America By Another Name restores the reader’s understanding of the promises of equality embedded in the founding documents of the United States.

My photographs emphatically gather into one volume diverse regions, social classes, religions, gender and sexual identities, and races and ethnicities. The reader joins me on my travels in a DIY camper van for photographing in over 65 places named for a once beloved, now contested, patriotic symbol: Columbia.

Included writings tell stories of the road and show how Columbia makes a perfect metaphor for the United States, both past and present: it’s a symbol steeped in idealism, pluck, and ingenuity, all while heavily freighted by its roots in Christopher Columbus and the violence and theft of empire building.

Academic and media personality Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has agreed to write a blurb.

And while considering that my white ancestors from Columbia, TN had enslaved the parents of African American hair care magnate Madam C.J. Walker, her biographer and great-great granddaughter, journalist and cultural historian A'Lelia Bundles, will write the book's afterword.

You may download an open access copy of the book proposal here.