Four decades in the making, AFENI SHAKUR tells the extraordinary story of the woman who has lived through some of the most chaotic and transformational times in our nation's racial, feminist, and cultural history. In this intimate book, co-written with Jasmine Guy, Shakur chronicles the details of her remarkable life. Through a series of one-on-one conversations that developed over the course of nearly a decade, Shakur discusses the struggles and the triumphs, from growing up dirt-poor in the south through her radical days with the Black Panthers. She talks openly about her battle to conquer her cocaine addiction, voices her opinion on hot-button issues of race, sexuality, and the future of black cultural identity in America, and shares her thoughts on spirituality, love, music, motherhood and the joy she takes in her current role as proud keeper of her son Tupac's enduring legacy. Moving, enlightening, and always controversial, Shakur's story is a testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity and meet the challenges of life with courage and hope.

We've all known love. We've all known loss. We've all experienced, at some point, the feeling of being inadequate. Every mother also knows the feeling of looking at her daughter and seeing herself at whatever age her daughter happens to be; we also imagine how they will grow and mature as they get older. With our sons, we picture their fathers and we imagine the men they will become. These are all feelings and emotions women experience at some time in their life. Women are inextricably bound by these similar emotions and feelings. It's why we can listen to a woman we meet sitting in the doctor's office or even the grocery store and listening to her, feel an instant connection. These poems seek to explore that connection that inextricably binds us all in the bond of sisterhood. There will be tears, there will be smiles, there will be joy, but above all there will be recognition. A recognition that we are all Skinny Dipping in the Pool of Womanhood.