Gripping. Funny. Tragic. Cautionary. These are a few words that describe the journey that is Raha. His story is a coming-of age narrative of someone that knows "the struggle." Raha's journey begins in
Newark, NJ, commonly known as Brick City. Many of Brick City's "born-and-raised" have, at one time in their life or another, reflected on the dichotomy of the city itself: warm, bright, cold, lively, dark. These characteristics make up much of Raha's very open and candid life story. There are deep, deep lows. Life as a young black man, in any given urban setting, can be very cold, unpredictable, and frightening. There is a myriad of "triggers" that one must navigate to survive from one day to the next. To those from "The
Bricks", this isn't hard hyperbole: this was and is life.
There are also some very lofty highs, like the interaction and expansion of one's family. Such events breathe life into that same community, giving many in that community just what they may need to make it through to another day. This is the pendulum swing that is ever-so-present in the story of Raha. It's happy. It's roll-over funny. It is witty. It is sad, caustic, and engaging. As raw as he is funny, Raha leaves no holds barred in the telling of his story. Boiled all the way down, it is a story of survival, and hustling to survive.... Bro. Tarikh Bandele