Gripping. Funny. Tragic. Cautionary. These are a few
words that describe the journey that is Raha. His story is a coming-of age
narrative of someone that knows "the struggle." Raha's journey begins
in Newark, NJ, commonly known as Brick City. Many of Brick City's
"born-and-raised" have, at one time in their life or another,
reflected on the dichotomy of the city itself: warm, bright, cold, lively,
dark. These characteristics make up much of Raha's very open and candid
life story. There are deep, deep lows. Life as a young black man, in any
given urban setting, can be very cold, unpredictable, and frightening.
There is a myriad of "triggers" that one must
navigate to survive from one day to the next. To those from "The Bricks",
this isn't hard hyperbole: this was and is life.
There are also some very lofty highs, like the interaction
and expansion of one's family. Such events breathe life into that same
community, giving many in that community just what they may need to make it
through to another day. This is the pendulum swing that is ever-so-present in
the story of Raha. It's happy. It's roll-over funny. It is witty. It is
sad, caustic, and engaging. As raw as he is funny, Raha leaves no holds
barred in the telling of his story. Boiled all the way down, it is a story of
survival, and hustling to survive.... Bro. Tarikh Bandele