I wrote Damn, Candy Man because I read Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Singing and Swinging and Getting Merry Like Christmas and Ann Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi as a child and Run Nicky Run by Nicky Cruz.  I loved their voices and their descriptions and their honesty. I wrote Damn, Candy Man because I saw the author of The Horrors of Cabrini Green Bruce Conn living his day-to day life and raising his 3 boys. As a child I felt that better days were upon the horizon and though I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth I knew that one day it was possible to obtain that silver spoon and all of its accompaniments. I grew up in the mind is a terrible thing to waste period and you give a kid a book you give a kid a break era. I wrote it because I saw good people growing up in the projects. I saw future teachers, doctors, electricians, nurses, writers, librarians, civil servants, servicemen and women, etc.  I wrote it because I love how it feels when we link back up as a community in the summers in Seward Park and fellowship. I wrote it because we are still here living on the south sides, west sides, north sides, etc. I wrote it because living in dire situations did not break us.  I wrote it because I saw love in my household and other households that I visited. I wrote it because Damn, Candy Man He Ain't All That I Lived Beneath the Candy Lady For Years...which for all intents and purposes means that I saw women make a way out of no way by babysitting, hair braiding, cooking, selling candy and helping to raise their families against all odds.