It has been a moment since i last featured my good friend Shelton Jackson who i have had the honor and pleasure of knowing for 3 years now back at the Black Gay Men's Conference held in Brooklyn,NY in August of that year and at the time he was. Shelton has been a busy man as of late working on his 3rd book which will be coming out in the spring of this year Entitled "Taking off the Masks". So below is some of the things that has been goin on besides getting ready for his book to come out he also is working on his foundation dedicated to his first lover who died due to complications from HIV/AIDS and he his also has a publish company in the works.
The Book "Taking off the Masks" is my first book of poetry. it tells the story of my coming to terms with my homosexuality and telling my family and dealing with the rejetion from them. It explores my coming into my feelings for my first love, Conan R. Tyler and it takes you through the first couple of years of our relationship and ends right at his discovering his HIV positive status and my descison to became infected for his love. My logic being, "When you get sick i will take care of you and when I get sick you will take care of me. And we will live happily ever after."
And now we get into the foundation which is dedicated to his first love so here is what the Conan R. Tyler Foundation is all about.
The Conan R. Tyler Foundation will be up and running in about 3 months. It is going to be a nonprofit deadicated to getting the word that HIV is beatable. The person its named for Conan R. Tyler lost his battle becasue he waited too late to get help. But the help is there. The meds are there. And HIV can be Beat! I am doing and if I can ANYBODY can. The foundation will take that word around the world and tell peoples stories of beating HIV and living thier life the way God meant for them to.
It will also produce a monthly newsletter/magazine-Invisble that will tell the stories of the people that look like you and me. the people who feel like they made and thier story NEEDS to be told so that it can help someone else. We will make the World see them.
And finally we talk about his publishing company SSJ Publishing. My publishing company SSJ Publishing, Inc. will be publishing my 3rd book of Poetry Taking Off the Masks: One At a Time this April. And I will be touring this summer promoting the Conan R. Tyler Foundation as well as my new project, The Last Six Months & the First Six Months. That will be the story of how Conan R. Tyler lost his battle with HIV and he lead me to my destiny. Their will be a book, audio book, as well as a play. All in production now.
To get to know more about Shelton Jackson you can visit him on his myspace page. www.myspace.com/sheltonjackson
A Conversation with Shelton Jackson