FROM SAGGING TO SUCCESS: tHE  sTORY OF eMERY  fRANKLIN


Picture
This is one of 15 paintings in the book.  Start to enjoy the inspiration, art, stories, facts and sayings right away.
Cover and book layout by Frederick Virgous

Published by SSCOMM Publishing
$21.99 US, Softbound
ISBN-13 978-0615597720
80 pages, 17 photos, 8”x10”

  Paper back:  $21.99

  eBook: $9.99 

Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, CreateSpace and many other online booksellers. 
 
Some people sag physically in the way they wear their pants.  Others sag mentally in the way they think about themselves. 

From Sagging to Success is a message for urban youth and the adults who want to help them become extraordinary. Young people are often judged unfairly because of their appearance and cultural misperceptions. Today, more than ever parents have concerns about the way their children, especially young black males, are perceived based on the way they choose to dress.   While young people have a right to choose how they present themselves, they need to be made aware of the repercussions of sagging.  Sagging pants even might be an indication of a sagging mindset or low self-esteem. A fictionalized character in book illustrations, Derrick goes from sagging to success as he learns about Black history, reads books read and written by successful people and changes the way he thinks. He shares his new knowledge with his parents who also embrace a positive outlook, productive behaviors and principles of success. In the end, Derrick and his parents have successfully transmitted principles of success to the next generation.

 The book is beautifully illustrated and the paintings were created first as a library gallery exhibit. The book educates readers about our history and successes, illuminates concepts of success and inspires them to act on what they learn. Readers are motivated to examine their thinking patterns, to recapture the dreams that they laid aside or never attempted and to accomplish them. Readers, young and not-so-young, gain the wisdom and tools to become successful and are equipped to share those ideas, concepts and actions with others.

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Written by Florence M. Howard, “From Sagging to Success: The Story of Emery Franklin” is a mixture of history, storytelling and biography based on the paintings in Emery's 2011 "Crossroads: From Sagging to Success" oil painting series.  The book contains 15, 8”x10” full-color prints of paintings by the artist. Bits of African American history – the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Movement and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike -- add flavor and depth to scenes reflected in several of the paintings and to the entire From Sagging to Success story.Highlights in the book include an original portrait of President Barack Obama by Emery Franklin and bonus section on black inventors.   Readers will be inspired to examine their attitudes and to follow the steps used by Emery in becoming successful.

FLORENCE M. HOWARD is a freelance writer, researcher, trainer, event coordinator and publicist.  The owner of Secret Shop Communicators (SSCOMM, Inc.), a public relations firm, she is a graduate  of Central High School and the University of Memphis and holds BA and MA degrees in Journalism.  While Director of Community Affairs for WREG-TV, the CBS affiliate in Memphis, she established the station’s Knowledge Bowl academic quiz show and Emmy-winning Kids Count Campaign. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.  You can visit her website at www.sscommpr.com or her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/florencemhoward.author.

EMERY FRANKLIN is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and attended the Memphis College of Art.  A number of prints from the series can be found on his website at http://emery-franklin.artistwebsites.com.