LYNN — Shontae Pitcher-Crosby is a human battering ram.
The objects of her attacks are emotions and preconceived notions that keep people from making the most of themselves and appreciating others.
Pitcher-Crosby, who writes under the pen name Vick Breedy, is the East Lynn author of books fleshing out her ideas and the founder of social media-driven efforts for self improvement, including one titled “Genetically Resilient.”
With the slogan emblazoned on a ballcap and wearing a shirt bearing the title of her book, “Bitter,” Pitcher-Crosby will spend part of Saturday in Boston’s Black Market, an urban space set aside for vendors, many of them women, to sell their wares and communicate their ideas.
She hopes to sell copies of her books “Bitter,” “Still Bitter” and “Bitter Family Secrets,” and her most recent work, “Stereotyped*.”
“Stereotyped*” was the central focus earlier this month of a Lynn forum aimed at confronting and breaking down stereotypes.
“We wanted to open up a dialogue,” said Darrell Murkison, a Lynn resident whose civic engagement contributions have included work with the Community Minority Cultural Center.
“Stereotypes are not going away anytime soon,” he added, “If people have more information, they are more reluctant to use stereotypes.”
Pitcher-Crosby said the African American male characters in her book are easily stereotyped until she strips away their superficial images and reveals their complexities. She published the 247-page book in July to ask a fundamental question: “How does stereotyping perpetuate racism?”
“People are really affected by this and people are really thinking about this,” she said.
The daughter of a teenage mother, Pitcher-Crosby spent her childhood in Lynn and Malden and divided her time between Malden, where her mother lived, and the Lynn home of her paternal grandmother, Gloria Breedy Pitcher.
She started writing while attending the Gregg Neighborhood House. During Black History Month, students set aside board games and balls and picked up books and pencils.
“I always liked to read and I got into poetry,” she said.
She graduated Classical High School in 1995 and earned a sociology degree at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, later earning a master’s degree. Working initially as a social worker and then as a case manager for a biotechnology firm exposed Pitcher-Crosby to people dealing with tough life struggles and life-and-death medical challenges.
The temptation to draw inward and become bitter in the face of tough circumstances and challenges, including her own, inspired her to write “Bitter” and turn the book into a trilogy.
“I had a whole bunch of emotions I was going through, so I got creative and made characters out of my emotions,” she said.
The message behind “Bitter” and her “Genetically Resilient” social media drive is that people have the capacity to take seemingly negative experiences, turn them into positive life lessons, and share those lessons with others.
She fine-tuned her own ability to make this transformation after her maternal grandmother, Frances Vick, collapsed with a serious illness. Pitcher-Crosby discovered she was the older woman’s health care proxy and she embarked on a prolonged journey through the medical world to get her grandmother well. In the process, she said, the endeavor took a toll on her own health and well being.
“That experience and stress took a lot out of me but I want to inspire people,” she said.
She juggles her Cambridge job and life with her fiancé, Kevin Howe, and son, William Crosby III, with her writing and promotional efforts. She is looking to next winter’s Black History Month celebrations as a potential forum to expand the stereotype discussion and she is working with clinicians and a fitness coach to embark on a woman’s wellness program.
“It addresses issues that threaten women’s ability to practice self care. Women feel guilty taking time for themselves,” she said.
