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Oakland Hills, Milwaukee Rivers: A Memoir of Survival, Identity, and Purpose (Second Edition)
By Dr. Keyimani L. Alford
It began with a knock.
A slow, steady knock-calm, intentional. The kind that didn't just interrupt a quiet Saturday. It altered everything.
In the back room of a dim apartment in Oakland, a boy sat alone on a dusty carpeted floor, tracing shapes with his fingers-pretending they were roads to somewhere better. The flicker of a black-and-white TV played to no audience. The bed sat off-center, its frame tired, its blanket wrinkled. No dresser. No posters. Just silence.
Until that knock.
Two voices filled the hallway. Then came another knock-closer, gentler-on his door. A woman entered like a quiet storm. And for the first time in what felt like forever, someone looked at him-not past him, not through him, but at him.
And that changed everything.
In this expanded second edition of Oakland Hills, Milwaukee Rivers, Dr. Keyimani L. Alford reopens the door to a past shaped by instability, silence, and survival-and walks readers through a journey of reclamation. From the hills of East Oakland to the rivers of Milwaukee, this isn't just a story of what he lived through. It's about what he learned, lost, and continues to uncover.
What's new in this edition?
A soul-shaping fishing trip with Aunt Grace that brings clarity to the meaning of love and legacy A moment of truth when coming out to his mother-followed by silence that lasted longer than the words The ache of losing community in a church once filled with belonging, and the surprising return of faith The weight of generational scars, and the slow rebuilding of identity beyond survival
The Hills represent what he tried to outrun:
Addiction. Hunger. Abuse. A mother's slow fade behind a closed door.
The Rivers represent what carried him forward:
Aunties who showed up. Friends who stayed. A boy who learned to find hope in the gaps.
This book is for those who:
Sat on the floor as children, wondering if anyone would come Grew up learning to stay quiet so they wouldn't get hurt Carry identities that never fit neatly in one box Are still learning how to forgive-and still unsure if they can Want truth. Not polished, not perfect-but honest
Early Praise for the Second Edition"The additions around Aunt Grace and identity brought me to tears."
"This book handed me back pieces of myself I didn't know I had lost."
From the Author"I didn't write this from the finish line. I'm still healing, still becoming. But I believe there's purpose in that. I wrote this for the child in me-and the version of you who still needs to hear: You are not too broken to be whole."
Oakland Hills, Milwaukee Rivers isn't just a memoir. It's a mirror. A reckoning. A declaration.
It's not about who Keyimani was-it's about who he's becoming.
And it dares you to ask the same of yourself.
