Author Al-Saadiq Banks
Author and Publisher Al-Saadiq Banks was born in the
seventies, a product of a troubled marriage.
At the age of 5 his parents separated, leaving his mother to raise him
single
handedly. He was an introvert who
spent most of his spare time sketching cartoon characters. Academically he
excelled way above the average, receiving honors in every subject with math
being his favorite.
By the age of 8 he was introduced
to boxing. What started off as him being
dragged to the gym by his uncle while he babysat him, turned into a passion. He picked up on the fundamentals of the game
quickly. What he loved most about the
game was the fact that it gave him an outlet to pound away the frustrations
that he had been living with during his early years of life. As talented as he was he never took boxing
serious. He would pop in and out of the
gym every year or so.
Al-Saadiq’s love for art led him to
a high school for the gifted where he attended as an art major. Shortly after graduation he enrolled in a
college where he majored in Electronic Engineering. It was during that time period that his life
took a turn for the worse. The lack of
funding led him down a road he never saw as a part of his future.
He was faced with the decision of
dropping out of college due to lack of tuition money or to do what he had to do
to further his education. He chose the
latter. Al-Saadiq attended college in
the morning while hustling crack on the cold and wicked streets at night. Years later he graduated from college with a
3.4 GPA and obtained his degree.
The praise and honors he received
in school were nothing compared to the adulation he received on the
street. By this time the success he had
from the street overshadowed his success in school as well as the boxing
ring. He was caught up. He packed his college degree on the same
shelf closet as his boxing gloves and trophies, never looking back.
Finally a few years later he comes
to his senses and realizes that he no longer wishes to live that
lifestyle. For the first time ever he
looked at boxing as a ticket out of the game.
He enrolled in a local gym and coincidentally the Golden Gloves
tournament was being held in three months.
After two and a half months of training Al-Saadiq was faced with the
unexpected.
He was gunned down on a Newark street. That injury kept him out of the gym for
months but it didn’t keep him off the streets.
His dream of boxing was deferred as he lived out his dreams on the
street. One year later the exact same
month he was gunned down again.
For many years the tug of war of
good boy-bad boy conflicted and he had finally had enough of it. He was fed up with the game and the lifestyle. The only problem was with the amount of
income he had gotten used to earning he couldn’t imagine giving it all up to
and live life as a typical nine-to-fiver struggling to make ends meet. That alone kept him in the game.
Once again he steps foot back into
the gym and in three months the Golden Gloves comes around again. He registers into the tournament and in a
matter of weeks he’s awarded the State Golden Glove Champion title. As promising as his career may have looked to
others it was still quite blurry to him.
A few years later his life is
altered tremendously. The birth of his
daughter not only changed his perspective on life but it changed him as a
man. With a daughter to care for in the
world he began to fear the results of what she would become if by chance he was
taken out of her life by his death on the street or being incarcerated for life.
That fear caused him to confine
himself to his home for six months. He
contemplated on what it is that he would do with the rest of his life but he
had not a clue. Then one day out of
boredom he begins to jot down events that have taken place in his life. Six months later he has three books
written.
Never once did he consider
publishing the books. He just looked at
them as a way to vent and clear his mind of things that he had seen and
experienced in his life. After allowing
the closest people to him to read them, they all encouraged him to publish
them. In 2002 his first title No Exit was published.
To date Al-Saadiq Banks has written
and published nine novels. He’s the
co-founder of True 2 Life Publications.
True 2 Life has just ventured into the world of comics, as Al-Saadiq
Banks transforms his fiction based novels into graphic novels and comic
books.
In his spare time he’s a boxing
instructor and mentor to troubled youth.
He cherishes every opportunity that he’s granted to reach out to not
just the youth, but even adults who may be going through the tug of war that he
went through in life. He’s a
motivational speaker, who plans to take his show on the road and speak on a
national level.
Hit the link to check out this authors work:
Author Al-Sadiq Banks Books
