Accommodating Eden

About the Book

The classical oral rhymes and hand clapping games of the African American traditional nursery rhymes are set down as poetry in this brilliantly written poetic narrative. Ensuring its survival, Bobby Ray transmutes the oral traditions into enduring poetry and establishes its place in Black Folk Art. Narrated from the perspective of a modern day urban youths, Accommodating Eden yearns to simplify his heart and mind through popular culture and childhood poetry.

As the story regresses from adolescences to childhood, from the clean garage floor of a mechanic shop to the dirty vacant lot used as a playground, Bobby Ray's two protagonists Bookie and Willie struggle all their lives inside a failed love story. Willie wants to be the exception in his neighborhood, and Bookie believes that there is as much dignity in being a working-class man as there is in being the educated exception. Satirical and foretelling, Accommodating Eden reveals the pseudo-promises of heart broken lovers.

About the Author

Growing up on the South side of Chicago, Bobby Ray has experienced the beautiful music and oral tradition of urban youth at play. As well, an urban youth of Chicago, Bobby Ray wants to capture the memories of his childhood in poetry and prose. Currently, he is a professor of English at Malcolm X College on the West side of Chicago.

Bobby Ray has lived and studied in Mexico and has taught high school in South Africa. He has worked with Chicago State University teaching Shakespearean and Harlem Renaissance literature to 14?18 year-old first-time offenders. A homeowner on the South side of Chicago, Bobby Ray continues to live where many of his childhood memories foretells the writings in Accommodating Eden.