Colette Barris

Colette Barris-Author of #CLARETTASTREET, lover of the magic of words and Educator of thousands. Creator of Claretta Street The Series.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

@TrueBlackPower Remebmber The Village? Community? Beloved Center Of R Hopes And Dreams? It's Here In Claretta Street The Series. Black Lives As We Are And Were...Love Drenched, Vibrant, Strong, Joyous And Unapologetically BLACK. Worth The Wait By Colette Barris.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Plunge into Southern California during the 1960s following four young “Babies' ' as they navigate a turbulent Civil Rights period in the United States. Author Colette Barris brings this story to life with a fresh voice to the plight of the Black experience in America.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

The music was the pulse of the times, and on Claretta Street, it was the soundtrack to both innocence and experience, joy and pain. What songs define these decades for you?

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Every street holds a story—but Claretta Street sings it.
A powerful novel by Colette Barris, it takes you back to a time when communities stood tall through joy, struggle, and change. Now available on Amazon.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Claretta Street had a way of pulling people together without even trying. You’d step outside and fall right into a conversation, a memory, a moment you didn’t expect but somehow needed.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Pacoima Pride
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#ClarettaStreetTheSeries #ClarettaStreetABC #africanamerican #blackhistory #blackownedbusiness

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

40 acres and a mule: a promise of reparations to freed slaves after the Civil War. General Sherman's plan, born from a meeting with Black ministers, aimed for land redistribution. But President Johnson overturned it, denying newly freed people a path to economic independence.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Every street holds a story—but Claretta Street sings it.
A powerful novel by Colette Barris, it takes you back to a time when communities stood tall through joy, struggle, and change. Now available on Amazon.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Meet the Babies of Pacoima. Claretta Street by Colette Barris follows four Black girls through the vibrant sixties into the devastating eighties. Denise tells their story with griot wisdom—exposing the hidden foundation of Black America's crisis. Raw, prophetic, necessary

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Claretta Street isn’t nostalgia; it’s muscle memory. Small vows passed hand to hand until they turn into culture. The clock says hurry; the block says count to two, then move. There’s humor, side-eye, and a way of holding grief without letting it eat the room.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

A story of rhythm and resistance, of families who built joy from the dust and dignity from the grind.
It’s not just a novel — it’s memory turned into music, history turned into heartbeat.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

The roots of "Claretta Street" run deep, grounded in the real-life journey of strong Black women. During the Great Migration, my great-grandmother Geraldine, grandmother Dorothy, and mother Ernestine made their way west to build a new life.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Black progress has always faced backlash—40 acres and a mule was a promise, then came Tulsa, Rosewood, and lynchings. Still, leaders like Du Bois, Bessie Coleman, and Marcus Garvey kept pushing. This isn’t just history—it’s the foundation we’re standing on.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Some streets hold more than houses.
They carry laughter, pain, memory, and the voices that refuse to be forgotten.

#clarettastreet #blackliterature #historicalfiction

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Who holds your village together? 🏡
In Colette Barris's powerful novel, Claretta Street, the answer is clear: the women. This story is a celebration of the mothers, grandmothers, and neighbors who build a community and raise a generation.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

The Legacy Lives On
From the 60s to today, Black women have carried their families, their communities, and their history. Claretta Street pulls back the curtain on their strength, struggles, and love. If you loved Soul Food, this is your next read.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Black WWII veterans sought a brighter future after the war. They found it in Pacoima, California, building Joe Louis Homes to create a thriving community. 🏡

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Plunge into Southern California during the 1960s following four young “Babies' ' as they navigate a turbulent Civil Rights period in the United States. Author Colette Barris brings this story to life with a fresh voice to the plight of the Black experience in America.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

I can still feel the Santa Ana winds of Pacoima brushing my face at dawn. Every memory in Claretta Street is vivid, every block full of life. Step into a story where the past breathes and the streets speak.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Some streets teach without a lecture—just a nod, a count-in you feel behind the ribs. Care moves hand to hand until rhythm becomes kinship. Timing, patience, the soft courage to hold a name—learned in ordinary hours that hit different.

[Colette Barris @ColetteBarris]

Some novels transport you. Others transform you. Claretta Street does both. Follow "the Babies" from innocent childhood through the chaos of adulthood while America reshapes itself around them.