Four pieces in one textbook - a poem, drama, short story and essay - by writer Judy Juanita bring themes of adolescence, self-determination & ethnic pride, grief and regret, and the gun as romantic symbol or literal destruction, to college, high school and middle school students and general readers. Questions for classroom or group use follow each piece. Each piece explores the African-American experience in different eras. The play is suitable for amateur theater productions or as a film script. The poem can be a monologue suitable for drama, speech, civics class or an audition. The play takes place in the 1950s: a rebellious teen wins an essay contest on Americanism but is angered that her best friend's more militant essay didn't win. Her conservative mother wants her to accept it proudly. The play runs 29 pages and takes about ½ hour to stage or read in class, with four main characters and two minor characters.

The poem spans the black experience from slavery to the present in 344 words. The short story, 1,764 words, begins and ends in Oakland, but delves into Oklahoma of the 1930s. In confronting a grandmother's memory, the story touches on date rape, decisions surrounding abortion, and a quasi-adoption that one black Southern community assumed.The essay debates the impact of the 1960s infatuation with the gun and ensuing post -Trayvon Martin disenchantment.The author, a native of Berkeley who lives in Oakland, often uses Oakland and California as a setting. The poem and the essay were nominated for Pushcart Prizes in 2013 and 2014.