Afro Clouds & Nappy Rain

About the Book

In his second book, Afro Clouds & Nappy Rain, James B. Golden introduces the world to Curtis Brown, a troubled teen struggling with growing up Black and male in America. The collection was composed over several seasons that Golden worked in a rehabilitation setting with boys like Curtis. The poems speak of the emotional warfare many young men experience beneath their rough exterior.

Golden sprinkled these poems with vulnerability, while remaining expressly frank about depression, hopelessness, fatherlessness, abandonment and rape. His voice is poignantly explicit and stripped of sweetener, but understanding and stimulating as well.With titles like “The Night You Had Sex With My Journal”, “Rotten Diamonds On Th e Inside”, and “Letter No. 5 To An Absent Mother”, he gives us grand images and comic relief. Welcome to the world of Curtis Brown.

About the Author

James B. Golden was born and raised in Salinas, California, and received his M.P.A. and B.A. in English and Pan-African Studies Arts & Literature from California State University, Northridge. He has edited Kapu-Sens Literary Journal and the Hip Hop Think Tank Journal. Golden is the author of Sweet Potato Pie Underneath The Sun’s Broiler. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is a freelance music journalist. His articles have appeared in such periodicals as Clutch Magazine, Jazz Times, and Our Weekly.