Blackanese Boy

BLACKANESE BOY, set primarily in San Francisco in the 1970s and early 1980s, follows the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs, of Rafael Halifax, as he negotiates the complex dance of being mixed-race in a race conscious society. A coming of age novel, BLACKANESE BOY explores the issues and complexities, the pain and joy, of being both black and Japanese-American, for one American boy. An only child, Rafael is raised by his Japanese American mother, who works multiple jobs to make ends meet. The black father, a painter and bohemian character, is an infrequent yet powerful presence in the boy’s life. It is between the forces of these two, Asian mother and black father, and their respective cultures, all the while grounded in American soil, that Rafael tries to cope with and understand the complexity of his mixed-identity.