{"product_id":"ballad-of-a-ghetto-poet-9781593090098","title":"Ballad of a Ghetto Poet","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhat do you do when you are young and gifted and the world has turned its back at you? That is the wrenching question at the heart of this extraordinary novel about a seventeen-year-old street kid whose only escape is through crime -- and the redemptive power of his poetry.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBallad of a Ghetto Poet\u003c\/i\u003e tells the savage and lyrical story of a teenager caught in the brutal cross-fire of poverty and violence that could send him on the collision course to the cellblock -- or the grave. \u003cbr\u003e Chicko Grayson is a teenager growing up on the tough streets of Richmond, Virginia, where powerty is a life sentence, and the only way out is behind the barrel of a gun. \u003cbr\u003e Raised on the harsh, brutal language of the streets, Chicko hears the music of God in the poetry he writes. But God is noticeably absent when he fals in with a sly and dangerous criminal who draws Chicko and his best friends Malcolm and Junnie into the city's violent underworld of crime. \u003cbr\u003e Filled with the rage and pathos of the streets, eloquent in its anquished portrait of life in the forgotten corners of the South, \u003ci\u003eBallad of a Ghetto Poet\u003c\/i\u003e delivers a modern-day interpretation of \u003ci\u003eWest Side Story.\u003c\/i\u003e This is a tragic and heroic tale of desperate hope and lost chances, and of what happens when redemption comes too late.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Strebor Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/09\/2003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781593090098\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.46lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.05h x 5.98w x 0.50d","brand":"A. J. White","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36660998799516,"sku":"9781593090098","price":12.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_19bf8885-f2e9-4124-85e9-ffc82c7586a8.jpg?v=1603898142","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/ballad-of-a-ghetto-poet-9781593090098","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}