| The summer after I graduated from high school, I was driving a tour van for my dad as he led a group of French exchange students around the plantations and colonial buildings of Virginia. At one stop, I spoke with a young historical interpreter at one of the colonial buildings. He asked me what I wanted to do when I started college. I said I wanted to study history so I could be a teacher who told the untold stories. I had been inspired by Bridgette Newberry, a teacher in high school who taught an entire class about Native American history. I had never learned so much about Native Americans before that class and I felt like my standard American History classes had left out so much. |
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I went on to study abroad in Costa Rica and study Latin American Studies in college. Once again, I learned so many untold stories. I made up my mind to search out and tell the untold stories I discovered.
The result is Chris Mercer Books. In my book about children in street situations my goal is to humanize the kids. Growing up I had seen melodramatic commercials to "save the children" and the videos for "We are the World" to fight famine in Africa. But I never heard the voices of the people who were suffering from extreme poverty caused by unjust systems. The mic's were reserved for the kind hearted westerners who wanted to save them.
My goal is to "give the mic" to the people themselves and create a platform for them to tell their stories with the ultimate hope of inspiring people to work toward just and peaceful means of sharing our planet. That is why all my books involve deep research, in depth interviews and personal experiences with the subjects. My only goal is to do their stories justice.
The result is Chris Mercer Books. In my book about children in street situations my goal is to humanize the kids. Growing up I had seen melodramatic commercials to "save the children" and the videos for "We are the World" to fight famine in Africa. But I never heard the voices of the people who were suffering from extreme poverty caused by unjust systems. The mic's were reserved for the kind hearted westerners who wanted to save them.
My goal is to "give the mic" to the people themselves and create a platform for them to tell their stories with the ultimate hope of inspiring people to work toward just and peaceful means of sharing our planet. That is why all my books involve deep research, in depth interviews and personal experiences with the subjects. My only goal is to do their stories justice.
 | AuthorChris Mercer is an author, life-coach, full-time Spanish teacher and the proud father of two awesome kiddos living in Richmond, VA. In his spare time he enjoys singing, working-out and bravely attempting to free-style rap. |
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