Where I've Been (and Why It Matters)

It’s been over five months since my last blog post, and in that time, a lot has happened.

Most notably, I signed on my first official ghostwriting client, a milestone I don’t take lightly. My client is the cofounder and longtime executive director of a prominent Pan-African organization with roots in both Atlanta, Georgia and Ghana, West Africa. His life’s work has impacted hundreds of Black people seeking deeper connection to Africa, ancestral memory, and the Earth itself.

So yes, writing his memoir, and getting it right, mattered. A lot.

This project required the very best of me, which is what I strive to bring to every story I touch. But because this was my first official ghostwriting assignment, I felt an even deeper responsibility to honor his voice, his legacy, and the communities shaped by his work.

Living Inside Someone Else’s Story

For months, I’ve been immersed in another person’s life - who he has been, who he is, and who he is becoming. I read through hours of interviews with friends, family members, colleagues, and collaborators. I listened closely to how they spoke about him, what they remembered, and what they witnessed.

It was important to my client that his book reflect the way his life has actually been lived: a collective effort, shaped by community, guided by elders, peers, and the village that raised him. His memoir includes many voices, reflecting the people who shaped him as much as the life he lived.

My role was to identify which voices supported the larger narrative and then weave them together seamlessly, honoring each perspective while ensuring the story flowed as one. As a ghostwriter and publisher, my job is not to overpower a client’s voice, but to strengthen what is already there. To listen deeply. To clarify. To shape. To protect the integrity of the story while making it readable, cohesive, and lasting.

At the end of the day, my job as a ghostwriter is to write someone’s life story in their voice, not mine, so that when readers turn the page, it sounds like the person who lived it.

Telling Our Stories Matter, No Matter How We Tell Them

This project reaffirmed something I believe deeply: our stories must be told by any means necessary.

Some people want to write their own stories but need guidance and support along the way. Others want to write independently and share their work only when it’s ready for publication. And some people want their stories told, but don’t want, or don’t have the capacity, to be the one to write them.

All of these paths are valid.

What matters most is that your story is told through your eyes and in your voice. Whether you write it yourself, co-create it, or entrust it to a ghostwriter, the goal is the same: healing, self-awareness, preservation, truth, and legacy.

The Work Beyond Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting wasn’t the only work filling my days these past few months. Alongside this project, I’ve been working with six additional clients, supporting them through various stages of editing, publishing, and marketing their books.

In the coming months, you’ll see the release of powerful memoirs, poetry collections, and beautifully illustrated children’s books, each rooted in lived experience, cultural memory, and the courage it takes to share one’s story. I’m especially excited for you to read the testimonials connected to these projects, because they reflect the heart of why Silver Bangles Productions exists.

Senior to Senior: Building Story Across Generations

Last week, we officially wrapped Phase One of Senior to Senior, our first original program. Senior to Senior is an intergenerational storytelling initiative that connects high school students with elders to preserve life stories, community history, and lived wisdom.

Phase One focused on relationship-building, interview skills, and teaching students how to listen with care and intention. In Phase Two, students will begin shaping these conversations into written narratives, learning how to honor someone else’s voice while telling a story responsibly and beautifully.

Watching this program unfold has been one of the most meaningful parts of my year.

Going International...Again

And finally, Silver Bangles Productions is preparing to go international, again.

On December 19, I’ll be traveling to Ghana to teach a memoir writing class, continuing this work of story, memory, and legacy across borders and generations. This will be my first time in Ghana in eight years. I spent four months there in 2017 during my junior year of college while studying abroad.

I’m deeply grateful and excited to return, and to share the work I feel divinely called to do: helping us tell our stories, and helping others do the same.

This season has been quieter online, but fuller than ever behind the scenes. And as I step into what’s next, I’m reminded that visibility is not always the measure of impact.

Sometimes, the most important work is happening exactly where you are, deep in the story.

Summer J. Robinson

Publisher. Ghostwriter. Filmmaker. Educator. CEO.

Building Silver Bangles Productions, a multidisciplinary storytelling agency committed to telling and elevating stories that inspire Afrikan diasporic intergenerational healing. We do this through book publishing, ghostwriting, TV, film and documentary production, community programming, and education.