Jesse-Ray Lewis, 19, enters a West Virginia "safe house" with few possessions beyond the kerchiefs that identify him as a gang member. An aged-out foster child, he lands in Bluefield, where a charity gives him food. What follows is the personal, dramatic story of two people who intervene in the life of a homeless, drug-abusing teen with a background of violence and neglect. In their next-door suite called the safe house, they impose three rules: "No alcohol or drugs. You have to work. You have to go to school." Jesse-Ray expresses gratitude for shelter and a middle-aged couple concerned with his welfare. But what does he want? The couple struggle to determine his true motives, especially after he admits being high on meth at their first meeting. At night he writes verse reflecting trauma and violence, shame and love, even despair. Author Andrea Brunais sees more than just a street-smart boy who can write. She sees a soul who can be saved from a downward spiral. But will Jesse-Ray accept the help of strangers, as glimmers of hope expressed in his writings suggest? Will the couple succeed in steering him toward a new life? And how will the ordeal transform everyone?

When they went to my father to see if he wanted to raise his twelve-year-old son he couldn’t pass the simple test of not having needles strewn all over the floor. The words are sometimes harsh and the visualizations raw, but so is reality for Jesse-Ray Lewis. He grew up in Appalachia surrounded by violence, drug dealing, and addiction. I held her for hours. There was foam at her mouth and blood as I cradled her. I am the one who closed her eyes. He entered foster care at age 12 and aged out of the system in 2016 at age 18. I thought, I want that. I want to live without walking from nowhere to nowhere. His poems rise up out of that shattered childhood as a quest for answers and a search for a new beginning. Hillbilly drug baby? Maybe that’s who I came out as. But it’s not who I want to be. In these poems, you see a young man on a precipice, wooed by drugs and forgetfulness, but longing for something bigger and better. I find a single droplet of hope and choke on it. " Unafraid, he probes our deepest fears---what would it be like to live that life? To plumb the depths of hell?" - Saundra Kelley, author of Southern Appalachian Storytellers

Curated from the archives of FORUM, the award-winning magazine of Florida Humanities, this anthology presents 50 often surprising and always intriguing stories of life in Florida by some of the nation’s most talented writers and scholars  Once Upon a Time in Florida transports readers into the eventful life and times of this remarkable state through 50 stories vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, along with 150 evocative images. This collection opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate.  Throughout, readers will encounter the unexpected: The myth-busting truths behind Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth; the real First Thanksgiving; the first legally sanctioned free Black town; the revealing wartime letters of novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; the Jacksonville principal who penned the lyrics now known as the Black National Anthem; and the little-known story of how Mary McLeod Bethune saved World War II‒era Daytona Beach. The stories also highlight Florida as a magnet for dreamers and doers, featuring the heady days of the Space Age seen through the eyes of a teenager; the secretive mission that brought Walt Disney to Orlando; the music culture that has churned out a stream of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers; and a look at how Florida’s glossy image has been indelibly shaped through the eyes of Hollywood.  Told through the lens of the humanities, at its heart this anthology is the story of what it means to be a Floridian. In these pages, folklorist Stetson Kennedy travels the back roads with novelist Zora Neale Hurston, capturing vanishing stories and songs. Former U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina in Congress, remembers her family’s early days as Cuban refugees. Novelist Lauren Groff describes how the writings of literary giants taught her to love Florida. Columnist Bill Maxwell and novelist Beverly Coyle, who grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow, share clear-eyed memories of experiences as different as black and white. And southern grit writer Harry Crews tells of a family memory evoked by the Suwannee River.  There is much more to discover in this vibrant anthology, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Florida Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and presents selections from the timeless and treasure-filled archives of Florida Humanities’ award-winning FORUM magazine. Contributors: Jerald T. Milanich | J. Michael Francis | Michael Gannon | Kathleen Deagan | Darcie A. MacMahon | Larry Eugene Rivers | Robert A. Taylor | Casey Blanton | Rick Kilby | Gary R. Mormino | Stetson Kennedy | Betty Jean Steinshouer | Gordon Patterson | Rick Edmonds | Andrea Brunais | Steven Noll | Richard Foglesong | Eric Deggans | Bill Maxwell | Beverly Coyle | David R. Colburn | Nila Do Simon | Stephen J. Whitfield | Willie Johns | Ron Cunningham | Jon Wilson | Dalia Colón | Bill DeYoung | Maude Heurtelou | Lauren Groff | Maurice J. O’Sullivan | Michele Currie Navakas | Craig Pittman | Thomas Hallock | Edna Buchanan | Philip Caputo | Gary Monroe | Peter B. Gallagher | Bob Kealing | Jack E. Davis | Charlie Hailey | Terry Tomalin | Bill Belleville | Cynthia Barnett | Jack E. Davis | Jeff Klinkenberg | Harry Crews Distributed on behalf of Florida Humanities

Jesse-Ray Lewis, 19, enters a West Virginia "safe house" with few possessions beyond the kerchiefs that identify him as a gang member. An aged-out foster child, he lands in Bluefield, where a charity gives him food. What follows is the personal, dramatic story of two people who intervene in the life of a homeless, drug-abusing teen with a background of violence and neglect. In their next-door suite called the safe house, they impose three rules: "No alcohol or drugs. You have to work. You have to go to school." Jesse-Ray expresses gratitude for shelter and a middle-aged couple concerned with his welfare. But what does he want? The couple struggle to determine his true motives, especially after he admits being high on meth at their first meeting. At night he writes verse reflecting trauma and violence, shame and love, even despair. Author Andrea Brunais sees more than just a street-smart boy who can write. She sees a soul who can be saved from a downward spiral. But will Jesse-Ray accept the help of strangers, as glimmers of hope expressed in his writings suggest? Will the couple succeed in steering him toward a new life? And how will the ordeal transform everyone?

This book is about an era in our country when American children received more freedom than any other time in American history. After the Vietnam War ended, some American Baby Boomers totally abused this freedom. This book contains many stories about some of those Baby Boomers who were taking full advantage of these times, with no regret or regard of the consequences. Many of the stories you will read about are unethical, immoral, and sometimes disturbing. This book is about a Baby Boomers life, and many of the unique people and events which occurred through these times. You will also read about certain subjects such as sex, drugs, and rock and roll, which were the trademarks of that era. The Baby Boomers not only broke all the rules which took generations to establish: They set new trends and guidelines for many generations to come. They also created a whole new way of life for the American child. Originally from the suburbs of Detroit Michigan, Gary Dixon managed to escape the magnetism of the big city life. He now calls Clearwater Florida his home. From a family of nine children, his family could definitely be considered a Baby Boomer family. With the Baby Boom era in full force, there were not too many places in America to elude the temptations of recreational drug use, and the casual sex scene. Since the Baby Boomers created this new kind of lifestyle, almost every young person in America became a part of it. Gary Dixon and many of his friends not only became a part it, they took it to a whole new level. Living through this era, his life became very unique and eccentric, and he developed many stories along the way. He would like to share these stories with anyone interested, or any other Baby Boomers who grew up through these times.

"My family has a grand tradition. After a woman gives birth, she goes mad. I thought that I would be the one to escape." So begins Adrienne Martini's candid, compelling, and darkly humorous history of her family's and her own experiences with depression and postpartum syndrome. Illuminating depression from the inside, Martini delves unflinchingly into her own breakdown and institutionalization and traces the multigenerational course of this devastating problem. Moving back and forth between characters and situations, she vividly portrays the isolation -- geographical and metaphorical -- of the Appalachia of her forebears and the Western Pennsylvania region where she grew up. She also weaves in the stories of other women, both contemporary and historic, who have dealt with postpartum depression in all its guises, from fleeting "baby blues" to full-blown psychosis. Serious as her subject is, Martini's narrative is unfailingly engaging and filled with witty, wry observations on the complications of new motherhood: "It's like getting the best Christmas gift ever, but Santa decided to kick the crap out of you before you unwrapped it." New mothers and those who have struggled with parenthood -- whether or not they dealt with depression -- will find affirmation in this story of triumph, of escape from a difficult legacy, of hope for others, and of the courage to have another baby.

Righteous jive for all you weedheads, moochers, b-girls, gassers, bandrats, triggermen, grifters, snowbirds, and long-gone daddies. Much of the slang popularly associated with the hippie generation of the 1960s actually dates back to before World War II, hijacked in the main from jazz and blues street expressions, mostly relating to drugs, sex, and drinking. Why talk when you can beat your chops, why eat when you can line your flue, and why snore when you can call some hogs? You’re not drunk–you’re just plumb full of stagger juice, and your skin isn’t pasty, it’s just caf? sunburn. Need a black coffee? That’s a shot of java, nix on the moo juice. Containing thousands of examples of hipster slang drawn from pulp novels, classic noir and exploitation films, blues, country, and rock ’n’ roll lyrics, and other related sources from the 1920s to the 1960s, Straight from the Fridge, Dad is the perfect guide for all hep cats and kittens. Think of it as a sort of Thirty Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary for the beret-wearing, bongo-banging set. Solid, Jackson.

Kids in danger are treated instrumentally to promote the rehabilitation of their parents, the welfare of their communities, and the social justice of their race and tribe—all with the inevitable result that their most precious developmental years are lost in bureaucratic and judicial red tape. It is time to stop letting efforts to fix the child welfare system get derailed by activists who are concerned with race-matching, blood ties, and the abstract demands of social justice, and start asking the most important question: Where are the emotionally and financially stable, loving, and permanent homes where these kids can thrive? “Naomi Riley’s book reveals the extent to which abused and abandoned children are often injured by their government rescuers. It is a must-read for those seeking solutions to this national crisis.” —Robert L. Woodson, Sr., civil rights leader and president of the Woodson Center “Everyone interested in child welfare should grapple with Naomi Riley’s powerful evidence that the current system ill-serves the safety and well-being of vulnerable kids.” —Walter Olson, senior fellow, Cato Institute, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies

This Side of Justice By: Dr. Arlene Rotter Well, when the story be told, you can play judge n’ jury, if you like. But the way I sees it, there weren’t no sign of justice for Chili or any of the good folk in Jist West—not then and not now. We was livin’ in a place where there was injustice for all. This Side of Justice is set in the fictional town of Jist West, Virginia, reflecting the true events of a story told by five retired Marines who had been friends since their days in boot camp. It is a story of justice deserved and expected, yet not rewarded, in this crooked system upon which we all depend.

Surveys the jazz trumpeter's career from the formative years of jazz in New Orleans, through his club successes in Chicago after 1930, to his last European tour in 1954.