Conversations with Ray Boyd

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ray Boyd.

Hi Ray, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was introduced to selling drugs at the age of 12. Shortly after my 17th birthday, I took the life of a young man from my neighborhood. I was ultimately sentenced to 50 years in the Connecticut Department of Correction. I went in the system a seventh-grade dropout, reading at a third-grade level. While in prison as a juvenile lifer, I had my ups and downs.

However after thirty years served, I came home with all of my mental faculties. I’m a published author having written “ The Model Inmate” which was published by FAMS Publishing out of North Carolina. Big shout out to Shontae Corey-Hogan for assisting with bringing my prose to the masses! I was released from prison on November 15, 2021, since this time I work as a Broker’s Assistant for a Real Estate Company I go to school for Real Estate and I started my own publishing company S.U.N. Publishing.

I plan to release two titles under my imprint this year. Just this month, I was invited down to the city of Miami, Florida on February 24th to take part in their Black History Jazz, Arts and Authors event taking place on Feb. 26, 2022. I also advocate stopping solitary confinement and Juvenile Justice laws in the State of Connecticut.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the struggles that I found along the way was getting reacquainted with those family and friends whom I haven’t seen in thirty years. Learning how to work this iPhone 13 that I’m on. Lol! Just conditioning the mind to function as a free man and not a prisoner!

The touch of a woman without a barrier between you all. The ultimate struggle was bearing witness to how I left so many of my so-called friends at such a young age and although they are grown men physically they dealt with their mental growth and development.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I just branded my consultant business R.V.B. Consultant Services and I’m a Speaker, Author, Teacher, and Publisher. As all of the above, I strive to bring about the preventative measures to incarceration for our youth as well as those adults that will adhere to the message that I am striving to send!

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Yes! Emphatically, I’ve taken a risk! I literally gambled my life away at a very young age because I thought I knew it all. I was young, impressionable, and fell victim to the fallacies about the streets.

However, I’ve come to know that this lie that I once believed in the same lie that has been proliferated in the black and brown communities since the great war on drugs came into existence!

Pricing:

• The Model Inmate can be purchased on Amazon for $19.95. It can be purchased through  www.freeallmysuns.org and via US Mail from: SUN publishing CT; PO Box#3624; New Haven, Connecticut 06521; $19.95 plus 4.50 shipping.

Contact Info:

• Email: Rasunallah20@gmail.com
• Website: RaSunAllah.com
• Instagram: @Inoblerasunallah
• Facebook: Ray Ra’Sun Allah Boyd
• Twitter: @Ra’SunAllah

Image Credits
Maseo Troy Streater