Visionary Writer Showcases Literary Works

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nationwide — Author Jeffery “J. A.” Faulkerson announced the release of his literary anthology J. A. Faulkerson Reader: The Literary Works of a Contemporary, Black Visionary.  The book is currently available for online purchase through Amazon.com. 

Faulkerson, a former Tennessee State Secondary Athletic Association (TSSAA) long jump champion who graduated from Kingsport’s Dobyns-Bennett High School and the University of Tennessee, always knew he wanted to become a published author. So, when he published his debut novel Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet in 2014, he breathed a sigh of relief. One of his lifelong goals had been achieved. The very next year, Adinkrahene was selected as one of three finalists for a Phillis Wheatley Book Award (in the First Fiction category), requiring him to travel to New York City’s Columbia University for an awards ceremony. He did not claim the top prize that night, but he became more confident in his ability to produce literary works that entertain, educate and enlighten.

Faulkerson’s J. A. Faulkerson Reader contains essays, poems, short stories and books produced over an 11-year period. He shares the trials and the triumphs associated with becoming an author, poet and screenwriter. He admonishes his contemporaries to become compassionate neighbors who have unconditional love and neighborly compassion in their hearts. He gifts adolescents and young adults, i.e., the Young Achievers, with a playbook that connects prosperity to the pursuit of greatness in the areas of Nurturing, Learning, Working and Leading.  He reminisces about the five years he spent as his son’s full-time stay-at-home parent, offering fathers and father figures strategies they can use to help their children develop championship mindsets.  And his poetry celebrates his Black ancestors’ legacy of activism, community and kinship, how their unrelenting fight for freedom, justice and fairness serves as the perfect model for how citizenries create more perfect unions. 

The J. A. Faulkerson Reader was published on October 17, 2025, and is 523 pages long.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. A. Faulkerson is a Northern Virginia-based Author, Poet and Screenwriter.  Many of his writings pay homage to the Black leaders of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, individuals he calls compassionate neighbors because they were led by the unconditional love and neighborly compassion in their hearts.  He also has a heart for youth, evidenced by his years of service as a TRIO Upward Bound and YMCA Youth director.  Through his written and spoken words, he admonishes adolescents and young adults to balance their lives on the Four Pillars of Prosperity (i.e., Nurturing, Learning, Working and Leading).  A graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School (Kingsport, Tennessee) and the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee), J. A. has been happily married to his wife for over 32 years and is the proud father to his 21-year-old son. 

Subscribe to J. A. Faulkerson’s Writers’ Bloc Substack newsletter at https://jafaulkerson.substack.com/.

Follow J. A. Faulkerson on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jawritesbooks/.

The Story of My “READ THIS” Interview with Alice Maria James

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

I first met Read This Host Alice Maria James at the September 7, 2024 Harlem Book Fair. There I was, standing on the plaza of the historic Adam Clayton Powell Building, outside the canopy that I had erected to cover my vendor booth table, when she approached with microphone in hand to ask me questions about my books. I had done these kind of spontaneous interviews countless times before, but this one felt different. Even then, I sensed that Alice took great pride in being able to introduce emerging Black authors like me to larger audiences.

I answered all of Alice’s questions, giving her brief overviews of each of the books I had on display. The encouraging words she offered in response to my fictional storylines and poetic themes evoked toothy smiles from me. She made me feel as if my words matter, and to an independent artist like me, that’s pure gold.

Months had passed since this encounter, where I had the privilege of walking along sidewalks frequented by Harlem Renaissance authors and/or poets like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, to name only a few. I continued to work from my Northern Virginia home, putting the finishing touches on my unproduced screenplay RECONSTRUCTION: Power Cell, and adding more chapters to my young adult novel Junior Achiever. I submitted poems to literary magazines like the Mid-Atlantic Review. And I continued to sign onto my weekly Let’s Write Something Sundays/Black Writers Collective Zoom call with Black writers from as far away as Georgia, Virginia and California. I even joined the Northern Virginia Writers Club and the Poetry Society of Virginia so I could have more in-person contacts with more racially diverse groups of creative writers.

Only when I took a break from all this activity did I come across a LinkedIn email from Alice. In the email, she invited me to be a guest on her Read This program. I accepted, of course, and the rest is history. I will leave it to you to click on the video above to see what we talked about.

SUPPORT MY EFFORTS BY PURCHASING ONE OR MORE OF MY TITLES THROUGH MY J. A. Faulkerson Books website.

But as you watch the video above, it is my hope you will begin to understand the motivation behind my writing.

For those who don’t know, I write to educate, entertain and enlighten. And while I am constantly endeavoring to strengthen my creative voice, I often find myself focusing on themes that pay homage to my Black ancestors – enslaved and oppressed Black Africans and Black Americans, the Black Civil Rights leaders of the 1950s and ‘60s. They are the reason I penned the poetry collection March of the Compassionate Neighbor, for they are the ones who were led by the unconditional love and neighborly compassion in their hearts. Unfortunately, remnants of their legacy are needed now because we live in an era of deep racial retrenchment that hasn’t been seen since 1877, when the first period of Reconstruction ended following the presidency of Andrew Johnson.

But my heart also bleeds for other men, more specifically the ones who have been blessed to be fathers. Back in 2015, I wrote a book titled Real Men Raise CHAMPIONS: Unleashing Your Inner COACH, to let fathers and father figures know they are thermostats that set the temperature not thermometers that measure it. Their mission is to cultivate stronger connections with their children, so these same children grow up to become great nurturers, great learners, great workers and great leaders that lead independently fearless and empowered lives.

But as I endeavor to heed my own parents’ spoken and unspoken lessons on how to lead an independently fearless and empowered life, I also recognize that we fathers and father figures should not have to cultivate our father-child relationships in isolation. I firmly believe fathering males relating well with their own children represents a wonderful opportunity for them to join forces and extend their service to the other children in their communities. By “huddling up” on a regular basis, they can draw up plays that can be executed to improve outcomes for all God’s children.

As many of you know, I’m traveling to Atlanta in late July to attend Black Writers Weekend. While there, I will participate in the annual pitch fest.

I’m going all in, y’all, pitching my unproduced screenplay RECONSTRUCTION: Power Cell. Because the screenplay’s plot speaks to the times we’re living in, I hope the attending film studio representatives view the story as a revolutionary statement to the powers that be. I also hope my Black American and Black African contemporaries view my Black characters pursuit and display of Black excellence as the playbook for reconstructing Black labor today for the jobs of tomorrow.

But enough about me.

Let’s get back to Alice, give her the flowers she so rightly deserves.

I encourage you to visit her sites – Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Apple Podcasts, Facebook and LinkedIn.

She’s the real deal, y’all, manning a Read This empire that I hope will one day be uttered in the same breath as Oprah’s Book Club and Troy Johnson’s African-American Literature Book Club (AALBC).

Thank you, Alice, for affording me this opportunity to think out loud.

More significantly, thank you for being such a gracious host.

JUNIOR ACHIEVER: A Novel by J. A. Faulkerson (Excerpt)

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am feverishly working on my new novel “Junior Achiever”, but as I write, I, at times, like sharing a little something-something with my fans. What follows is nothing but a taste. Just know, I’m endeavoring to allow Junior Blevins, my main character, to share the steps he took to build his own platform for success.

To PEEP & PURCHASE some of my older titles, visit https://jafaulkerson.com/store/.

Silence as Roma took a few more bites from her sandwich.  As she chewed, I almost felt compelled to say something about the fact that she did not offer to fix me one.  In that moment, my heart was just too heavy. 

I peered over at Roma as she continued to consume her sandwich.  I noted her dress – black, loose-fitting shorts and a matching sports bra.  She had just gotten home from swim practice at the high school.  I found it difficult averting my gaze, as my eyes lingered over her moderately pimpled face and toned body.  Her head rose and she stared back at me, her toothy smile a clear indication that she knew I had been sneaking glances at her.       

“Your little brother gonna be mad at you,” she exclaimed with a chuckle.  “He done claimed me as his girl, you know?”   

“Are you?” 

“Should I be?” she quipped back. 

Her quick comeback caused me to rock back and forth in the recliner with laughter.   

“Answer the question, negro,” Roma said. “Should I be your brother’s girl, or should I be… yours?” 

I got up and joined her in the kitchen, standing at the head of the island directly across from her.  My hands were inserted into my sweatpants pockets.  I desperately wanted to give her a straight answer, but in that moment, I was at a loss for words.  I wondered how a relationship with her would work with Damian and I being taken into her parents’ home for respite, all to prevent us from coming into foster care.   

“What would your parents say?” I asked.  “Seeing us holding hands, kissing even?” 

“They wouldn’t know,” she replied, walking along the left side of the island to draw near to me.  “It would be our little secret.” 

She now stood in front of me, her interlocked hands resting on the island countertop.  I peered longingly into her brown eyes, getting lost in them as she stared back at me.   

I took a momentary glimpse at her pouty lips as my right hand reached over to cover her interlocked ones.  I then leaned in and pecked her on those same pouty lips.  When I drew back slightly, the expression on her caramel-colored face told me that she wanted a little more than what I was giving.   

That’s when she took matters into her own hands.  She grabbed the back of my neck with her right hand and pulled my mouth to hers.  When her tongue parted my lips and started swirling around in my mouth, I didn’t know what to do at first.  But then I followed her lead.  The swirling motion of my tongue started to match the swirling motion of hers.  But right as our French kissing intensified, the door leading to the garage swung open.  

I turned to my right, Roma to her left.   

There stood Damian in the open doorway – with Charley looming large behind him, his mouth agape – with an angry scowl on his dark face.    

###

“My parents would have a fit if they had seen you locking lips with Roma,” Charley exclaimed moment later as we stood on the back patio.  “And you saw your brother’s reaction.  He up in his room, probably ballin’ his eyes out.  This ain’t gonna age well, dude.” 

I couldn’t shake the truthfulness of Charley’s words, but I also couldn’t shake my attraction to Roma, especially after discovering that these feelings were mutual.  But my heart ached for Damian.  While Roma considered his attraction to her as puppy love, 11-year-old Damian had real emotions for her.  Hell, Roma represented everything that was going well in his little world, his head really. 

“So, you’re saying I should back off, just ignore how I feel about her, how she feels about me.  Is that it?” 

“Yeah, man.  At least until Mr. Malcolm finds a new placement for your brother, you.  My parents find out, they gonna be sleeping with one eye open, the other eye closed.  Shit, now that I know, I’m gonna be doing that my own damn self.” 

“Why?  This has nothing to do with you.” 

Charley squared his shoulders with mine and proceeded to emphasize his statements with finger jabs at my face.  “Look, little nigga’, this has everything to do with me.  That’s why it has to stop now, ‘cause if I find out you knocking boots with my sister, I’m gonna break you in half.” 

Charley glared at me under a furrowed brow.  That’s how I knew he was serious.  I met his glare, then sheepishly looked away. 

He was right.  Our placement in his parents’ loving home was more important than my personal desires, which is another way of specifically saying my raging hormones.  But I also knew Charley didn’t want me being the reason Roma did not fulfill her fullest potential.  Like I said before, Roma was an over-achiever.  Even as a high schooler, she knew where she was going and what she wanted to do.  I didn’t have a clue. 

With that, Charley left me standing alone with my arms crossed on the back patio.  I sank into the corner of the back patio railing, the wooden plank pressing into my lower back and buttocks.  I faced the house, so when I looked up at Roma’s third floor bedroom window, I immediately spotted her looking down at me.  She pursed her lips to blow me a kiss.  I dared not blow one back, out of fear Charley would see me doing it.  Therefore, I shook my head somewhat vigorously and turned my back to her.  This girl, two grade levels ahead of me, was in hot pursuit of love, and I was that day’s designated prey.    

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Copyright 2024 Jeffery A. Faulkerson. All rights reserved.

Slaps and Kisses: Black Voters Beware

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

Last week, I watched as 12 jurors in Donald J. Trump’s election fraud trial convicted him on all 34 counts. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for United States president, is now a convicted felon. But to hear him tell it, this historic trial was nothing more than a blip on the screen.

His now being a convicted felon is significant, though.

Monumental really.

It is something that has never been seen before, at least in these United States of America.

The last person who was under this type of scrutiny was former president Richard Nixon, who submitted his resignation from the post before his term ended. Nixon was ultimately pardoned by his predecessor, Gerald Ford.

But what does it say about us, the Republican Party really, when you allow a man who is also facing legal jeopardy in Georgia and Florida, to even be allowed to take a third shot at the presidency, at being the Leader of the Free World?

What does it say about us when participants in the Fake Electors Scheme (in support of Donald J. Trump’s Stop the Steal Campaign) are being indicted in states like Wisconsin and Nevada?

What does it say about us when the insurrectionists who stormed the U. S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 are serving jail sentences while the person who lit the fuse, Donald J. Trump, is taking a third shot at the presidency, at becoming the Leader of the Free World?

It says more of us need to see the writing on the wall. Donald J. Trump and his conservative Republican acolytes are trying to play the U. S. electorate for fools, make us suspend belief in what our ears are hearing, our eyes are seeing.

Trump and his conservative Republican acolytes are quick to say that we Black people should more closely identify with Trump because U. S. jurisprudence has never been on our side. Disproportionately, Black Americans have been incarcerated at higher rates than any other racial/ethnic group.

Last I checked, though, Donald J. Trump isn’t Black, he’s white. As a white man, he is the beneficiary of unmerited privilege, while Black people have been browbeaten by past slavery, ongoing oppression and micro-aggressions since our Black African ancestors arrived in captivity on that Virginia shore in 1619.

So, why is he equating his real crimes with the plights of Black Americans and Black American criminal defendants?

Because the self-proclaimed emperor is now wearing no clothes.

In short, his fraudulent behavior is now on full display, and he’s afraid.

He seemingly wants us Black people to use our votes on November 5, 2024 to save him from being convicted and incarcerated. This desire seemingly is at the forefront of his mind, even though he and his conservative Republican acolytes were the proponents of campaigns that successfully terminated Affirmative Action, eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and banned books written by Black American writers from public schools and libraries. Ultimately, Donald J. Trump and conservative Republicans are undeniably endeavoring to dictate what we Black Americans can and cannot say about white supremacy, racism, prejudice and discrimination.

If you’re Black, this is all you need to know. Donald J. Trump does not have, and has never had, our best interests at heart. This is nothing more than another one of his con jobs. Consequently, any Black person voting for him on November 5, 2024 should have their Black Card revoked.

A person should never be rewarded with a kiss on the cheek when they’re violently and repeatedly slapping you across the face.

Donald J. Trump knows winning the presidency will give him the power to make his federal charges go away. However, he will still have to answer for his state-level crimes in Georgia, where he tried to pressure state officials to find one more vote than he needed to receive the state’s Electoral College votes.

Again, we Black Americans have been about the business of saving the nation’s soul since our Black African ancestors’ 1619 arrival. We, more than any other racial/ethnic group, want the USA to live up to its creed, that all men and women are created equal, that we have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A historical analysis reveals that we have fought back against our enslavement and oppression both violently and nonviolently. At the end of the day, the unconditional love and neighborly compassion in our hearts allows us to remain nonviolently resolute in our quest to work with like-minded individuals to create a more perfect union.

On November 5, 2024, let’s use our voting power to excise the cancer that is Donald J. Trump and irresponsible, conservative Republican leaders from our body politic.

Democracy and the Rule of Law must prevail.

No human being is above man’s law…or God’s law.

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It’s Not About Him, It’s About Us

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

Lately, I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Stephen A. Smith and his attempts to draw equivalences between the criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump and Black American men. Smith seems to think we Black American men have a propensity for committing crimes, and as a result, we Black American men should be more inclined to identify with Trump’s legal travails. Smith even thinks this perceived affinity should motivate us Black American men to vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election. But let’s be clear: Donald Trump isn’t being victimized by the American criminal justice system. He spent four years as US President thumbing his nose at American jurisprudence while allegedly going out of his way to break its laws.

Smith wants us to ignore the fact that Donald Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Trump’s inherited privilege is what causes him to falsely believe he is entitled to preferential treatment, even after he allegedly 1) paid off a porn star to prevent her from talking about their sexual affair, 2) stole and then stored classified and top secret government documents at his Florida resort and 3) asked Georgia election officials, all fellow Republicans, to find the exact number of votes he needed to steal the presidential election from the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Joe Biden. And let’s not forget he lit the fuse that turned his MAGA supporters into insurrectionists on January 6, 2021.

Stephen A. Smith seemingly wants us Black American men to forget that the unenlightened (or Un-Woke) segment of White America has been trying to make us Black American men the face of criminality since the general Black American population stopped working for free after then-President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864.

It seems obvious that Smith is unfazed in making this equivalence because of who he associates with. He has been known to break bread with the likes of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who reportedly is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends. Because of his association with Jones, it’s safe to say Smith has probably broken bread with the former president as well, and has undoubtedly completed 18 holes of golf with him at his Florida resort. So, it’s not much of a leap to surmise that Smith has probably been asked to use his platform to do Trump’s bidding.

Smith has built a reputation for being one of ESPN’s most brash and opinionated sportscasters. Who doesn’t enjoy watching episodes of ESPN’s First Take, where Smith’s topics of conversation center around sports, not racial politics? But Smith’s comments on race are inflated with ignorance and insensitivity, for it shows he is possibly working with the Trump Reelection Team to get more of us Black American men to vote for Trump in November.

My Black American brothers, it’s not about him (Donald Trump), it’s about us, our ability to remain the default leaders of the movement to inject unconditional love and neighborly compassion into the hearts and minds of the living. It is our Black ancestors’ exercise of these superpowers before, during and after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s that have allowed us, their contemporaries, to develop and display reconciliatory excellence in the present age.

Donald Trump is not deserving of our time, attention or votes. Unlike us, he is not committed to creating a more perfect union.

Affirmative action as we knew it was eliminated by a conservative Supreme Court that Trump’s Republican Senatorial minions corruptly seated by first preventing the first Black American president, Democrat Barack Obama, from making more progressive appointments.

He denounces and supports the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

He equates Black history with Critical Race Theory.

And he supports the banning of books written by Black authors.

As men, we are called to stand in the gap for our women and children. As Black American men, we are called to stand with our closest constituents – our Black American women and Black American children – while pressuring the country’s duly elected leaders, both Democratic and Republican, to do right by all its people, not just a select few.

Stephen A. Smith seemingly wants us to deviate from this purpose, even as he enjoys the perks of being associated with the wealthy, influential and powerful. What I hope he realizes, though, is the conquering oppressors that he chooses to associate with have no desire to develop authentic relationships with us, their more compassionate neighbors.

While our Black ancestors established the longstanding tradition of demanding that this country live up to its ideals- that all men (and women) are created equal, and have been endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – the fact still remains that it has not. And when Black celebrities like Stephen A. Smith float false equivalencies to get a criminally indicted former president re-elected, it confuses matters. We Black Americans are wired to be compassionate and neighborly because lashing out violently only makes things worse for everybody. We must get in each others faces and share truthful and heartfelt stories that speak to where we were, where we are, and how much further we have to go as a people and as a nation.

We will know that our nation is starting to become defined by unconditional love and neighborly compassion when more of us are seen hugging it out with people who look different than us but share the belief that our union can be perfected.

Stephen A. Smith would have us Black American men embrace a man who wants us to hate more and love less.