Gibran Tariq & Gregory S. Jones

Dear Sistas & Brothas:

            Thanks for visiting our homepage.  We truly appreciate your dropping by, and hope that when you leave you will have a clear understanding of both our mission and our focus.

            The Paper Tiger Literary Foundation, which we started in 2001, is a new writing venture which is the outgrowth of our desire to reform African ' American Literature.  We feel strongly that literature is the written lifeblood of a people, the legendary symbol of both their inspirations and aspirations as well as the proving ground for the dynamics of their future. 

            Yet the authors who currently control access to our literary heritage have ----- for the most part ----- disfigured it by typically publishing work with no cultural or social merit.  It has been a full decade since Terry McMillan's blockbuster novel Waiting to Exhale ushered in what was immediately hailed as the 2^nd Harlem Renaissance in African ' American literature, but this group of prominent black writers who have become highly visible have ----- for the most part ----- failed to transform their writing, instead cornering the urban romance genre and practically exploiting it to death as if there is nothing else in our collective experiences to write abut except male ' bashing females or ho ' chasing niggaz.

            These writers have paid their dues and their earlier works should have merely served as the pathways to more culturally responsible literature, but these 'keepers of the flame' still write as though still on the literary chitlin' circuit and this literary 'blaxploitation' will disrupt our ability to build a strong written tradition in the exact fashion the blaxploitation movies of the 70's stifled our cinematic tradition.

            Supported by over 9.9 million African ' American readers, it is senseless to continue a literary tradition that stimulate hormones instead of minds.  Need our writers be reminded that we face profound social problems that can , should, and needs to be acknowledged and addressed via our literature.

            It is perhaps instructive to note that in practically every culture, it has been the writers that have led the push for social improvement and change, but only relatively few of our literary soldiers even admit or argue the fact that we have not reached the Mountaintop yet.  Fortunately, the historical link between writers and social reform is well documented so our writers must be implicated for their failure to deliver us from our cultural ignorance because it is their ennui that helps prolong social illness.

            Since recorded history, man has not known a greater agent of intervention than the pen, but our writers act as if they develop muscle spasms or mental convulsions when it comes time to describe our condition in America.  They spill hot ink over our synchronized sexual interactions, but remain mute about the rattle and hum of how life actually is when measured in terms of the varied racial experiments this country has exposed us to.

            African ' American have a lot to learn because there's a general principle involved in nature that dictates that chaos draws a people closer together.  Evidently we've missed that lesson.

            In any event, at Paper Tiger Literary Foundation our aim is to free African ' American literature of its rigid reliance on sexual gimmicks, piss ' poor predictable plots, and unrepentant repetitiveness, thereby producing a body of work that not just reflects the turbulent conditions under which we live, but inevitably to become mirrors of enlightenment which will quicken our desire to alter the social dynamics of our environment.  The Root Of All Evil is the 1^st release in our 15 book library.  Each of these books encourage and challenge, but are deceptively simple in their approach.  They do more than simply yell 'Ouch' in public.  They are entertaining, enlightening, and life ' affirming.  However what happens with or to the rest of the library will be dependent ----- in great part ----- on how well - received The Root of All Evil is.  We pray for your support of The Root Of All Evil and the Paper Tiger Literary Foundation.

            We close with the thought for today from Snapshot our daily book of affirmations:

January 25^th

            Keep this in mind.  On your journey to self and success, it is answers you want, not suggestions.  While sometimes a suggestion may evolve into news you can use, borrowing one from someone else's experience and then adapting it too yours can be very risky.  Suggestions are by their very nature, fragile and given the fact that their development evolved from outside your experiences they can mislead.  Don't forget that a suggestion is nothing more than an one quarter solution to your problem.  It is merely proof that something did work for someone else.  It may or may not adapt itself to your situation.  Therefore seek ANSWERS!  The truth is that life is a very active process and to rely upon suggestions as a reference is to court disaster.  SEEK ANSWERS.  They are the ageless weather vanes of life that clearly inform you which way the wind blows.  To insulate yourself from dis ' appointment, invest in answers.  Your capacity to survive depends upon them, so no matter how tantalizing a suggestion may be, just remember that even at its deepest level, a suggestion is simply a testimonial in your trust in someone other than yourself. 

            And lastly (also from Snapshots) at hint to the sistas:

'A sista's groove is that of all the people on the planet, she has the most idealized concept of the white man as a saviour ' in ' waiting.  For the older sistas, it's Jesus.  To the sistas in the 'hood, it's Uncle Sam with his welfare check, and to the young sista, it's Santa Claus.  Girl, you better get hip.  You done been a burden to carry and the white man ain't trying to rescue you, he trying to lay your ass down!'

            We are in jail, and don't have access to computers, e-mail, or a telephone number.  The mailman knows where we are.  Contact us at: