D. Watkins

living and dying while black in America

The beast side

"The smartest kid on his block in East Baltimore, D. was certain he would escape the life of drugs, decadence, and violence that had surrounded him since birth. But when his brother Devin is shot-only days after D. receives notice that he's been accepted into Georgetown University-the plans for his life are exploded, and he takes up the mantel of his brother's crack empire. D. succeeds in cultivating the family business, but when he meets a woman unlike any he's known before, his priorities are once more put into question. Equally terrifying and hilarious, inspiring and heartbreaking, D.'s story offers a rare glimpse into the mentality of a person who has escaped many hells."--Amazon.com.

a crack rock memoir

The cook up

From the row houses of Baltimore to the stoops of Brooklyn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Cook Up lays bare the voices of the most vulnerable and allows their stories to uncover the systematic injustice threaded within our society. Honest and eye-opening, the pages of We Speak for Ourselves “are abundant with wisdom and wit; integrity and love, not to mention enough laughs for a stand-up comedy routine” (Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math). Watkins introduces you to Down Bottom, the storied community of East Baltimore that holds a mirror to America’s poor black neighborhoods—“hoods” that could just as easily be in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, or Atlanta. As Watkins sees it, the perspective of people who live in economically disadvantaged black communities is largely absent from the commentary of many top intellectuals who speak and write about race. Unapologetic and sharp-witted, D. Watkins is here to tell the truth as he has seen it. We Speak for Ourselves offers an in-depth analysis of inner-city hurdles and honors the stories therein. We sit in underfunded schools, walk the blocks burdened with police corruption, stand within an audience of Make America Great Again hats, journey from trap house to university lecture, and rally in neglected streets. And we listen. “Watkins has come to remind us, everyone deserves the opportunity to speak for themselves” (Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author) and serves hope to fellow Americans who are too often ignored and calling on others to examine what it means to be a model activist in today’s world. We Speak for Ourselves is a must-read for all who are committed to social change.

How Woke Culture Prohibits Progress

We Speak for Ourselves

There are two sides of D. Watkins--one, a professor, New York Times bestselling author, editor-at-large of Salon.com, and devoted husband and father. And the other, a boy raised in poverty during the height of a crack epidemic, who learned to survive on some of the most violent streets in America. It wasn't until Watkins was thirty that he realized that he wanted more than what money and street life offered--finding himself on the wrong side of pistols, slinging crack on street corners, and burying friend after friend--he wanted to escape, he wanted education, love, and joy. BLACK BOY SMILE poignantly illuminates the journey of his transformation. Watkins retraces his tumultuous childhood and his relationship with his dad, uncles, and other boys like him to shine a light on how generational hardship breeds toxic masculinity. In harrowing, searing prose, he recreates defining moments of his past to heal them. He shares candid recollections of being taken advantage of at nine by an older woman at camp--and how he coped through stoic silence disguised as manhood--alongside lively and humorous portrayals of his first days in a college classroom and the quirks of attending an MFA program. We grow up with Watkins as he discovers a love for books, flirts with his future wife--an attorney--and becomes a father, finding joy for the first time. Watkins' pursuit of redemption is a valentine to Black boys. In beautiful, soul-shaking storytelling, he brings to life the contradictions, fears, and hopes of Black boys in urban cities and shows the path toward self-discovery on every page. BLACK BOY SMILE is a testimony that our strengths can often be found in our flaws--that when we acknowledge the fallacies of our past, we can uncover a brighter future. BLACK BOY SMILE is the story of a Black boy who healed.

A Memoir in Moments

Black Boy Smile

Winner of the 2022 Paris Book Award for General Nonfiction New York Public Library's Best Books for Adults Shelf Awareness 2022 Best Books of the Year Kirkus Review's 2022 Best Nonfiction Books and 2022 Best Books About Black Life in America Aspire TV's Top 5 Celebrity Memoirs of 2022 "If I had two wishes, it would be that D. Watkins spend an entire book writing through the terrifying wonder of Black boyness in America, and for every human to read and share this book. I am shaken. Black Boy Smile changed my relationship to writing and me."―Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal At nine years old, D. Watkins has three concerns in life: picking his dad’s Lotto numbers, keeping his Nikes free of creases, and being a man. Directly in his periphery is east Baltimore, a poverty-stricken city battling the height of the crack epidemic just hours from the nation’s capital. Watkins, like many boys around him, is thrust out of childhood and into a world where manhood means surviving by slinging crack on street corners and finding oneself on the right side of pistols. For thirty years, Watkins is forced to safeguard every moment of joy he experiences or risk losing himself entirely. Now, for the first time, Watkins harnesses these moments to tell the story of how he matured into the D. Watkins we know today—beloved author, college professor, editor-at-large of Salon.com, and devoted husband and father. Black Boy Smile lays bare Watkins’s relationship with his father and his brotherhood with the boys around him. He shares candid recollections of early assaults on his body and mind and reveals how he coped using stoic silence disguised as manhood. His harrowing pursuit of redemption, written in his signature street style, pinpoints how generational hardship, left raw and unnurtured, breeds toxic masculinity. Watkins discovers a love for books, is admitted to two graduate programs, meets with his future wife, an attorney—and finds true freedom in fatherhood. Equally moving and liberating, Black Boy Smile is D. Watkins’s love letter to Black boys in concrete cities, a daring testimony that brings to life the contradictions, fears, and hopes of boys hurdling headfirst into adulthood. Black Boy Smile is a story proving that when we acknowledge the fallacies of our past, we can uncover the path toward self-discovery. Black Boy Smile is the story of a Black boy who healed.

Celebrate the greatest television show of all time with this definitive tribute to The Wire. Twenty years after its debut, HBO’s The Wire is widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. This deluxe volume explores the creation and legacy of creator David Simon’s landmark series through exclusive interviews with Simon and his cast and crew, including Idris Elba, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Andre Royo, Jamie Hector, George Pelecanos, Ed Burns, and many more. The book also features commentary and essays from notable writers including New York Times bestselling author D. Watkins (The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America). Illustrated with striking visuals from the show, including concept art and candid behind-the-scenes images, The Wire: The Complete Visual History, is the essential companion to a stone-cold television classic. HUNDREDS OF NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS: Discover an exclusive treasure trove of incredible photography and production art that tells the story of The Wire like never before. INTERVIEWS WITH CAST AND CREATORS: The visual story of The Wire is narrated by all-new interviews with creator David Simon and key cast and crew members, including Idris Elba, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Felicia Pearson, Ed Burns, and more. EXCLUSIVE ESSAYS: Discover unique commentary on all five seasons of the show from leading commentators including Melanie McFarland, Eric Deggans, Siddhant Adlakha, and more. THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE: Comprehensive and unmatched in its depth, this prestige volume is the ultimate retrospective of the greatest television show of all time.

(The Wire Book, Television History, Photography Coffee Table Books)

The Wire: The Complete Visual History

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE O MAGAZINE BEST SUMMER BOOK Told by the man who lived it, The Cook Up is a riveting look inside the Baltimore drug trade as portrayed in the hit HBO series, The Wire. The smartest kid on his block in East Baltimore, D. was certain he would escape the life of drugs, decadence, and violence that had surrounded him since birth. But when his brother Devin is shot-only days after D. receives notice that he's been accepted into Georgetown University-the plans for his life are exploded, and he takes up the mantel of his brother's crack empire. D. succeeds in cultivating the family business, but when he meets a woman unlike any he's known before, his priorities are once more put into question. Equally terrifying and hilarious, inspiring and heartbreaking, D.'s story offers a rare glimpse into the mentality of a person who has escaped many hells.

A Crack Rock Memoir

The Cook Up

A New York Times Best Seller! To many, the past 8 years under President Obama were meant to usher in a new post-racial American political era, dissolving the divisions of the past. However, when seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by a wannabe cop in Florida; and then Ferguson, Missouri, happened; and then South Carolina hit the headlines; and then Baltimore blew up, it was hard to find any evidence of a new post-racial order. Suddenly the entire country seemed to be awakened to a stark fact: African American men are in danger in America. This has only become clearer as groups like Black Lives Matter continue to draw attention to this reality daily not only online but also in the streets of our nation’s embattled cities. Now one of our country’s quintessential urban war zones is brought powerfully to life by a rising young literary talent, D. Watkins. The author fought his way up on the eastside (the “beastside”) of Baltimore, Maryland—or “Bodymore, Murderland,” as his friends call it. He writes openly and unapologetically about what it took to survive life on the streets while the casualties piled up around him, including his own brother. Watkins pushed drugs to pay his way through school, staying one step ahead of murderous business rivals and equally predatory lawmen. When black residents of Baltimore finally decided they had had enough—after the brutal killing of twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody—Watkins was on the streets as the city erupted. He writes about his bleeding city with the razor-sharp insights of someone who bleeds along with it. Here are true dispatches from the other side of America. In this new paperback edition, the author has also added new material responding to the rising tide of racial resentment and hate embodied by political figures like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and the impact this has had on issues of race in America. This book is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the chaos of our current political moment.

Living and Dying While Black in America

The Beast Side

My Son Wants A Pitbull is the story of how a boy finds an extraordinary Pitbull puppy that curbs all the neighbors negative thoughts about the breed. Jake, is a little boy that comes across the puppy and then teams up with a neighborhood friend in conjuction to hide the puppy from his parents. His parents do find out about the puppy and attempt to persuade the child that Pits are dangerous and to try another less threatening breed of dog. However, the puppy has already captured the heart of Jake and once the puppy is accepted into the household, he begins working on the hearts of others as well by shedding light on a problem that the neighborhood has had for quite some time. This is a great book that I know all ages can enjoy and it shows the more gentler side of what some people stereotype as a dangerous breed of animal.

D. Watkins

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