Author Haywood Fennell speaks about his new book "Coota and the Magic Quilt" - the story of a how a young, urban rapper turns his urban dream into success by understanding the important lessons of history

Also available is a Teacher's Guide for educators as well as motivational workshops for youngsters, book presentations for kids or literacy programs for adults. To book Haywood Fennell for special events, keynotes or panel discussions, call Janine Fondon at (413) 734-6444.

Haywood Fennell, Sr, is the self-published author self-published the book, "Coota and the Magic Quilt." It is a children's book that adult readers have related to about a young boy from Roxbury, MA, a neighborhood in Boston. The young boy wants to be a gangsta rap star, but has two major encounters that help him to become a more knowledgeable person about his history and himself. The book is the core book for the Coota Literacy Program that he has developed and is working with other after school programs to help youth appreciate literacy.

Well over 2500 copies of his book have been sold and counting. There is a Teacher's Guide written by Diane Christian Yarborough, a schoolteacher in Springfield, MA. which helps educators to teach with the book. Haywood has written a curriculum that includes other aspects for literacy improvements. The book is about the importance of history and to dissuade youth from using ethnic slurs when communicating with each other.

Also, he is the Founder of the Oscar Micheaux Theater Program, a community based intergenerational theater program that uses segments of African American history as source material. Haywood has written and produced for seven straight years the culture/educational play, "Harlem Renaissance Revisited With a Boston Flavor." It is a play about American history, with focus on the Harlem Renaissance Era and some of the central artists of this culturally significant time period of the 1920s who came together to face and overcome some of the racial barriers that were denying them the opportunities to pursue their Art.

Haywood later wrote and produced "From Gospel to Hip-Hop and All in Between," an annually produced musical lineage production that is the largest in Greater Boston that honors Black History month. It was and is about the history of African American music's evolvement. Haywood uses the history of African Americans that include the 6,000-years of majesty and not just the 600-years of bondage to tell our story.

Haywood attended public school in Wilmington, N.C. He is the son of the late Evelyn Fennell and the grandson of the late Mattie J. Fennell. He attended Boston University where he studied Urban Planning and U/Mass Boston's College of Community and Public Service studying Urban Issues. He is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Tri-Ad Veterans League, Inc., a veteran's rights advocacy group, particularly in the areas of health disparities. He is a contributing writer to "Unity First," a Springfield, MA. diverse community newspaper. Haywood recently received the 2003 prestigious Boston Neighborhood Fellow's Award. He is a lecturer on the Harlem Renaissance Era and its' importance to American history. He was named a Boston Literacy Hero in 2005. Haywood was born in New York City and now resides in Boston, MA. He is a free-lance photographer and a producer of African American educational videos, with the latest being, "The Descendants of the Harlem Renaissance, a Return to Majesty."

To book Haywood Fennell for special events, keynotes or panel discussions, call Janine Fondon at (413) 734-6444 or send email to: jfondon@unityfirst.com.

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