Alvin Lynell Bess

Five years in the making, this autobiography is thought-out and is meant to provoke worthwhile and necessary discussion on uncomfortable subject matter. Also, this book is meant to inspire millions of shunned persons with real-life and intimate encounters. A product of the sixties, the author knows the importance of surmounting, and not bypassing, obstacles or prevailing phobias. The author knows what happened in his life. The reader knows what happened in his or her life. It is your decision to accept it and then deal with it before it consumes and defines you. It cannot be hidden by money, status, rank, employment, sex and toys. It is there always; it cannot be washed away. Believing it does not matter is the shame. This book is honest. This book spares no one. In order for it to be effective, and help someone else heal, it has to meet a deep and aggravating pain. This book is written by someone who developed a love for words. His love is so intense that he is unafraid to play with constructions or guidelines to produce his own instrumental arrangements. He is respectful of ceremony and acknowledges the general comfort received by standardization: blue notes often bend the mind-and perspective. A thorough and honest account of my life, and of my retarders and how I succeeded despite them, this book is designed to serve as a guidebook or a handbook for individuals, young and old, male or female, Black, White, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, or Native American, during their undaunted and necessary travel through the underbrush of firm selective retarders and chameleon scarecrows. It is not too late to start or resume your journey. It is not too distant to behold what you believe you have the aptitude to do. If you fail-so what Live

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Born in New Haven, Connecticut on August 2, 1963, and reared in the nearby suburb of Hamden since 1969, Alvin Bess developed his severe stutter as a result of molestation around the time of kindergarten. Throughout his life, family, friends, teachers, administrators and professors had doubts about Bess’s intellectual capacity and his ability to prosper. But he never doubted. In fact, Bess’s own belief in the power of his mind and his deliberate determination propelled him to rise to a doctoral program in Urban Studies. Hard-working, honest & resourceful, this multi-faceted Black Man also had the foresight to develop his writing skills and a formidable comprehension of poetry and communication skills. An advocate for stutterers, Alvin Bess has written and published his own story in his own voice to enlighten and inspire those who feel that they have lost their voice. As this book represents the attainment of a challenge that he posed to himself, so should it motivate the reader to begin or resume their journey.