HW Pick: Somewhere Out of the Darkness By Glenn Raysor

Somewhere out of the Darkness is modern Cain and Able story of two young men who are connected by the streets and forced to consider choices which could benefit them together and apart. The final outcome has not yet been decided. The cold streets of New York City can be a tough and difficult place to survive; especially when you’re all alone. Blue, a young man raised by the best drug dealers and thugs of his ghetto neighborhood, struggles to reach the top of the street game. Fearless and determined nothing will stop Blue from reaching his goal, not even several close encounters with death. His intrepid attitude gains him many enemies on the streets, enemies that on one fateful night will change his life forever. Blade was once streetwise and moral. But a terrible accident alters his life and sends him in the wrong direction. Now, alone and wandering through the judicial system, he and Blue may form the most feared organization in all of New York.

Born in Harlem, New York City, Glenn Raysor and his older sister, Donna, were raised by a single mother in the Bronx, New York. As a child he often played stickball and ran the streets avoiding the drug dealers, gangs, and other trappings of the urban jungles. Education was always stressed by his mother. Glenn found refuge in sports and writing. He played in numerous city basketball tournaments. In high school he played basketball, football and track for the Lions of Lehman High school. He earned a football scholarship to New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, Long Island. He had a brief stint with the Brooklyn Kings semi-pro football team. He graduated with a B. A. Degree in fine Arts. Later he would graduate from the City College of New York with a Master of Science in Education, while teaching in the South Bronx and working full-time at night at the US Postal Service. Glenn later would run the after school tutorial program after strong urging by Mr. Howard, the school s principal. Glenn s caring and sense of instilling self-worth in his students quickly spread through the neighborhood. In the following years Glenn would become the Director of a Young fathers program, and several other community programs aiding troubled youth. While being an integral part of the programs he saw firsthand the devastation of many Black and Latino teens struggling with illiteracy and the limitations it brought to their lives. During the thirteen years Glenn taught, he also witnessed the beginning of the vicious cycle of non-readers. After frustrating attempts to find literature for his students, Glenn used his childhood and experiences as an educator to create Into the Darkness . He learned students took a more vested interest in reading when they could relate to the characters and stories. His students would read and critique his stories about the neighbor- Somewhere out of the Darkness hood during the classes group reading. Teachers would ask to use his writings in their classes. Glenn graduated from the College of New Rochelle with a Master of Science in Administration, before working two years as an Assistant Principal in East New York Brooklyn. For the past two years, Glenn has been an Administrator in the Mount Vernon School District of New York. Glenn enjoys running with his son Glenn Jr. who attends Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, and going on adventures with his other children Sherri, Matthew and Angelina.

Get your copy of Somewhere out of the Darkness here.