Sharday Cage has given the world a gift. Her debut book of poetry, entitled "Death of a Black Star," offers a beautiful perspective on the duality of culture. Drawing from her African heritage and pulling from her Chicagoan upbringing, Sharday provides passionate prose and rhymes about what it's like to be black and living in America while having dreams of Africa.Along with this, her words debate what it means to be troubled by life, to be inspired by love, and most of all, to shine...

"What happens in the home, stays in the home," a familiar saying Sharday heard from her mother over and over again as a child and even still to this day. Writing her personal memoirs and most intimate secrets was almost like cheating to her as she confided in paper as a way to let go of the shame and embarrassment she felt for a long time by holding onto the past. Sharday discusses the growing pains of a child to a young adult such as living with a single parent, family members who suffere...