Poetry Collection Reveals A JOURNEY TO WOMANHOOD

Dr. Nicole M. Ford-Francis is a proud mother 'first' and a creative spirit that loves people and loves life. The long-awaited release of her book is a part of her growing up into adulthood and accepting, without apology, that her past has been a crucial part of making her the woman she is today.

"A Journey to Womanhood" is a personal trip inside the heart and mind during those very crucial times in the life of Ford-Francis. From being a vulnerable and often lonely little girl to being a flamboyant and out-spoken teenager to being a young wife and a new mother, she shares to readers a compilation of self-analytical and expressive poetry written since she was a little girl. As a fifth grader way back in 1982, she remembers when her mother encouraged her to write in a journal. Being an English teacher, her mother always emphasized writing and Ford-Francis was able to use her poems, stories and essays as an outlet for her personal feelings. She considers her poems as precious and personal, expressing who she really is.

Free-flowing and indicative of her thoughts, this literary journey in poems includes Ford-Francis telling her dear grandmother Mercides that she is her best friend. One of the poems confesses love to her unborn son who is now a man. These poems chronicle Ford-Francis's relationships with teenage boyfriends and also her marriages with men whom she loved and hated. Her poems also reveal the deep friendship and spiritual bond she shared with a powerful "Man of God." The last portion includes an essay that expresses her joy and sense of relief after her doctoral dissertation was approved.

"A Journey to Womanhood" provides a deep look into a woman's heart and mind with a comedic twist. It is Ford-Francis's labor of love and smiles, of fear and tears that spans a period of over 25 years. But the most important part of it all is that she has accepted the pain and the mistakes along with the joy and gratitude for that she has experienced in life. And now, she openly shares her inspiring poems to readers as someone who have traveled along an uneven but illuminating path on a journey to womanhood.

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About the Author
Dr. Nicole M. Ford-Francis was born in Baltimore, MD. She was raised in Havre De Grace, MD, a small town 45 minutes north of Baltimore City. She spent her early years living with her Grandmother in Havre de Grace and attended school there and in Cecil County, MD until the third grade. In third grade, she and her family moved to Baltimore City with her Mother and went to Baltimore City Public Schools. She graduated from the prestigious Baltimore City College High School: Advanced College Preparatory Program and went to Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD) as a Biology and Pre-Medicine major. After several years at Morgan, she transferred to Towson State University (Towson, MD) and graduated from there with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She immediately enrolled in graduate school at Coppin State University in Baltimore and earned a Master of Education degree in Special Education. Six years later, Ford-Francis earned a Doctorate in Education with a specialization in Management of Human Service Organizations and Bio-Sociology from Nova Southeastern University in North Miami Beach, FL. While in college, she was married and had her three children (Christopher, Chad and Nikayla). Christopher was born while she was an undergraduate and she had Chad and Nikayla each year of graduate school. She achieved some of the greatest things in her life with and because of her children and is proud about this part of her journey. After graduation, the author worked as a Biology teacher for Baltimore City public schools and served as a special education department chair, she also worked for the national headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in several education and policy roles. She moved to Houston and served as a school principal and a consultant. She soon returned to the east coast and worked as a graduate school professor and as a government contractor in Washington, DC. She formed her own consulting company, Visionary Policy Institute, LLC and has worked as a civil rights advocate, a labor union administrator and lobbyist, a program manager and a grant writer. She continues to work for herself and the US Government as a contractor in Washington, DC. The author loves to spend time with family and friends and enjoys science, writing and the arts. She currently resides in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

A Journey to Womanhood * by Dr. Nicole M. Ford-Francis
Poems from a Girl Grown Up too Soon
Publication Date: October 11, 2013
Trade Paperback; $15.99; 70 pages; 978-1-4931-0385-0
Trade Hardback; $24.99; 70 pages; 978-1-4931-0386-7
eBook; $3.99; 978-1-4931-0387-4

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