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“The worst times in our lives are often roads to the best times, waiting ahead. Stay safe and prayerful, as you find your way into tomorrow.” — Gary Revel
A single bullet silenced the voice, but not the dream, of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Whether or not James Earl Ray pulled the trigger — and why — has been the subject of speculation for more than five decades.
In 1977, 27-year-old special investigator Gary Revel, in association with the House Select Committee on Assassinations, launched his own search for the unvarnished truth about King’s assassination.
Danger, intrigue and murder followed. Revel’s journey took him into Brushy Mountain Prison, where he met and became a personal confidant to the accused assassin, James Earl Ray. From there, Revel followed the clues wherever they led, including Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; Miami, Florida; and other undisclosed locations. Along the way, Revel had to navigate chaotic twists and turns as he uncovered information pointing to what he refers to as “the conspiracy and the involvement of organized crime and the U.S. government.” Revel also lost three people close to him to murder.
The captivating story of Revel’s investigation and what he unearthed is now being developed into a feature motion picture, They Slew the Dreamer: MLK-The Gary Revel Story. Revel’s quest for the truth also became the inspiration for the song, “They Slew the Dreamer,” and is introduced in his book, To Live or Maybe Not.
More than 30 years after his investigation into Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Revel continues to “shine the light of truth into the darkest halls of injustice” and finds he can’t quit until the world knows what he found.
Songwriter, musician, author and special investigator Gary Revel was born in Florala, Alabama, and he formed his first band when he was 15. After a long career in music, Revel found himself investigating the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in association with the U.S. government’s House Select Committee on Assassinations. Revel continues to release and distribute music via his Jongleur Music company as well as develop motion pictures via his Jongleur Pictures company. He is also the author of My Angel from Heaven, Milestones, Grempk and Don’t Stop Dancing: Stranger Than Fiction, his investigation into the life of Michael Jackson.
Revel is also founder of Mother Nature Festival Live Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.
To Live or Maybe Not Publisher: Jongleur Books ISBN-13: 978-1097923304 ISBN-10: 1097923304 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Miranda Leonard Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America
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His approach is always subtle; his banter is casual and absent any pressure to respond. But when renowned pediatrician and children’s advocate Dr. Irwin Redlener casually asks his young patients, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the lights invariably come on, eye contact occurs, and the child emerges from deep inside a protective shell. “Children are essentially dreamers … undaunted by adversity or reality-based barriers to success,” Dr. Redlener writes in The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America (with updated information on helping children through the COVID-19 crisis).
Inadequate education, barriers to health care and crushing poverty make it overwhelmingly difficult for many children to realize their dreams. Finding ways to alter these trajectories is serious, grown-up business, Dr. Redlener emphasizes, and it’s time for us to act.
In The Future of Us, Dr. Redlener draws upon his four decades of professional experiences to examine our nation’s health care safety nets and special programs that are designed to protect and nurture our most vulnerable kids, but that too often fail to do so.
The book follows Dr. Redlener’s long, colorful career, from his work as a pediatrician in the Arkansas delta, to treating child abuse in a Miami hospital, to helping children in the aftermaths of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He has served on the board of USA for Africa, cofounded the Children’s Health Fund with Paul Simon (and persuaded Joan Baez to play a benefit concert) and dined with Fidel Castro. He once sat across the table from Michael Jackson, and he has traveled with presidential candidates. But his most powerful source of motivation remains the children who face terrible adversities yet dream of becoming paleontologists, artists and marine biologists. Their stories are his springboard for discussing larger policy issues that hinder us from effectively eradicating childhood poverty and overcoming barriers to accessible health care. Persistent deprivation and the avoidable problems that accompany poverty ensnare millions of children and impact the health, prosperity and creativity of the adults they become. Dr. Redlener argues that we must drastically change our approach to meeting the needs of children ― for their sake and to ensure America’s resiliency and influence in an increasingly complex world.
It is Dr. Redlener’s hope that readers will emerge optimistic about our future, with a deeper understanding of how investing in children today will increase our chances of a successful tomorrow. Fighting for our nation’s children is far from a lost cause, and nothing could be more important.
Author Irwin Redlener, M.D., is a pediatrician and founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, which works to understand and improve the nation’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. In 2020, Dr. Redlener created the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia. He is a public health analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and recently partnered with Cher in CherCares, a new program that assists communities struggling with COVID-19.
Dr. Redlener is also President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Children’s Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative that he created with singer/songwriter Paul Simon and Karen Redlener to develop health care programs in 25 of the nation’s most medically underserved urban and rural communities. He currently serves as a special advisor on emergency preparedness to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and regularly communicates with leadership in U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, as well as Homeland Security. He has been a public health advisor to democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden.
He is also the author of Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now. For more information, please visit www.irwinredlener.org.
The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America Publisher: Columbia University Press Release Date: October 13, 2020 ISBN-10: 0231177577 ISBN-13: 978-0231177573 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Judy Frost Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Don’t Stop Dancing Shares Untold Stories From The Life Of Michael Jackson
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Everyone knows that Michael Jackson was discovered by Motown Records, the label that launched Michael and his brothers into the recording industry’s stratosphere, right? Not quite, says music producer and history buff Gary Revel, who interviewed former music producers Ben Brown and Gordon Keith for his latest investigative effort, Don’t Stop Dancing: Stranger Than Fiction.
Brown and Keith were two of the founders of Steeltown Records, a short-lived label in Gary, Indiana, and the first label to record a Jackson 5 single featuring the iconic voice of Michael Jackson. The long-held narrative that Motown Records initially discovered the Jackson 5’s immense talent was perpetuated by Berry Gordy (Motown’s founder) and the Jackson Empire, according to Revel’s account in the book.
“Ben [Brown] and Gordon [Keith] had produced the Jackson 5 in Gary, Indiana, before they started making music recordings for Motown,” Revel writes. “The first single record ‘Big Boy’ was produced by them and released on their label, Steeltown Records. It is the first music release on which Michael Jackson sang.”
Even though Michael has been gone for more than a decade, “he continues to sell more albums than many music icons of our time and his fan club still has over 3 billion card-carrying, dues-paying, faithful members worldwide! It’s no wonder that Rolling Stone Magazine deemed him the 12th most important figure in rock music history.” The King of Pop lives on today through his music and videos and “we believe Michael’s billions of fans around the world will want to know the many never-before-told facts that are in this updated edition of the book,” says Revel.
In the early 1990s, Revel, who had investigated the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., was asked to help expose the truth of the secretive life, music and career of Michael Jackson. But his efforts were put on hold when child sex charges against Michael Jackson took center stage. Later, Revel resumed his research, and he “not only found the truth but he also found those who wanted to keep the truth secret.” Revel says that Don’t Stop Dancing: Stranger Than Fiction “answers all the questions the world has about the life, music and career of Michael Jackson.”
Author Gary Revel was born in Florala, Alabama. After his parents divorced when he was just 5, music became a trusted companion, and he formed his first band when he was 15. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Navy. His Honorable Discharge came, and Hollywood called, then New York, Memphis, Nashville and back to Hollywood. Along the way, Revel investigated the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in association with the US Government’s House Select Committee on Assassinations. Revel is currently writing, publishing and developing music, as well as literary and motion picture projects. For more information, please visit http://garyrevel.com.
Don’t Stop Dancing: Stranger Than Fiction Publisher: Jongleur Books ISBN-13: 979-8635490112 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Patricia McCune Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
To Live or Maybe Not Takes Readers On Adventurous Ride With Musician Gary Revel
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Musician and historian Gary Revel fully expects readers to say, “No way this could be true,” as they peruse the pages of his colorful memoir, To Live or Maybe Not.
“Don’t worry, I feel the same way when I remember some things I have done in my life,” he quips in the book’s prologue.
Part coming-of-age and part adventurous road trip, To Live or Maybe Not begins in Florala, Alabama, near the Florida state line in 1949. Readers who experienced the nomadic, hippie culture of the ’60s and ’70s will be overcome with nostalgia, as Revel takes a long, winding stroll down a memory lane paved with colorful characters and unforgettable situations. We follow Revel through his unusual upbringing, his high school days and his US Navy service during Vietnam.
Most people associate Revel with his accomplishments in the music industry, and it was after his honorable discharge from the Navy that he found himself in Hollywood, California, where his music career blossomed. He eventually traveled back across the country to New York City, Memphis and Nashville. Revel includes entertaining anecdotes from his music career and his pivot toward family life before his life took yet another turn and he began his investigation into the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
To Live or Maybe Not leaves off with Revel and his family back in Hollywood. It’s the end of the book but the beginning of more adventures and books to come.
Author Gary Revel was born in Florala, Alabama. After his parents divorced when he was just 5, music became a trusted companion, and he formed his first band when he was 15. After a long career in music, Revel found himself investigating the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in association with the US Government’s House Select Committee on Assassinations. Revel continues to release and distribute music via his Jongleur Music company as well as develop motion pictures via his Jongleur Pictures company. He is also the author of My Angel from Heaven, Milestones, Grempk and Don’t Stop Dancing: Stranger Than Fiction, his investigation into the life of Michael Jackson.
Mandy Marshall Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 133032 The Woodlands, TX 77393 Office 281.333.3507 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Addicted: Tanay Jackson’s New Pop Single Has Fans Raving
Los Angeles, CA – Music lovers, take note: Tanay Jackson is singing and dancing her way into the hearts of millions around the world with her new track, “Addicted.” The single is electrified with energy, and the club beats make it nearly impossible to stay off the dance floor. Tanay’s dance moves are fierce, and once she starts singing, it’s clear she is a “Jackson.”
Tanay knows no boundaries when it comes to success and she spends countless hours in pursuit of her music career. She literally does it all and attacks every opportunity with an entrepreneurial spirit. Whether she is singing, dancing, directing, designing her own clothes for a performance, or managing her two entertainment companies – Tanay’s personal drive for excellence makes this artist one to watch. She doesn’t subscribe to the word “can’t” and in fact, made history by being the only Jackson (besides her Uncle Michael) asked to perform in Romania, which she did so last year.
“I love what I’m doing,” says Tanay. “Music has always kept me grounded. It’s the creative process, the collaboration, the possibilities … and the fans that keep me motivated to do more.”
Tanay Jackson is the niece of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. She knew at an early age that her heart would follow the music industry. First recognized for her natural singing ability in grade school, she went on to write her first song (produced in Japan) by the age of 12. Tanay graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management and is CEO and president of Roth Entertainment and Lunar Music. Tanay recently finished a European tour and will be launching her new “Mama Chola” clothing line soon.
For more information, please visit: www.tanayjackson.net
Addicted Artist: Tanay Jackson Album: Addicted (Rollin’ Poppin’) featuring Jonathan Timber Label: Roth Entertainment / Othaz Records Genre: Pop Producer: Ryan Lawford Single available at ITunes, Amazon and Spotify.
