A Collective Breath

<p>Open. Sincere. Honest. Unfiltered.</p><p>In early June of 2020 many of us found ourselves unable to sleep ... unable to function normally ... unable to comprehend that once again a black man found himself unable to breathe and ultimately met his demise at the hands of the police. </p><p>You may have also found yourself in a state of shock and wanting to do something. The contributors to <em>A Collective Breath: Stories of Being Black in America and Visions of Change </em>found themselves in similar positions.</p><p>Their candid personal thoughts and feelings reveal the many challenges that blacks face in America today-challenges they may not directly divulge to others but that are part of their realities and they offer ideas for solutions and actions to pave the way to a more optimistic future.</p><p>Consisting of a wide variety of blacks who are well-educated; who are community leaders entrepreneurs business owners and professionals; and who are involved with their families and religious organizations the contributors tell of what it is like to be black in America. </p><p><em>In A Collective Breath</em> the contributors do not hold back.</p><p>They take a collective breath -- the breaths that George Floyd Manuel Ellis Javier Ambler Eric Garner and so many others could not take -- to document for the world how they feel in this moment; the lenses through which they as blacks in America view and live their lives; and what they believe needs to change today for a different tomorrow.</p>