Trip to Africa Inspires Black Activist to Write a Reality Fiction Book on the Global Water Crisis

Nationwide — It’s so easy to take water for granted until it’s gone. For author and activist Papi Kymone Freeman, the best approach to explain the global water crisis was after his trip to Africa, when he decided to write a fictional book using Marvel-like superheroes to tell the story of climate change, global warming and the privatization of water. NINEVEH (pronounced ni·nuh·vuh) is a fiction novel about a conflict over water set in the future in a post-oil-depleted dystopian society. NINEVEH novel releases on March 22, 2023 – World Water Day.

“I spent the summer in Nairobi, Kenya, with a fellowship from the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization dedicated to service, where we were forced to use bottled water to brush our teeth,” said Kymone Freeman, author of NINEVEH. “I saw people collecting water where goats were drinking. I saw parents feed babies Coca-Cola in their bottles because the soda was safer than the available water. Today, we see the water crisis even in America, from the Flint water crisis to now in Jackson, Mississippi.”

In NINEVEH, old cities are now underwater as a result of climate change, and new cities have emerged. A massive global drought combined with an epic contamination of the world’s limited fresh water supply combined with the privatization of the remaining unpolluted aquifers has created a crisis of biblical proportions. As a result, water has been priced beyond the affordability of the masses, forcing them to collect rainwater, which constitutes as the new contraband. With a mind-altering drug introduced into the limited public supply, few resisters dared to defy the ultimate fascist system.

The Resistance is led by Ndbele, a gifted teacher and sage. His daughter, Evolon, is his greatest warrior, and Bethlehem is his most trusted ally. NINEVEH is ruled ruthlessly by Nimrod, the head of the Global Water Corporation that has a stronghold on the world’s water market. He has only one weakness, his nymphomaniac son Saisir.”

After reading NINEVEH, Shaka King, director of the two-time Oscar-nominated film Judas & the Black Messiah, expressed the importance of this body of work. “There is great utility to escapist art. But this novel threads the needle pretty well by refusing not to acknowledge trauma just to make a piece of entertainment.”

Purchase the pre-order sale of the paperback edition for $18.99 and hardcover for $24.99 on NinevehNovel.com. The publisher is Strong Arm Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to progressive issues and activism.

About Kymone Freeman
Kymone Freeman is an award-winning playwright and founder of the Black LUV Festival, 2006 Mayor’s Art Award Finalist for Excellence in Service to the Arts. He is a founding board member for the non-profit Words Beats & Life and co-founder of Bum Rush the Boards, the largest annual youth chess tournament in WDC. He is the subject of one chapter of the book Beat of A Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African Americans Forging Their Own Paths in Work and Life (Hyperion). He is a 2010 Green For All Fellow & co-founder of We Act Radio DC’s Best Social Justice Radio Station 2017 by Washington City Paper and 1st Place PRNDI Award winner for his Lion and the Map Commentary with Anacostia Unmapped radio series on NPR–their most successful local production in 2016. He was featured in one of the most controversial 2015 Ebony Magazine article, “Should Black People Celebrate Thanksgiving?” and the PBS Online Film Festival for the short film The Fresh Prince of Anacostia.

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