PASSAGE

To be Black in the United States is to be in a perpetual state of liminality. This space in-between is one that occupies us as much as we occupy it; meaning, to be Black in the United States is to experience a perpetual state of Du Boisian twoness, to wear Dunbar's mask, just to survive.(...) This Afro-Surreal experience is a constant tension in the Black experience and in Lazarre-White's book. (...) The overwhelming scope of (our) dispossession is surreal, and so Black writers must make beautiful narratives that repossess. It is an ambitious literary project that Black people count on, as we are still counting. Read more...

Powerful, lyrical and evocatively written, Passage is a transportive story of love and survival, a walk in the shoes of a young man negotiating an uncertain present, a painful past and the promising future he may never have. A stunning debut. —Terence Winter, creator and executive producer, Boardwalk Empire; Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nominee for The Wolf of Wall Street

Khary is using his passion to uplift and inspire a next generation through extraordinary work that creates leaders and a sanctuary for children where they can develop a higher vision for themselves. -- Oprah Winfrey

Passage is a work of great originality, pain, and aching beauty. Its protagonist, Warrior, a sensitive, haunted and haunting young man, bears the burden of history: the past is always near, shaping and informing present realities of black boys like himself. As he traverses a dystopic urban landscape, one that is both surreal and all too real, he encounters the depth of Black Rage, the persistence of Black Death, and the tremendous capacity of Black Love. Like Warrior, Passage pays homage to its predecessors, while forging its own path - one that speaks most eloquently to our present and insists that we create a starkly different future. ---Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor English & Comparative Literature and African American Studies Columbia University, author of Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During WWII

Khary Lazarre-White's gripping, relentless dive into the interior world of a young African American male named Warrior invites readers into a world where few have dared to venture (...) -- Susan L. Taylor, former editor-in-chief of ESSENCE magazine.