About The Author

Ari Merretazon

Ari SeSu Merretazon’s life reads like the stories he tells, unfiltered, relentless, and full of fight. Born in Winston-Salem but hardened in D.C.’s streets, he carries the legacy of his ancestors, Africans enslaved in America, not as a weight, but as fuel.

Prison trained him to write. Not with polished theory, but with the grit of a man who’s seen war cages overseas and concrete ones at home. No fancy degrees, just survival, observation, and a refusal to stay silent. Even a traumatic brain injury couldn’t dull his edge.

Now in Philadelphia, he’s equal parts legal advocate and truth-teller. When he’s not running miles to clear his head, he’s battling for reparations or fighting for veterans like him, men the system used and forgot. His writing? It’s bare-knuckled. No fluff. Just hard-won wisdom from a life that forced him to learn or break.

The books that shaped him – Chancellor Williams, Maulana Karenga—taught him that history isn’t past; it’s the ground we walk on. That’s what sticks in his work: the unshakable truth that justice isn’t given. It’s taken. And he’s still taking.