I have been involved with media for almost 30 years. I hold a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, an MA in Telecommunications from Michigan State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing at Spalding University in Kentucky.

I have written freelance articles for American Visions Magazine about the Underground Railroad, Learning Magazine, Detroiter Magazine, The Detroit News, and American Profile Magazine--a Sunday national supplement.

I was chosen to participate in the American Film Institute’s Summer Dramatic Scriptwriting Workshop, The Warner Brother’s Regional Comedy Development Workshop, and the Sundance Institute’s Children’s Playwriting Workshop, three of the most prestigious workshops on film and playwriting in the country.

I have written for stage and screen including the PBS Wonderworks movie, Brother Future, which won a Director’s Guild Award, a CEBA Award of Distinction and a National Programming Award.

My  book, The Sanctuary, Cobblehill, 1994, was chosen as one of the 400 best children’s books for that year and was optioned by Producer Bill Blinn (Fame), and Sundance. Although the book is out of print, Amazon sells used copies.

Two monologues from the play are included in Childsplay, an anthology of children’s play monologues. Listen as two young actors do one of the monologues.

The Sanctuary was also the basis for a children’s grief and bereavement program at Detroit’s Children’s Center, funded by the National Funeral Directors Association.

I wrote and produced the documentary: Black Communities After the Civil War: Echoes Across the Prairie about Oklahoma’s black towns, which won a 1998 Gold Apple Award at the National Educational Media Network and was part of two museum displays. I am the producer and writer of a series of college “vignettes” for cell phone downloads in China called American Life, retitled: Crazy English.

My non-fiction book, Slave Uprisings and Runaways: Fighting for Freedom and the Underground Railroad, was published by Enslow Publishers in 2004. I have finished working on a Young Adult fiction book on the Underground Railroad. And am writing a contemporary fiction book about an energy healer.

I taught writing and scriptwriting at Wayne State University and currently teach at the University of Detroit Mercy  where I am now the Director of the African American Studies Program. I also teach scriptwriting for various workshops and writing forums.