John "Satchmo" Mannan is the nom de plume , if you will, of Dr. Mujib Mannan retired Professor of the American Experience law, literature and history at the College of New Rochelle, University of the Virgin Islands and other university venues for nearly 30 years. The author is an educator, lawyer, historian, poet, short storyteller, essayist, jazz musician, marketing consultant and executive director of an affordable housing initiative in Harlem. Born in Harlem, the author has written several books, including Cultural Imperialism, The History of the Harlem Mosque, The Legend of Lute, Tales of the Nightingale, The Arabic Words in the English Language. etc. His poetry is in several anthologies, but under an earlier nom de plume John McRae, including Ghetto 68, We Be Word Sorcerers, Three Hundred Sixty Degrees of Blackness, etc. and on other venues such as the African Sun Times, Living City, The Thinker. under the name Mujib Mannan. His peace Haiku have been chosen for inclusion in the city of Philadelphia "Peace Project" and his Jazz C.D. "Ten O'clock Jazz" was released December 2014 by New Savoy Records. Mr. Mannan as a person is interested in the entire 360 degrees of life beyond his doctorate and graduate degrees in jurisprudence, history, etc.In 2018, he was an International Jazz Day Awardee for his contribution to jazz and during the same year he was a featured performing artist at Carnegie Hall's "A Gathering of Eagles "In 2016, Aladdin Books International published his collection of short stories called: Mubassa's Dream

From the author of The Latehomecomer, a powerful memoir of her father, a Hmong song poet who sacrificed his gift for his children's future in America In the Hmong tradition, the song poet recounts the story of his people, their history and tragedies, joys and losses; extemporizing or drawing on folk tales, he keeps the past alive, invokes the spirits and the homeland, and records courtships, births, weddings, and wishes. Following her award-winning book The Latehomecomer, Kao Kalia Yang now retells the life of her father Bee Yang, the song poet, a Hmong refugee in Minnesota, driven from the mountains of Laos by American's Secret War. Bee lost his father as a young boy and keenly felt his orphanhood. He would wander from one neighbor to the next, collecting the things they said to each other, whispering the words to himself at night until, one day, a song was born. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good. But before they do, Bee, with his poetry, has polished a life of poverty for his children, burnished their grim reality so that they might shine. Written with the exquisite beauty for which Kao Kalia Yang is renowned, The Song Poet is a love story -- of a daughter for her father, a father for his children, a people for their land, their traditions, and all that they have lost.