Growing Up Ugly: Memoirs of a Black Boy Daydreaming

What's the one area from your past that you keep getting your flesh caught in over and over again? Where are you still wounded and bleeding? The good news is that the most unanticipated and rewarding turns in the story often start with the ugliest beginnings.

Growing Up Ugly is an inspirational coming-of-age memoir that traces the upbringing of a painfully shy child with chronically low self-esteem-a Black boy reprimanded for daydreaming too much and raised in a struggling inner-city New York neighborhood-who eventually grew to become an artist, a leading educator, and an award-winning scholar.

In this new release from Simple Word Publications, author James Haywood Rolling, Jr. composes a rich canvas of raw vignettes, family photos, original illustrations and poems in order to sketch a candid self-portrait that details:

*His upbringing as the first-born son and namesake of Jim Rolling, a talented professional artist-and a domineering father.

*The unexpected personal consequences of being bused to school daily from his home in a racially segregated area of Crown Heights to the predominantly white neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay on the other side of Brooklyn at the start of the controversial school choice vs. public education debate and during the first efforts to desegregate schools across New York City in the early 1970s.

*How being identified and tracked since elementary school as a gifted student contributed to a dangerously distorted view of himself and his own capabilities-until God intervened.

No matter who or what first made you feel ugly, here is storytelling that elevates its readers beyond their own scars, social anxiety, or low self-esteem. This is a book for anyone who has ever been underestimated, bullied, abused, or simply overlooked. It's time to re-imagine your way from daydreams to destiny.

Growing Up Ugly makes a great gift for any family raising African American children, for anyone committed to mentoring Black boys, or anyone teaching and serving in marginalized and under-resourced communities. An in-depth reflection on the power to reshape how one's presence is seen and felt in the world, this book is also an ideal addition to libraries serving multicultural populations

Author: James Haywood Rolling Jr.
Publisher: Simple Word Publications
Published: 12/28/2020
Pages: 194
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.45d
ISBN: 9781937598006

About the Author
Rolling, James Haywood, Jr.: - James Haywood Rolling, Jr. is Dual Professor of Arts Education and Teaching and Leadership, and an affiliated faculty member in African American Studies at Syracuse University. Dr. Rolling has been elected as the 37th President of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) beginning his term in 2021, and currently serves as the inaugural Chair of the new NAEA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commission. A member of the 2017 class of NAEA Distinguished Fellows, Dr. Rolling served as the Senior Editor of Art Education journal from 2015-2017 and is also a 2018 graduate of the School for Art Leaders, a flagship professional development program of NAEA supporting art + design educators in their quest to excel as leaders. In 2021, Dr. Rolling will add an additional role to his creative leadership responsibilities as a new member of the Board of Trustees at the Everson Museum of Art. The author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles and papers, numerous book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and books on the subjects of the arts, education, creativity and human identity, Dr. Rolling continues to expand the reach of his message about the social origins of our common creativity while advocating for the development of each individual's unique creative superpowers, especially those typically overlooked among the children of marginalized and under-resourced communities.