Cheekie

Item #: B143

The Desire Project in New Orleans, once the pride of public housing, was home for Cheekie, as it had been for his parents and grandparents. But now, in the 1970s, the Desire has degenerated into a world of violence, drugs, and poverty. Still the project is full of life as well, and of people whose vibrant energy, love of fun and ties of family help them to transcend their oppressive surroundings. There was his teenaged mom and her best friend, Li’l Soul, the mysterious Ms. Saphena who lived in the apartment downstairs, his strong and sometimes volatile Grandmother Pam, and many others.

Cheekie is a young man’s powerful day-by-day account in the honest voice of a boy growing up in the Desire. Told with the wonder and freshness of a boy’s perspective, Cheekie brings it all to life--the abuse and the love, the neglect and the nurturing, the violence and the inspiration through which a child came to manhood.

Cheekie is a tale of hope, for it is the story of one young man’s escape from the violent world of the Desire and his journey toward success.