Oakland native Melissa Valentine shares pain of brother’s death in her debut memoir

For many, to grow up in Oakland is to grow up as a witness and vessel of trauma. Amid the troves of artists bunking in cluttered warehouses are the legacies of gentrification. Between the Lake Merritt barbeques are the over-policing of black neighborhoods and schools with waning budgets. For every word of praise for the Black Panthers and their legacy, there is a reminder that equality is still a ways away. 

For Oakland native Melissa Valentine, there has always been a system in place; a system that preyed on her brother, Junior, depriving him of the support and resources like so many Black youth in their city. A system that, in part, led to Junior’s murder at 19 years old and, as a result, Valentine’s journey to the creation and publication of her debut memoir, “The Names of All the Flowers.”