Oakland Hills Milwaukee Rivers

<p><strong>Oakland Hills Milwaukee Rivers: A Memoir of Survival Identity and Purpose (Second Edition)</strong></p><p>By Dr. Keyimani L. Alford</p><p></p><p><strong>It began with a knock.</strong></p><p></p><p>A slow steady knock-calm intentional. The kind that didn't just interrupt a quiet Saturday. It altered everything.</p><p>In the back room of a dim apartment in Oakland a boy sat alone on a dusty carpeted floor tracing shapes with his fingers-pretending they were roads to somewhere better. The flicker of a black-and-white TV played to no audience. The bed sat off-center its frame tired its blanket wrinkled. No dresser. No posters. Just silence.</p><p>Until that knock.</p><p></p><p>Two voices filled the hallway. Then came another knock-closer gentler-on <em>his</em> door. A woman entered like a quiet storm. And for the first time in what felt like forever someone looked at him-not past him not through him but <em>at him.</em></p><p></p><p>And that changed everything.</p><p></p><p>In this expanded second edition of <em>Oakland Hills Milwaukee Rivers</em> Dr. Keyimani L. Alford reopens the door to a past shaped by instability silence and survival-and walks readers through a journey of reclamation. From the hills of East Oakland to the rivers of Milwaukee this isn't just a story of what he lived through. It's about what he learned lost and continues to uncover.</p><h3></h3><h3>What's new in this edition?</h3><ul><li>A soul-shaping fishing trip with Aunt Grace that brings clarity to the meaning of love and legacy</li><li>A moment of truth when coming out to his mother-followed by silence that lasted longer than the words</li><li>The ache of losing community in a church once filled with belonging and the surprising return of faith</li><li>The weight of generational scars and the slow rebuilding of identity beyond survival</li></ul><p></p><p>The <em>Hills</em> represent what he tried to outrun:</p><p>Addiction. Hunger. Abuse. A mother's slow fade behind a closed door.</p><p></p><p>The <em>Rivers</em> represent what carried him forward:</p><p>Aunties who showed up. Friends who stayed. A boy who learned to find hope in the gaps.</p><p></p><p>This book is for those who:</p><ul><li>Sat on the floor as children wondering if anyone would come</li><li>Grew up learning to stay quiet so they wouldn't get hurt</li><li>Carry identities that never fit neatly in one box</li><li>Are still learning how to forgive-and still unsure if they can</li><li>Want truth. Not polished not perfect-<em>but honest</em></li></ul><h3></h3><h3>Early Praise for the Second Edition</h3><p><em>The additions around Aunt Grace and identity brought me to tears.</em></p><p><em>This book handed me back pieces of myself I didn't know I had lost.</em></p><h3></h3><h3>From the Author</h3><p><em>I didn't write this from the finish line. I'm still healing still becoming. But I believe there's purpose in that. I wrote this for the child in me-and the version of you who still needs to hear: You are not too broken to be whole.</em></p><p></p><p><em>Oakland Hills Milwaukee Rivers</em> isn't just a memoir. It's a mirror. A reckoning. A declaration.</p><p></p><p>It's not about who Keyimani was-it's about who he's becoming.</p><p>And it dares you to ask the same of yourself.</p>