Chillin'

by Michael D. Beckford

Matthew Peterson is a twenty-one-year-old black male that goes about his life as he ordinarily does. An opportunity to play video games with his best friend into the wee hours of the morning.

As a young black male teen, they taught Peterson to always have respect for law enforcement, so he would not be a statistic of police violence in a Jim Crow America. Both of his parents are well to-do with a combined household income of $2.5 million dollars a year.

Living in a plush gated community in the suburbs of West Palm Beach, Florida; Matthew’s parents have done their best to shelter him from the daily woes and worries of most black teens his age. Their belief system has always been to make Black America Great Again through education and entrepreneurship.

What was once a normal day for the well-to-do Matthew Peterson, ends up into a forty-minute horror of conflict with the police.Timing is swift and survival rates of black males and their interactions with the police is always in question.

Will this be an example of another urban black teen fallen to the hands of the police?

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Michael Beckford’s life began where most lives end. His July 31st, 1985, began as a sidenote or ode to a 14-year-old mother who had to give away her first and only child. During the years of Michael’s foster care, he grew up with a very vivid and inquisitive imagination. Michael Beckford witnessed many storms in life—both in a spiritual sense and in the natural, such as 1992′s Hurricane Andrew—which destroyed nearly every home around his South Miami-Dade neighborhood except his.

Just as storms don’t always last, his departure from the foster home came at the sudden death of one of his caretakers, Edna Lewis. Next, Michael was then moved into adoption by a beautiful young couple, and a new mother that is an award winning English teacher. These parents fueled Michael’s desire to be greater in life, henceforth the birthing of a Great American Writer was formed. From the everyday life stories and struggles in school, Michael’s new mother, Denise Beckford guided him into writing journals about his daily life’s likes and dislikes. This movement into the deeper parts of Michael’s mind and creativity led to the praised and often underserved expressions of poetry. Speak Up! Poetry is a notable success, with it being Michael Beckford’s first book published with him being only eighteen years of age at the time. This book reached many corners of the country, as it has been available for sale through Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and other chain retail outlets. As Michael Beckford began to promote Speak Up! Poetry his parents helped to influence some of his collegiate decisions while he attended FAMU.

While attending FAMU, for a brief season, Michael Beckford took some time off from the book circuit, and expanded upon his knowledge through college, and continued his craft of writing. His book Beautifully Ugly People! (Released April 2009) has broken the barriers of what individuals may feel Christian fiction should portray. This is one of Michael Beckford’s best at digging deep into the heart of the situation, and letting God do the rest. In between touring, blogging, speaking, and just engaging his readers he created I Am The Secret! (Released December 2009) This novel is the “go-to” book for teen issues and problems. The 5000 Role Models program in Miami-Dade County took the initiative to purchase a book for each graduating senior. I Am the Secret! is also heralded as a “must-read” for young adults going through their own struggles in life.

Author and publisher Michael De’ Angelo Beckford is one of America’s newest renaissance men in the field of writing. He is truly a man who loves Jesus Christ and strives to bring Christ into his writing for those who don’t know him. It doesn’t matter if one were to know who Michael Beckford is, it’s a matter of knowing who Jesus is.