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by Clarence H. Thornton (Author), Kennisha Thornton (Prepared by)
At its core, this book is about opportunities. It's about the opportunity to reach back in time, review, and thoughtfully relive and reminisce about one of the most important means we used to communicate with those around us. It's an opportunity to recount and divulge how we creatively expressed both our love and disdain toward others, how we greeted and departed from others, how we cautioned and admonished others, how we congratulated, promoted, and encouraged others to avoid potentially dangerous situations, and how we overcame adversities.
It's also an opportunity to draw on past lessons through verbal expressions believed to be sufficiently valuable as to warrant preservation and dissemination to a younger generation. And, of course, it is an opportunity to discover or re-discover hidden humor, shared laughter, and even a shared contemporary solace. Finally, it is another opportunity to acknowledge, preserve, and ensure that this compilation, classification, and dissemination of largely black-created cultural expressions will survive and continue to "stand," notwithstanding some contemporary efforts to "disappear" them.
