Approaching the Black Hand in the Pit Coffee Table Book Finish Line 2021

2021 seems to have grabbed the torch from 2020. Without a doubt, the political and racial climate seemed to have picked up right where the end of the year left off. The differences in being white and black in America smack us wherever we go, and are hard to ignore. It could only be in my wildest dreams that a black person--let alone, black people invade our nation's capitol. Our path to destruction would have died with us at the fence. This is why I am called to separate and differentiate between black and white contributions to many things-particularly, BBQ.

In 2020, I started working on a coffee table book "Black Hand in the Pit." My self -publishing journey started after facing barricades in the publishing world. Being able to share some of my journey through pictures and ten essays from amazing people, was my greatest accomplishment while locked in by COVID. I wrote only a few pieces that I thought were poignant to contribute to this work. BBQ is a genre of food that really is its own separate arena. I will explain in a future blog post, the difference between a pitmaster and a chef, in addition to the difference between a pit and smoker. In compiling this book, I realized that many people don’t have the opportunity to share there thoughts on BBQ as separate genre. I thought about the book “Best Food WRITING.” It was able to capture stories, communicate community and reach many. While it is not a book full of essays, they are interwoven through the text and images.

There will only be a 1,000 books sold of this work. With the limitations placed on self-publishing and being a one man team and full-time family man, it was the most I wanted to release at one time.

Contributors:

Hallie Conyers (Mom)

Regina Lemmon-Bush, PhD

Therese Nelson

Marcus R. Bass

Zella Palmer

Ibrahima Seck, PhD

Hardette Harris

Korsha Wilson

Edourado Jordan

Through these contributors, you will gain a better understanding of BBQ culture through the lens of black people from Senegal to the United States from various walks of life. Also, in this book you will read the essay, I am most looking forward to you engaging the "Intellectual Property and Gender Equality Though BBQ" is my contribution to this piece.

Self-publishing a book is difficult, but it is going to make me very appreciative of going through a major publisher in the future for a second book when that time comes. There are no regrets in self publishing but there are pros and cons to each. So whenever or if I ever decide to write a 3rd book outside of BBQ, then I will be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each. As this book is almost complete, pending just one more editorial review before going to the printer. This book, a true labor of love, may be received with typos, foreign dialects and colloquial that are not easily understood by all. However, I am pleased with how this book is coming together and that it is almost 90% finished. With as much transparency as I can lend right now, I have more exciting news forthcoming... Stay tuned!