Thursday, October 4, 2012

URBAN WRITERS LETTING THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE

by LaMont Wheat


Jarid Manos is  the Author of GHETTO PLAINSMAN www.ghettoplainsman.com; Founder/CEO, Great Plains Restoration Council; Vegan Athlete, Youth Worker, Health Advocate and Father.

"Once I survived my own life I realized: What else is there for me to do but give back?"

Manos just recently completed a national "Sharing the Journey" book tour for his first book, Ghetto Plainsman (non-fiction), which can be found at Barn&Nobel.  On the tour he spoke about his evolution of his life and how his connection to nature and spirit resided in all of us and how that connection transformed him from victim to victor.  In an intimate conversation with BBINT Magazine, Manos share details about his personal life and struggles, being homeless,  not fitting in, the impacts of his stunning good looks and coming to terms with his sexuality.  "Through my journey in writing my first book I realized being authentic meant I would have to face my demons and in doing so I got that being same gender loving isn't just a choice i made for my survival, it's who I am."

My second book, Her Blue-Watered Streets and You (a novel), is coming out at the end of 2012. (Provided I can get it done in time!)

"I am a serious urban American writer. If you're interested, you can google me for more TV, radio, print, Internet etc. I'm really just getting started .

I'm also a vegan athlete, youth worker, and founder/CEO of a non profit organization Great Plains Restoration Council www.gprc.org which helps damaged youth and young adults heal themselves through tough outdoor work healing the Earth. The world is being killed, and at the same time there are so many broken & damaged people: Why not help one help the other and vice versa? "

Jarid Manos, author of Ghetto Plainsman, discusses the importance of sharing what you have to share, what's unique about you rather than following a formula. He also shares his thoughts on reconnecting to quality literature.

Manos founded the Great Plains Restoration Council in 1999 in Fort Worth, Texas. He now recruits youth from inner city Fort Worth and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota who are victims of violence and poverty, and puts them to work restoring the prairie. His group has also halted housing developments on a southern tallgrass prairie near Fort Worth and is re-establishing a prairie dog town on a new 12,000-acre reserve in West Texas. Partnering with the Oglala Lakota people, Manos’ group has hatched a long-term project to connect prairie around Badlands National Park into a million-acre public grassland.

Manos is the father of a 14-year-old adopted son. His journey from despair to activism is recounted in his book, Ghetto Plainsman (Temba House, 2008).

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