from boyz to men - justice for...
TRANSCRIPT
From Boyz to Men:Saving Our African American Males from
the Streets and from Themselves
P.O. Wallace Green, LICDC
(216) 664-3287
Cell:(440) 570-7608
NADCP 21st ANNUAL TRAINING CONFERENCEJuly 27-30, 2015 . Washington, DC
From Boyz to Men:
Saving African American Males
From the Streets and themselves
• Male by birth
• Adult by age
• Man by choice– Becoming a
better man is on going*
– H.E.A.T.
Habilitation
Empowerment
Accountability
Therapy
The Pinwheel Group LLC
Shhhhhh! King baby is still sleepin’!
The client’s world is OK
• King Baby’s Bubble:
– Lookin’ good.
– Sumin’ ta drink.
– Sumin’ ta smoke.
– Sumin’ ta hustle.
– Sumin’ ta sex.
– Some money to flash.
– Some boyz to hang wit.
– Car to drive.
– Music to blast.
– My worldz all right
– Soldier?
Adopted from: King Baby, Tom Cunningham Hazelden books
In whoz army?
The job of an African American
father
• It was never about the police
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
–Teens are temp. Psychopaths
This is a passing phase but the damage can last a life time
Manhood in other cultures:
Xhosas, Africa - boys to men ritual
The Bar/Bat Mitzvah
• “The purpose and major task of any life cycle
ceremony must be to legitimize those changes, to
standardize and formalize a new role for the
individual within the community.”
• “Up until now the individual has been seen as
“property” and responsibility of the parents
• Society will impose coming of age responsibilities
on the child like it or not and more specifically,
ready or not; and through such a ritual the child
becomes ready
• Culture gives them a head start (13 not 18)
Some of the founding fathers
• Tom Silverman
• David May and
• Jon Schecter
• Rick Rubin
• Keith Naftlay
• Lyor Cohan
• Jimmy Iovine
• Jerry Heller
African America founders:
failure & personal glorification • Sylvia Branch and Joe of
Sugar Hill
• Jay – Z,
• Damon Dash
• Kareem Biggs Burke
• P Diddy
• Shug Night
• Dr. Dre
• Master P.
• Slim and Brian Williams
• Chris Lightly
The Source: 1st Nationally
Syndicated Hip Hop Magazine
• A girl stood up and complained, “We have two white guys who have started a magazine about a black culture, which makes them gate keepers for the whole culture which they did not create. They are essentially telling us who we are. I don’t feel that is right. How do you feel about that?
From the book, ‘The Big Payback’
From boyz to men • You have to man up
– You can’t complain them away
– You can’t march them away
– You can’t beat them down
– You have to out preform, out
compete your challengers
• If something bothers you enough to complain
about it, but not enough to do anything about it,
than you will forever be a bystander in your own
life. Rewards and success go to those who do
something about that which they don’t like.
• The ones who Man Up!
What are American culture
manhood rituals? • Sex
• Drink
• Drug
• License
• Ink
• Prison
• Child
• Why nothing more formal, or meaningful?
Definition of Hip Hop Culture
• A form of popular culture that started in the African American inner-city areas (Bronx), characterized by rap music, graffiti art, and break dancing. MCing, DJing, spit boxing, fashion, slang and style are also important elements of hip hop. The term has since come to be a synonym for hip hop music and rap to mainstream audiences.
Definition of Hip Hop Culture
• The 5 elements of Hip Hop
–MC-ing
–B-Boying
–Graffiti
–DJ-ing
–Knowledge
Why Hip Hop is not a Culture
The Cultural Litmus Test
> The unique worldviews, customs,
norms, values and patterns of behavior
that are learned through socialization
to nurture, strengthen and insure the
positive progress and development of
it’s people.
> The people who benefit from this
culture are the “The Billion Dollar
beneficiaries.” Welcome to Hip-
hopracy
• Cultural Training Institute, prepared by Victoria Winbush. (1996).
Definition of Hip Hop Culture
• The 5 elements of Hip Hop have been replaced –MC-ing–B-Boying –Graffiti–DJ-ing–Knowledge
• Commercial Rap
• Fashion
• Alcohol
• Slang
• Smoking weed
• Strip Clubs
• Making it Rain
• Jewelry
• Style
• Cool
• Hustlin’
_________
_________
_________
_________
My average client that this culture
has produced • 5-6th grade reading level
– No diploma
• No father (Baby mama era)– Or relationship is:
• bad,
• hateful, or
• They are ‘boyz’
• Unemployed– No Marketable skills
• 1-2 Children
• 2-3 girlfriends / hostages
• Has 3-4 hideouts
• Low self esteem– Mask of Cool Pose ?
Client age 18-25
Born during the
Crack epidemic
1990-1997
You are not talking to
Tupac
You are talking to
Tupac’s kid who has
no clue
Like 40 years in the
desert – no one
remembers Egypt
85% loved one in
prison
Book, ‘Cool Pose’
• The aloof swagger and… unflappability projected by
young black men from inner-city urban areas is a
"cool pose," a bit of posturing that insulates them
from an otherwise overwhelming social reality, a
new report holds.
• While the cool pose is often misread by teachers,
principals and police officers as an attitude of
defiance, psychologists who have studied it say it is
a way for black youths to maintain a sense of
integrity and suppress rage at being blocked from usual routes to esteem and success.
Richard Majors, author
Book, ‘Cool Pose’
• The cool pose is…language, mannerisms, gestures and movements that "exaggerate or ritualize masculinity,"
• “The essence of cool is to appear in control, whether through a fearless style of walking, an aloof facial expression, the clothes you wear, a haircut, your gestures or the way you talk.
• The cool pose shows the dominant culture that you are strong and proud, despite your status in American society.“
• The ability to get other people to do what you want in spite what they see, feel and know
Richard Majors, author
December 4th by Jay - Z
• But, I noticed a change in him when me and my
husband broke up
• Now all the teachers couldn't reach me
And my momma couldn't beat me
Hard enough to match the pain of my pops not
seeing me, SO
With that distain in my membrane
Got on my pimp game
Fuck the world my defense came
Then Dahaven introduced me to the game
Spanish Jose introduced me to cane
I'm a hustler now
Changing Levels; Developing
Character
Subject Poverty/
Hip Hop
Mid. Class
Wealthy
Man-
hoodGood
Fighter,
Lover,
Cool
Hustler
Nerve
Good
provider
Role
model
Leader
Planner
Char.
Strength
Visionary
Hustler
Generational
provider
Polit. Leader
Nerve
Char.
Strength
Kwanzaa
Transformative Power
1. Unity
2. Self Determination
3. Collective Work and responsibility
4. Cooperative economics
5. Purpose
6. Creativity
7. Faith
Growing up: It’s you against you
Football Player / Basketball Player
Right uniform for the right game
• If you have these
skills
• You can develop these
skills
Man Up
• Circle the top
3
• Rate yourself
• They will see
this again
Boyz Down
• Make sure they
have these 2
listed:
– ‘F’ it
– Focusing on the
‘next’ battle
• Alternate plan
• (This is just
slowing me
down)
King Baby
Often become angry or afraid of authority figures and will attempt to get them to work against each other
Seek approval and lose their own identity in the process
Can make a good first impression but are unable to follow through
Have difficult accepting personal criticism and become threatening, angry or escape when criticized
Have addictive personalities and are driven to extremes
Are self rejecting or self alienating
King Baby
Are often immobilized by anger and frustration and are rarely satisfied
Are usually lonely even when surrounded by people
Chronic complainers who blame others for what is gong in their lives
Fell unappreciated and think they don’t fit in
See the world as a jungle filled with people who “aren’t there” for them
See everything as a catastrophe, a life or death situation
Judge life in absolutes black or white right or wrong you are for me or against me
King Baby Live in the past while fearful of the future
Have strong feelings of dependency and exaggerated fears of abandonment
Fear failure and rejection and don’t try new things that they might do well.
Are obsessed with money and material things
Dream big plans and schemes but have little ability to bring them about
Can not tolerate illness, imperfections in themselves or others
Think the key is finding answers not developing skills
Focus on trying to be understood rather than trying to understand
King Baby Are not successful because people are
either born with the "right stuff" (characteristics and they feel that they were not. Or others are just lucky
Prefer to charm superiors, and intimidate subordinates
Belief rules and laws are for others or suckers
Often become addicted to excitement, life in the fast lane
Hold emotional pain in and lose touch with their feelings
“F” it
The Superego
• Incorporates the values and morals of
society which are learned from one's
parents and others.
• The conscience and the ideal self. The
conscience causing feelings of guilt
• The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an
imaginary picture of how you ought to be,
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Id, Ego and Superego. Retrieved
from http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
The Ego
• The ego develops in order to mediate between
the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is
the decision making component of personality.
• Ideally the ego works by reason whereas the id
is chaotic and totally unreasonable. The ego
operates according to the reality principle,
working our realistic ways of satisfying the id’s
demands, often compromising or postponing
satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of
society. The ego considers social realities and
norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to
behave.
The Id
• The id is primitive and instinctive
– It demands immediate satisfaction
– The id is not affected by reality, logic or the
everyday world.
• It operates on the pleasure principle (Freud,
1920)
– which is the idea that every wishful impulse
should be satisfied immediately, regardless of
the consequences.
– The id engages in primary process thinking,
which is primitive illogical, irrational, and fantasy
oriented.
Hip Hop cultural views attitudes
beliefs worksheet re:
• The music (The 7D’s)
– Lust
– Gluttony
– Greed,
– Sloth,
– Wrath,
– Envy,
– Pride
What are the cultural values
according to the music ? • Family
– Raising children
• Women
• Education
• Hustling
• Spirituality
• Getting high
• Brotherhood
• Employment
• Career
• Gangs / Click
• Respect
Hip Hop is really the advertising arm of
the prison industrial complex!
The field has scaled
down and opened up
• Two Chains
• Future
• Rich Homie Quan
• Chedda De Connect
• Kevin Gates I dint get tired
• Kid Ink Ride out
• Lil Boosie
• Chief Keef
• Bobby Smerda
New wave of rappers who no
longer have to fit the profile • Kanye West
• Drake
• Kendrick Lamar
• Lupe Fiasco
• MGK
• Earl Sweatshirt
• Jasiri X
• J. Cole
• Rae Sermmund
• Young Thug
• Camron Dallas
• Jeramih
• Jidenna
• Tanashe
• K camp
• Dej Loaf
Recent police killings throughout the nation
Black Lives Matter...but to whom should this
be directed?
African American males are
repeatedly reported as being older
than they are
Civil rights attorney
Constance Rice
The current commercialized version of the Hip Hop culture puts Police on edge, to the point that ‘blackness’ is scene as a weapon
If you know what’s going on
outside your house
• Than there is nothing stopping you, accept
you, from preparing for it inside your house
A man does not give power to his
obstacles
All fired; All rehired
Why should they have to respect us, more
than we respect ourselves?
• If your house were on fire would you be focused on
the ethnicity, color, or income bracket of the
fireman with the hose and ladder?
• “I think it’s smart to get out of the fire first and if you
want to have that conversation about the causes,
we can do it then, but there are systemic problems
in the system that you need to guard against and I
wouldn’t be doing my job if we didn’t have this
discussion.”
Keepin’ it 100: don’t look for
racism
I refuse to lose
Fighting the right war
• Right vs. Wrong (Respect)
– Been going on before you got here
– Will be going on after you leave
– Side step, or chose wisely
– War is bigger than you
• Success vs. Failure
– Battle is on the clock (18-25)
– Opportunity lost is difficulty compounded
– War is on you
Two Homecomings
Hip Hop Culture has a very
Positive side: • Hustling
• Self determination
• Commitment
• Courage
• Entrepreneurialship
• Tenacity
• True understanding and development of Power, Influence, Money and Position
Man Up! Worksheet
3 Core and a few more Characteristics of
Manhood
1. Commitment (Hustle)
2. Honesty
3. App. Behavior
4. Respect
5. Accountable
6. Courage
7. Trust
8. Education
9. Responsible
10. Independent
11. Goals
12. Prepared
13. Spirituality
14. Consistency
15. Discipline
Business Card: 1 wk. at a time
• Check
• Minus
• Even E
5 Levels of Commitment
1. I don’t want to be here
2. I want the benefits without putting forth the effort
3. I’ll Try
1. Acceptable failure
2. Commitment is to trying
3. 30-40% pay off
4. I will do the best I
can
4. Always improving
5. 80-90%
5. I will do whatever
it takes
4. 90-99.9%
I can show you how to fight this
fight and win…
HONESTY
Only one type of person fails
• “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has
thoroughly followed our path. Those who do
not recover are people who cannot or will
not completely give themselves to this
simple program, usually men and women
who are constitutionally incapable of
being honest with themselves.”
– Honesty – The ability to tell on it, before it tells
on you.
– If you can’t be honest, be honest about it
Man UP! and L.I./E.!
Intellect
Emotion• LEARN
ITS NOT WHAT YOU SAY… IT’S WHAT YOU
CONVEY!
RESPECT
• Deference to a right, privilege, privileged
position, or someone or something
considered to have certain rights or
privileges; proper acceptance or
courtesy; acknowledgment.
• The condition of being esteemed or honored:
to be held in respect.
• Admire (someone or something) deeply, as
a result of their abilities, qualities, or
achievements.
Who do you listen to (respect)
with regularity?• Police, Judges, C.O.’s, Parole Officers, PO’s,?
– What do they have in common?
• They can do something TO you (Slave mentality)
• Client listens to the people who can do the most harm to us,
• He need to listen to the people who can do the most for him
who ever that is
• Name the people that you respect (listen to with
regularity) that can do something for you?
• Do you have a unique relationship with your
employer?
• How does ‘power’ figure into this equation?
– “I have a problem with authority” I don’t like being told
what to do
TRAYVON MARTIN: Responsible /
Accountable?
• Marijuana positive
was allowed in on
the case
What is on the internet will be on
there until the end of the earth
“Better chance of being killed by
someone who looks like him.”
The Choom Gang
• In his memoir, [he] talked about routinely
getting high. “Junkie. Pothead,” he wrote.
“That’s where I’d been headed: the final,
fatal role of the young would-be black
man.” …he only got high because he was
contemplating deep matters: drugs could
“push questions of who I was out of my
mind.”
The number of African Americans killed
during the 1st four yrs. of Obama’s
presidency
Compare that to:
Afghanistan War U.S. casualties -3,427
Iraq War U.S. causalities -4,802
Courage
• Most of us have it twisted
– It’s not acting like you don’t give
a damn, but acting like you do
• Courage is not reckless
• Without it, you will never go
past Level 3, ‘trying’
• What will prevent you from
looking in the mirror
– you are not all that or less than
that
• Is it difficult? Than it will take
courage
Are you worthy
of your client’s Trust?
• Be accessible
• Display honors
• Make office inviting
• Call at odd hours
• Do home visits if you can
• Call sponsor and significant others
• Have something to eat for the client durring one on ones
Inspiration, or desperation?
• You earn a living 3 ways:
1. What you know
2. What you can do
Consider this your
personal
invitation:
Tuesdays at 4:00pm
6th Floor Justice
Center
Justice
• To help you understand the hip hop
culture that you are a part of and to help
you differentiate the real from the fake, so
that you can embrace the positive and
avoid the pitfalls of the negative
• Equip you with the tools to navigate your
way through the system so that you can
stop being pimped by it, if that is your
choosing
“They told me to follow the Blacks”
Go with the poor
• Don’t make anything
• Don’t own anything
• Don’t know anything
• Don’t want to know
anything
• Dependant people make
the best customers
Looks like he’s right!
Graduation Rates Ohio 2004-2005
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
White Students AfricanAmericanStudents
White Students
African AmericanStudents
31.6 %
10.2 %
31.6% of the African American students in the state of
Ohio did not graduate from high school in 2005
compared to only 10.2% of the white students in the
state who did not graduate from high school.
Put these values first…
that’s all they did!
• Family
• Education
• Career
• Spirituality
• Security
• Freedom
• Health
• Property– What made AA
successful
• Don’t hate!
• You can’t blame
others for having the
values that you
should have!
Steve Mariotti
• In 1982, Mariotti made a significant career change and became a special education/business teacher in the New York City school system, choosing to teach in such notoriously challenging neighborhoods as Brooklyn and the “Fort Apache” section of the South Bronx.
• It was at Jane Addams Vocational High School in the Bronx that he developed the insight and inspiration to bring entrepreneurial education to low-income youth. This led to founding the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in 1987.
Key Bank saw an opportunity
The Purpose of Goals
• To give you a
destination
• To give you a purpose
• To achieve dreams
– (Not fantasies)
• To have something to
weigh other activities
against
– What will a record
do to my employability?
The Abandon House Theory:
There is no goal to fix, sell, or move in
“I can’t wait till I’m off probation!”
Only two types of people are
successful in this world:
• Those that are
prepared,
• Those that are
lucky
• One you chose to
do
• The other chooses
you
Why you need spirituality
• Goal: To become
employable, graduate drug
court, get off paper etc.
• Know certain things,
– When to waking up on time,
– Display app. behave,
– Study, ask questions. etc.
• Success is guaranteed
• However, All that being said,
one day you wake up and
What happens ?
• When the client
doesn't preform
the actions in
which success is
guaranteed , what
does he ask?
CONSISTENC
Y
What you do, you get use to
Independent
This system’s success is predicated
on 3 things: 1) Mental illness 2)
Addiction 3) Boyhood
Cost for one year Per state (2010)
Question: Are you worth more behind
bars, that you are on the street? State Average Daily Inmate
Population
Taxpayer Cost of Prisons
($ in 000s)
Average Annual Cost
per Inmate
Alabama 26,758 $462,507 $17,285
Arizona 40,458 $1,003,553 $24,805
Arkansas 13,369 $326,081 $24,391
California 167,276 $7,932,388 $47,421
Colorado 19,958 $606,208 $30,374
Connecticut 18,492 $929,438 $50,262
Delaware 6,528 $215,210 $32,967
Florida 101,324 $2,082,531 $20,553
Georgia 53,704 $1,129,858 $21,039
Idaho 7,402 $144,669 $19,545
Illinois 45,551 $1,743,153 $38,268
Indiana 38,417 $569,451 $14,823
Iowa 8,384 $276,039 $32,925
Kansas 8,689 $158,198 $18,207
Kentucky 21,347 $311,727 $14,603
Louisiana 39,938 $698,363 $17,486
Maine 2,167 $100,558 $46,404
Maryland 21,786 $836,223 $38,383
Michigan 45,096 $1,267,954 $28,117
Minnesota 9,557 $395,319 $41,364
Missouri 30,447 $680,487 $22,350
Source: Vera Institute of
Justice, True Cost of Prisons
survey. Taxpayer costs
include expenses funded by
state and federal revenue.
Apparent discrepancies are
the result of rounding. See
the state fact sheets at
www.vera. org/priceofprisons
for more details.
Source: Vera Institute of
Justice, True Cost of Prisons
survey. Taxpayer costs
include expenses funded by
state and federal revenue.
Apparent discrepancies are
the result of rounding. See
the state fact sheets at
www.vera. org/priceofprisons
for more details.
Montana 2,513 $75,959 $30,227
Nebraska 4,542 $163,284 $35,950
Nevada 13,696 $282,903 $20,656
New Hampshire 2,389 $81,417 $34,080
New Jersey 25,822 $1,416,727 $54,865
New York 59,237 $3,558,711 $60,076
North Carolina 40,203 $1,204,667 $29,965
North Dakota 1,479 $58,065 $39,271
Ohio 50,960 $1,315,477 $25,814
Oklahoma 24,549 $453,356 $18,467
Pennsylvania 48,543 $2,055,269 $42,339
Rhode Island 3,502 $172,063 $49,133
Texas 154,576 $3,306,358 $21,390
Utah 6,338 $186,013 $29,349
Vermont 2,248 $111,280 $49,502
Virginia 29,792 $748,642 $25,129
Washington 17,050 $799,590 $46,897
West Virginia 6,385 $169,190 $26,498
Wisconsin 23,015 $874,421 $37,994
Total (40 states) 1,243,487 $38,903,304 $31,286
Cost for one year Per state (2010)
Question: Are you worth more behind bars, that
you are on the street?
‘The House I Live In’
looks at the drug war:• 40 years old
• Over 1,000,000,000,000.00 Spent
• Millions of low end offences / felonies
• Very few kingpins
• 40 years later-
– Drugs are as plentiful, more potent and as
easy to obtain as ever before
• We are victimizing black, poor,
uneducated and mentally ill people
You are going against the
grain of the United States!!
Declaration of Independence
• “We hold these truths to
be self evident that all
men are created equal
and they are endowed
certain unalienable
rights, that among
these are life liberty
and the pursuit of
happiness. That to
secure these Rights,
governments are
instituted among men.”
• Life– The principle or force by which animals
and plants are maintained in the
performance of their functions
• Liberty
– Freedom from external restraint or
compulsion
The Pursuit of Happiness
Happiness is the general term denoting
enjoyment of or pleasurable satisfaction…
such pleasures are not to be despised in a
world full of pain. But happiness…[is]… a
different sort of thing. [It] comes to be
through a fulfillment that reaches the depths
of our being – one that is an adjustment of
our whole being with the conditions of our
existence – John Dewey
Webster’s 3rd New International Unabridged Dictionary, 1964
Not to be confused with:
• Pleasure – sensual gratification
Webster’s 3rd New International Unabridged Dictionary, 1964
Problem is you aren’t about life,
liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. More like:• Death
• Slavery – In the pursuit of
• In the pursuit of Sensual gratification:– How something looks, feels, sounds – no
learning (Drugs / Commercial Rap lifestyle)
• If you experience sensual gratification before you experience learned happiness = confusion of the two
Discipline: The ability to do what is in
your best interest when you don’t feel like
doing it
“Run Forrest!”
• You can act your way
into right thinking
• Quicker that you can
think your way into
right acting
Remember…,
• If you want to be here, that’s good.
• If you don’t want to be here that’s
• even better!
Motivation Vs. Discipline
• Motivation • Discipline
Presentation Goal #1
• 3 proven methods of getting the clients to use
their ‘street hustler’ mentality to work their
program of recovery
– P.I.M.P.- Know what it really stand for and gain it
through handling your business (the Business card)
– Just like on the street, recognize the people that can
do something for you as oppose to those who can do
something to you
• Client needs an income producing fan club
– Put some money on it
• Dare the client to prove you wrong
Program Goal #2
• 3 effective ways to motive the clients to
avoid the negative pitfalls of the Hip Hop
culture
– Inspiration or desperation?
• Listening to the music vs. trying to life the lyrics
• Developing Goals
– Using the right uniform and skill set for the right
game
– There is an internal prison that proceeds an
external one
• Helping the client to identify his internal prison
through the Boyz Down worksheets
Presentation Goal #3
• Learn 3 effective strategies for being
more effective when working with African
American males in groups or individually
– Guard against ‘cool pose’ by helping the client
take ownership of every aspect of his program
• Make sure your not working harder than he is
– Us the library assignment to learn vital
information about the client
– If a person was playing the client like drugs and the
system was; the client would still be on the street
looking for him
• Helping the client to see how he will continue to be
manipulated by both if he doesn’t man up
Tool Box • Films/ Videos
– Slavery by Another Name – 1hr 43min You Tube
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGz25cOgY0U
– The House I Live In - Documentary 1hr 48 min. by Eugene
Jerecki
– Billions Behind Bars – YouTube 43 min
– Prison State – Frontline production 1 hr. 23 min.
• http://video.pbs.org/video/2365235229/
– Young Jeezy Documentary, A Hustlerz Ambition 42 min Daily
Motion
• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp4jxm_young-jeezy-a-hustlerz-
ambition-documentary_music
– Jay – Z Words of Wisdom 5min. 42 sec.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f7tX5hHpcw
– Tavis Smiley Guest – Jay Z 2min. 53 sec.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YcSuHNCCVY
Tools for the Tool Box
• H.E.A.T. (Habilitation, Empowerment,
Accountability, Therapy)– Darryl Turpin and Guy Wheeler – The Pinwheel Group
• Books, – Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Jay
– Z)
– The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (Jay- Z)
– The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav (Jay –Z)
– Guaranteed Success by Master P.
– The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
– King Baby (Pamphlet) by Tom Cunningham Hazelden
books