and the importance of ideas and how ideas bring us together to really shape communities and the barksdale's for your hospitality i have had an incredible day here and some of you who have been tagging along but i met bailey this morning it was the most incredible experience the most interesting of students you should feel very proud of the investment you are making in education here in the city and to be here to celebrate this evening with you is absolutely incredible. i had a mentor who once said to me that if you are very fortunate the sum total and culmination and is rem you're thinking rapid eye movement or the group but it is relationships over memories i had the good fortune to have people like the barksdale's and those experiences they have afforded me on this journey have been unforgettable. so i have a book to sell and i have a book for you to read it is called medicine park it is a memoir you think what you have to tell us about your life? you are only 40 years old but it is the intersection of my own life and gratitude very special place so i will tell you two stories very briefl

i want to thank jim and donna barksdale. i see some of you have been tagging along. it was the most incredible experience. they were wonderful bright lights and to be here and celebrate this is absolutely incredible. i had a mentor who once said to me that you are very fortunate that the sum total of life is rem and you're probably thinking rapid eye movement or the group but really it's relationship and memories. i have a book to sell a book for you to read. it's called madison park. it's a memoir. it's a memoir about place. i tell you two stories, the first is a place about madison park. a group of free slaves with nothing but a shirt on their back they were led by eli who could read and write and he invited seven other friends to join him in this great venture. my grandfather's grandfather was one of those. they purchased a plantation. in the first structures they developed were gratitude for a god who delivered them to this new promise land and a new school. martin luther king once wrote we are part of the community tied together. what impacts you impact me. this

memories and i've had the most good fortune of having wonderful relationships with people like the barksdales and hope and bill and the experience that is they have afforded me on this journey has been unforgettable. so i have a book to sell and i have a book for you to read and it's called madison park. there are health two stories, it's a memoir and you think, well, a memoir, what do you have to tell us about your life, you're only 46-something year's old and it's memoir of place and intersections of my own life, grace and gratitude with a very special place. so i tell you two stories very briefly, the first is about a place called madison park and how it came into being, in 1880 a group of freed slaves with nothing except with the shirts on their back and a little money that they had saved and hopes and aspirations of what it could be for them to create community and to realize that jeffersonian ideals of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. they were led by e lurks i who could read and write and he invited seven other friends to join him in the great venture. my grandfather's grandfath