Essence Cafe  

  
 Essence Cafe by Dorothy Goins was created to effectively promote literature and inspire community involvement through awareness.  Each week there will be an interview with an author and/or one person who is effectively impacting our communities or anyone who is an active and effective role model, entrepreneur, or simply making a difference.

The column will end with a thought that will be written to inspire and lift readers with a sense of essence and empowerment. 

A veteran poet, Dorothy Goins embraced her talent as a writer through encouragement from one of her professors while attending Temple University in 1996. Goins penned her first publication in 1998 and self-published, Woman I Know; a book of poetry written to uplift women.
Taking her talent very seriously and by the storm, she began performing with a literary group of writers she helped to collaborate. Goins exposed her spoken word talent through the open mic venues and gained enough confidence to write her very first novel. This path has led her on what she refers to as an inspirational journey that overall has heightened her passion to write.

Born in Darlington, South Carolina, Dorothy Goins has been a native of Philadelphia for 37 years. While pursuing a long term career in banking after a major merger, she relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1998 only to later return back to Philadelphia in 2000 after growing weary of 17 years of corporate politics.

After this experience, Goins moved on her passion to write a novel. She decided to take her chances on self-publishing her material.She refused to let the query rejections from the several agents she had written to about her first book idea in 1993 stop her from fulfilling her dream.Goins attending self-publishing seminars and began learning the literary industry standards. Pooling together her financial resources, she started her own publishing company, Xpressit Publications and released her novel, Married Man in May of 2002. This novel has currently re-released as of October 2007 with a new and invigorating cover.

Married Man is the love saga of Miles Jordan and Kendra Davis whose paths cross after nine long years. Miles, who is totally unhappy in his marriage to April, finds himself looking back and wondering about the woman he let for all the wrong reasons. After an unsettling dispute with his wife, he sets out to find Kendra to win back her love for him. When these two finally reunite, Miles and Kendra face some serious consequences.

Goins’ second released novel, A Woman Scorn’d has made record sales since its release in May of 2005. A Woman Scorn’d ventures into the life of psychotherapist, Dr. Roxane Brissett. Born Jamaican-Creole, Roxane struggles inwardly with her own issues; being raped at thirteen by her own father and being raised by an aunt who was never supportive or loving towards her. She opens her practice right in the heart of Manhattan with the intention of changing these women way of thinking and giving back in her own significant way. But what she finds out is that things are worse off than she could ever imagine for some of her clients. Especially for Bernice McCall; a client who puts her psychology background to work the moment she meets her. After the tragic lost of her sister-in-law to a brutal murder at the hands of Domestic Violence on December 30, 2004, Goins was moved to get involved as an advocate after releasing her novel with a tribute to her sister in law through a character she wrote into the story to give her departed loved one a voice she felt was silenced.

As a means to promote awareness thus began her will to campaign. Goins strives diligently to bring awareness to this deterring epidemic which has taken the lives of many and broken the spirits of so many others. Through the support of Women Against Abuse, Goins reached out to their Transitional Housing Program and solicited others to assist her in a three month clothing drive last year in 2006 whereby she was able to provide clothing and other needed personal items to the women and children in the safe haven program.

Goins also donated proceeds of her December book sales to WAA at the launch of her campaign and has continued to donate autographed copies to the women in the Sojourner’s House Transitional Program at her on-going presentations which she uses to aid the women with a tool for awareness and change in their current life situations. 

Featured by Power 99 FM at Sistahs 2003, WDAS 105.3 FM at the 23rd Annual Unity Day event, and WPEG 98.9 FM For Sistahs Only Expo, Goins has interviewed on several radio talk shows throughout the Tri-State areas as well as in the Baltimore-Washington and New York areas. She was aired on WHAT 1340 AM on August 13, 2006 with Kena Sears on her segment, Relationship Roundtable discussing the aftermaths of domestic violence.

On July 10, 2006, she aired in a commentary discussion with Craig Thompson on his talk show, Two Way Talk/The Front Page on Morgan’s State radio station WEAA 88.9FM, whereby Goins spoke about the correlation between rap music and domestic violence and how the two have much in common.

She was also featured on September 18, 2006 on Dr. Maxine Thompson’s segment of ArtistFirst in a live interview at http://www.maxineshow.com discussing further the issues that lead her to advocating for awareness on the silent killer known as Domestic Violence.

Other press interviews include a live interview on the E. Steven Collins show on 100.3 The Beat on December 2, 2005 after a featured story about her was printed in The Philadelphia Tribune on December 1, 2005 announcing the campaign she has launched speaking out against domestic violence.Future events include her involvement in an upcoming Domestic Violence conference hosted and featured by Talk Show Host, Tonya Blount in NewYork City in 2008.

Added to her forum is also an upcoming presentation in December 2007 in New York where Goins will be a featured speaker on the issues surrounding Domestic Violence.