. >> my wife lavinia who is here has been on the ccpc board tonight, i applaud her work and the work of everybody else involved in that cause. so the book is a collection of 100 of what i consider to be my more memorable columns published from the 1047 by my count of the philadelphia daily news andinquirer between 2001 and 2016 . i am grateful to the daily news and inquirer for giving me permission to publish this work and i am very grateful to templeuniversity press, now that you see it, they did a spectacular job . thank you inquirer, thank you daily news. i have added a fresh afterword for each one of those hundred columns in the book and i have recorded both the columns and the afterwards for release by audible which comes out friday. look out, if my radio producer ever releases the outtake reel i will be done. i remember being so honored in 2001 when zach solberg first offered me a column the news and likewise years later when brian tierneyinvited me to come over to the philadelphia inquirer . i majored in government and journalism though it felt like a natural calling for me. i

and my grandmother's sister, aunt lavinia is here. young african american girl in public housing. my grandmother as you know raised me and my brothers and her daughter, my aunt mickey, in public housing on $900 a month. the world seemed destined for me for drugs or motherhood and teenaged motherhood, jail, or even a violent death because of the gun violence that had ravaged our community. but my community, this city, had other plans for me. i woke up in a public housing unit. i took a public bus to a public school every day. i had incredible teachers and counsellors who looked out for me and believed in me. and i walked home with some of my friends from the neighborhood and we looked out for each oth other. my grandmother, miss camellia brown, at the end of the day she watched over me just like she's watching over all of us here today. miss brown was hard working and as tough as nails. you didn't live in her house if you didn't go to school. you know, she looked out for so many people, people in the neighborhood who she would sometime