Red Emma’s

Author and member of the speaker’s bureau for Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) Kenneth Rogers Jr. will hold a speaking engagement for male and female rape survivors to discuss what it means to be survivor of sexual abuse. Kenneth will speak on behalf of RAINN and read from his new novel Raped Black Male: A Memoir.  After the recent national conversations surrounding Stanford rapist Brock Allen Turner, it is clear that our culture has a lot of work to do to address the impacts rape and sexual abuse have on our society and its victims. The media coverage and national attention garnered to the victim’s response to Mr. Turner was a good first step toward exposing our rape culture, but it must be continued. Kenneth Rogers hopes to continue this dialogue and help change the stereotype that men can’t be raped while helping both male and female rape survivors.Black Male Raped tells Kenny’s story of being homeless and struggling to overcome depression while coming to terms with being sexual assaulted by his sister for two years at eight-years-old. Beginning in middle and high school, the novel weaves its way through the 90’s to the 2000’s as the stress of exceeding expectations of what it means to be a black, male and the crippling unspoken belief throughout our society that says (without saying) it’s impossible for a man to be raped, forced one mental break down after another until resulting in consistent thoughts of suicide. This memoir is filled with depth, humor, and honesty about the reality and myth of what it means to be a black male today, while explaining the weight, burden, and responsibility each assigned title has had on his life, the way he prepares his 7th grade students to enter the world, and the way in which his shattered thoughts have forced him to interact with it. Using original journal entries written from moments throughout his childhood, adolescences, and young adulthood, each page is inspirational and told from the heart.