AUTHOR & SCHOLAR

My research has been cited almost 200 times in the past five years, including a 2021 citation by the United Nations. I’ve published reports that have inspired shows on Netflix and became catalysts for multi-billion dollar legislation. My #RhythmicReparations project included a research component that allowed me to travel to 17 countries in nine months collecting 70+ interviews of Afro-descendants.

THE KNUCKLEHEAD’S GUIDE TO ESCAPING THE TRAP: ABRIDGED TRILOGY (Amir’s Autobiography)

ISBN-10: 0998216003 ISBN-13: 978-0998216003 Book Reviews Learn more and purchase book at www.knuckleheadpublishing.com

Book One: ORIGINS

During the first 19 years of his life, Amir is engulfed in a war without realizing it. Poverty and the War on Drugs entrap his neighborhood in a cycle of addiction, incarceration, and chaos. Dominating the drug trade at age 15 brings the world to his fingertips—until he and his mother are arrested in a police raid. Amir struggles through the rest of his teenage years after being kicked out of school and lured back into the Trap. A battle to rise above an inner-city warzone plagued with drugs, violence, and death transforms him into a resilient young man—one difficult lesson at a time. Follow this hard-fought journey of a boy with an unrelenting desire to overcome the odds.

Book Two: STREET TRAVELER

As a 22-year-old college student, Amir becomes the first person from his neighborhood to obtain a passport. An opportunity to visit Africa unleashes an addiction to traveling and culture shock that change him forever. He becomes obsessed with a goal to visit 30 countries before his 30th birthday, and embarks on an eye-opening quest throughout all corners of the globe. Realizing he does not know how to travel, he relies on “street smarts” to escape danger, explore forbidden places, and survive on a few dollars a day. Curiosity leads him to intriguing destinations across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In the process, Amir uncovers priceless life lessons through encounters with some of the quirkiest and most inspirational people in the world.

Book Three: MILLION—THE MONEY ON MY MIND

Miraculously completing high school after being expelled, Amir reluctantly enrolls in community college. After his thirst for knowledge is awakened, he doubles his high school GPA and plunges into a 12-year educational voyage across the country. In the process, Amir graduates from the top public university in New Jersey, receives his law degree from Florida’s leading university in Miami, and obtains a doctorate in Los Angeles from one of the nation’s top 25 universities. By the time he completes his fifth college degree, Amir discovers education’s power to take him anywhere and allow him to do anything. But his lifelong passion to understand the world comes with a hefty consequence: a student debt bill close to a million dollars over his lifetime

AFRO UNIDAD/ UNITY BOOK: Culture and Rebellion Across the Diaspora

This book provides details and an overview of eight aspects of Afro-culture across the diaspora: traditions, history, ancestors, music/dance, food, fashion/hair, spirituality, and philosophy. It operates from an Afro Unidad framework with the four principles of consciousness, freedom, healing, and unity.

PURCHASE BOOK HERE

B.E.A.T. Buddz/ B.E.A.T. Book

B.E.A.T. Buddz is a program connecting youth across the country through multiple forms of self-expression. The literacy-based social-emotional learning curriculum is delivered through customized tablet devices with video modules, apps, and a digital library. The program provides students with the opportunity to create and exchange music, poetry, and creative writing projects with students in Florida, California, New Jersey, Oregon, and South Africa (coming soon). Over the course of a self-paced 4-16 week period BEATBuddz utilizes a cognitive-behavioral framework (B.E.A.T. = Behavior, Emotions, Attitude, Thoughts) and engages students through hip hop, jazz, classical, audio recording/engineering and more. Through the tablet devices, video modules, and BEATBook journals, students create a ¿My B.E.A.T. Mixtape¿ portfolio of writings, original music compositions, and recordings. Each tablet device is preloaded with 20+ music projects created by students across the country allowing students can exchange their creations in a penpal-like manner.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

· State of Student Wellness California (2022)

· No Police in Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools in California (2021)

· Arts Education is a Civil Right Inseparable from Freedom, PBS SoCal/KCET (2021)

· 1.7 Million Students Attend Schools With Police But No Counselor, Hechinger Report (2019)

· Freedom Reimagined, ACLU Magazine (2019)

· Encyclopedia of Afro Diaspora Music Draft Edition: (2019)

· Black Youth Matter: A Message for Mental Health Month, Los Angeles Sentinel (2019)

· Cops and no Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming Students (2019)

· The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful Corporal Punishment in Schools, UCLA (2019)

· Schools Need Counselors, Not Guns -- And 6 Other Key Things, Washington Post (2018)

· Federal Data Shows Public Schools Nationwide Are a Hotbed of Racial Injustice (2018)

· My B.E.A.T. Book: Behavior Emotions Attitude and Thoughts (2018)

· Eleven Million Days Lost, UCLA & ACLU (2018)

· Lost Instruction: The Disparate Impact of California’s School Discipline Gap (2017)

· Ending Discrimination, Sharing Opportunities and Building Integration, California Department of Justice (2017)

· Compilation of Education-Focused Publications, (2013-2016)

· TIME Magazine, “Brown v. Board of Education is a Broken Promise” (2016)

· KnuckleHead Publishing, “The KnuckleHead’s Guide to Escaping The Trap: A Memoir” (2016)

· Tampa Bay Times, “Why Suspensions aren’t the Answer” (2016)

· Pensacola News Journal, “Reduce School Arrests” (2015)

· A Lawyer’s Story from the Field “Students Feel Hopeless and Humiliated because of School’s Culture” (2015)

· Pensacola News Journal, “Hitting Children is Wrong, Ineffective” (2014)

· Corporal Punishment in Florida Schools, Preface and Executive Summary (2014)

· A Lawyers’ Story from the Field “Teaching Experience Highlights Inequality” (2014)

· Dissertation, Reducing the Risk Among the Most At-Risk: Determining What Contributes to African-American Males in Special Education Having the Highest Rates of Incarceration and Academic Failure (2011)