Wednesday, December 2, 2009

SSN, Inc. Community News Release

NEW BOOK RELEASE BY
GEM PUBLICATIONS, INC.

October, 2009
Information: Marketing (773) 931-1700
gempublicationsinc@sbcglobal.net

Rebirth in Light: Poetry Collection Celebrates First Family

Hyde Park’s popular “Love Poet” extends her love to the nation’s most celebrated Hyde Parkers. This October, lawyer and award-winning poet Ginger Mance’s debuts her third book of poetry -- Rebirth in Light: Poems for the First Family, honoring the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Ginger Mance’s literary talents have been recognized by a veritable “who’s-who” of artists and intellectuals. Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center (celebrated for his work on The Secret), declares her “poetic tribute to Barack Obama… kissed by heaven’s inspiration.” Eminent Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree calls her work powerful, soaring, uplifting and timeless in expressing the excitement of our nation and the world.” Haki Madhubuti, poet, and distinguished professor at Chicago State Univ. says Mance has been able to “gather fragments and wholeness from the cultural memories of our ancestors.”

Long before Barack Obama became the first Black president of the United States, Ginger Mance began commemorating his role in the historic 2008 election. In Summer 2008 author and novelist Sandra Jackson-Opoku, along with Chicago’s Ex-Libris Book Club nominated her as a candidate for inaugural poet. When Obama won the election and selected Elizabeth Alexander as inaugural poet, Mance continued to reflect on the inaugural theme, a “New Birth of Freedom.” The project grew into a book-length collection of poems for the President, First Lady, Daughters, Grandmother – even Bo, the First Puppy. Although inspired by President Obama and his family, Mance sees this work as “a call to the American family and world family for unity, peace, reconciliation and forgiveness.” A world, in the words of Margaret Burroughs, poet, artist, founder of DuSable Museum “where freedom no longer waits to be born, but…where freedom births itself.”

Rebirth in Light is not Mance’s first work in praise poetry, an ancient poetic form that commemorates significant people and great accomplishments. Earlier works by Mance honor the lives of Harold Washington, first Black mayor of Chicago; Nelson Mandela, first Black president of South Africa, and Barack Obama on the occasion his 2004 senate race. Ginger Mance is also the author of two books of poetry: An Ancient Fire Burns and A Prayer for Black Men, as well as a CD of spoken word love poems for which the Hyde Park Herald dubbed her “The Love Poet.”

The paperback original of Rebirth in Light is priced at $12.00. Book launch events are planned for Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. The author is also available for additional readings, speaking engagements and book signings. For further details, email the publisher at gempublicationsinc@
sbcglobal.net or call (773) 931-1700.