This and That: An Open Letter to Robert Kelly

This and That seizes the opportunity to turn the house lights on the spectacle of show that is pop cancel culture to dare to look backstage at the varied components involved in the production of abuse. Using the highly publicized R. Kelly case, and written as a graphic personal letter to Robert Kelly, the author provides a gripping critical analysis of the insidious culture of sexual abuse, through cultural elements of celebrity, law, religion, community, family, and mental health.

The book-length collection of letters is made personal by its creative incorporations of first-hand experiences told through the writer's lens which is shaped by study and work in the fields of African American culture, trauma, education, pop culture, creative production, and identity construction. As a follow up to Star Struck: An American Epidemic (2004) which came to be regarded as a prescient warning, this book attempts to serve as both a cautionary tale and a building tool that implores the concept of Sankofa as it looks at and goes back through the past in earnest effort to help lay a foundation that can support the fullness of a more healthy and whole future for all.