About the Author
Jesse had a very inconsistent upbringing. He was born in Valley Stream, New York, to a father who worked as a Correctional Officer in Riker's Island Jail and a mother who sang for the choir at Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and he relocated to Southwest Brooklyn with his mother and brother. When he turned three, his home in Brooklyn was burglarized, so he moved to Carolina, PR, with his mother to escape the neighborhood. Unfortunately, they moved to one of the islands' most notorious public housing projects in Torres De Sabana. In Torres De Sabana, Jesse was exposed to the shootings, gang violence, and drug abuse of the poverty-struck neighborhood. After financial difficulties left them homeless and his mother fell victim to drug addiction, Jesse lived on the street with his mother before moving back to New York to live with his grandparents. Jesse lived with his grandparents from the age of 8 until the age of 12, when he once again relocated after meeting his father. Jesse's father lived in Beaverdam, VA, in a residential addiction recovery program, New Life For Youth. After attending and completing the program for alcohol addiction, his father became a live-in minister and the assistant Director of the facility. Jesse lived in the facility with his father, brother, and all the residents while he attended middle school in Spotsylvania County. They attended NewLife Outreach International, a non- denominational church, in Richmond, VA, and mandatory for them and the residents. His father would take them to church every Sunday and Wednesday.
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