Phillip’s Collection of Work
Pearls In The Sea
Pearls In The Sea is a coming-of-age novel about seventeen-year-old J-Man, who is growing up in River Rock, a town shaped by gang violence, fractured families, and survival at any cost.
His poetry is his lifeline—a secret act of resistance in a world that values silence over softness.
Moonflower
Moonflower is a collection of poems that captures the experience of living through prolonged barriers, disparities, and challenging times.
Written in a meditative, identity-based style, the poems resemble an urban tapestry, touching on the cost of progress and the fading spirit of community in the early twenty-first century.
XYZoom
Mr. Shabazz’s, When the Grass Was Blue, is a historical novel in verse. Its narrator,twelve year old Kathoor, tells the story of growing up during the grim years of the Civil Rights Movement. He discovers a simple but profound truth about himself and his plight. The book is currently used in language arts and social studies classes in public schools throughout
North Carolina. As part of his preparation to write When the Grass Was Blue, Mr. Shabazz spent time both in Louisville, KY, and on the Historic Civil Rights Trail, researching a wide range of activists, elders, historians, journalists, and others.
XYZoom: poems examines personal memories, reverberations, and impressions following the tragic event of 911. The book merges rhythmic
and surrealistic spectacles of image, emotion, and meaning, thus creating a multi-layered collage of lyric and narrative writing. Poems in the collection were published in several journals including: Obsidian II, the Louisville Review, and The American Voice.
When the Grass was Blue
Mr. Shabazz’s, When the Grass Was Blue, is a historical novel in verse. Its narrator,twelve year old Kathoor, tells the story of growing up during the grim years of the Civil Rights Movement. He discovers a simple but profound truth about himself and his plight. The book is currently used in language arts and social studies classes in public schools throughout
North Carolina. As part of his preparation to write When the Grass Was Blue, Mr. Shabazz spent time both in Louisville, KY and on the Historic Civil Rights Trail, researching a wide range of activists, elders, historians, journalists and others.
Freestyle and Visitation
Freestyle and Visitation: Poems explores experiences of growing up in a housing project.
The book received an excellent review in the Independent Weekly and numerous other newspapers. Freestyle was also performed at Centerfest as part of “The Durham Arts Council’s” annual festival. First presented through public schools in the Triangle,
Mr. Shabazz, with the book, created a tour across North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky.
Flames in the Fire
In this poetry collection, PHILLIP SHABAZZ shares a journey about change, loss, transition, and renewal in many aspects of his life. Shabazz affirms, “I embrace the good song of words; live the story to tell the tale.”
As he considers his journey, Shabazz imparts the inner and outer fighting spirit of redemption, passing on for our consideration the bittersweet path he has traveled. The flames represent all of us, and the fire, the world in which we live.
From ‘The Scrapbook,’ a poem that highlights the appreciation of friendship, to the short lyric, experiencing a ‘Return Dream’ during an emotional drought, he recalls, “the bedroom shimmers behind me like the past. I don’t know what it means to be human.”
