Fear of Honest Sex Conversations By the Black Church is Problematic Says a Popular BET News Correspondent
-- BET news correspondent/activist Jeff Johnson and www.DarkStreetLit.com publisher Clymel Thomas argue that young adults are not being told what they need to know about sex and violence. The men offer solutions. --
There is more to it than sex and money...
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Los Angeles, CA (BlackNews.com) - The African-American church often says to just say no to sex. Many mainstream and urban celebrities, along with most of popular culture, say exactly the opposite. Young adults are being caught up in the middle, say two leading experts in African-American culture and entertainment.
According to news correspondent and media commentator Jeff Johnson, who recently discussed youth culture with presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the BET special What's in it for Us..., frustration and confusion about the stances that many within the African-American church take on controversial issues can run deep, particularly among young blacks.
"Sex is supposed to feel good in its proper context. And many young adults have committed to finding the right answers about sex, but when churches are afraid to talk honestly about sex, almost demonizing young people for having feelings that are natural, then that is problematic," says Johnson in an interview exclusively on www.DarkStreetLit.com, the publisher of Clymel E. Thomas' popular downloadable short novel Sex for a Season and the full length 2007 paperback street lit title Lit Up.
The host of BET's critically acclaimed The Cousin Jeff Chronicles believes, "Young people are being told what they are feeling about sex is wrong, as opposed to: 'How do we help you deal with these feelings, how do we help you not throw your life away by giving your body to someone who doesn't deserve it when you are not emotionally prepared to be in that relationship?' And those are the kind of [important sexually-charged] conversations I don't see happening in the church."
Publisher and author Clymel E. Thomas saw a need. Frustrated with how controversial social issues were being presented to young adults in both the church and within mainstream/urban culture: Sex, racial conflicts, and violence were too often either being discussed incompletely by the church, or being glorified by pop culture, so he started a publishing company to show a more complete and true image of inner-city street life and death: Basically, to show it all--the good, the sexy, the funny, the romantic, the bad, the violent, the ugly, the fear, and the hope without hiding from any of it--and yet not glamorizing any of it either.
The website www.DarkStreetLit.com and the company's book publishing arm Darkstreet Lit Books both attempt, through the use of interviews, blogs and novels, to present honest and unfiltered views of inner-city street life, focusing primarily on novels with titles like Sex for a Season and Lit Up (Darkstreet Lit Books; 2007; $14.99; ISBN: 978-0-9671647-5-5).
"A novel, movie or song can be exciting, contain sex, violence, and so-called 'mature elements,' and still reach its audience on more than just a titillating experience," says Thomas. "Think Richard Wright's Native Son, Donald Goines' Black Girl Lost, early Ice-Cube and Ice-T, or now even someone like T.I. when he is on point. Imagine if preachers could harness the storytelling abilities of these artists when they are trying to convey their message of hope; many of the issues Jeff mentioned would stop being a problem."
It is this three-dimensional environment that Thomas says he is trying to create with Darkstreet Lit Books and www.DarkStreetLit.com. "When readers go to the website and start stripping away at the controversial images on the novel's cover of a scantily-clad female, a muscular brother, and the raw/graphic excerpts, what they are left with is a core principle that Bishop T.D. Jakes himself would probably be proud of." Thomas pauses for a second. "But it's the utter degree of darkness within the tunnel that we show at Darkstreet Lit that may put a lot of preachers off, even if we are ultimately both trying to show the same light at the end of it."
The wide ranging conversation between Johnson and Thomas includes real talk about sex and young adults; violence in the streets; and if the term "Sell Out" applies to African-American celebrities like Will Smith, Tavis Smiley and Chris Rock.
The interview and novel downloads can be acquired for free from www.DarkStreetLit.com
CONTACT:
Review copies: review@darkstreetlit.com
Wholesale orders: wholesale@darkstreetlit.com
Editorial: information@darkstreetlit.com
Interview requests: pr@darkstreetlit.com, 951-601-2023
Direct mail order: $14.99 check/money order for Sex for a Season and Lit Up
(price is for both products, not each):
Darkstreet Lit Books
25920 Iris Ave., Suite 13A-184
Moreno Valley, CA 92551
NOTE: Special offers available online at www.DarkStreetLit.com are not available in bookstores.
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