the author – David Jackson Ambrose – in celebrating the release of his debut work of fiction!
STATE OF THE NATION
Where: Wooden Shoe Books
704 South Street. Philadelphia PA
When: Saturday, May 5, 2018
Time: 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
There will be readings from the novel, free giveaways, refreshments and a book signing.
For more information about the novel, enter the author portal.
For inquiries about the event, contact Wooden Shoe Books: 215-413-0999
PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
Title: STATE OF THE NATION
Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Author: David Jackson Ambrose (SJU Writing Studies Alum ’15)
Publisher: The TMG Firm
Format: Paperback, 978-0-9987-9939-1 ($17.95)
STATE OF THE NATION follows the day-to-day experiences of three friends as they navigate through a society that does not see them, at best, or at worst, sees them as degenerate bodies deserving extermination. The Atlanta Child Murders of the late 1970’s to early 1980’s serves as the undefined albatross that inhibits and prescribes behavior. The murders loom in the background of the story, hovering over the lives of three friends coming of age during a moment in American history that in many ways mirrors the present, as police violence perpetuated against Black youth continues to generate press. STATE OF THE NATION highlights the fact that missing black bodies were not an anomaly, it was the media attention of those particular bodies that was the anomaly, as black bodies were being defaced, defiled, and extinguished all over the country during that time. The Atlanta Murders were a continuation of neo lynching, a replication of an age-old American tradition reminding black youth that they are expendable. STATE OF THE NATION links elements of the Tuskegee Experiment of the 1940’s to the ever-present vulnerability of the black body, making use of the era in which the story is told, the cusp of the 1980’s, to hint at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, which began on the tail end of the Atlanta Child Murders.