D. Watkins, "The Cook Up" (feat. Tony Lewis and Kondwani Fidel)

Writing with flair and candor, Watkins follows The Beast Side, his vivid account of growing up in deeply racist Baltimore, with this insider’s look at the city’s drug trade. One of the few options available to many young black men, dealing drugs usually means a short and violent life, and Watkins was looking for something else. When he was accepted to Georgetown University, he thought he’d found it. But the day the acceptance letter came, his brother was shot and killed. Watkins inherited his brother’s crack business and ran it until he met someone who caused his priorities to change once again. Now a columnist for Salon and a professor at the University of Baltimore, Watkins is the founder of BMORE Writers Project.

Watkins is in conversation with Tony Lewis, author of Slugg: A Boy's Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Also, featuring two poems read by Kondwani Fidel (Raw Wounds, Asperous Artistry).

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Produced by Tom Warren