"Let Reason Roll: Race, Religion and Reflections" is the poetry debut of Elmer Beard, a lifelong freedom fighter and retired English professor. The work features 83 poems and eight decades of portraits in recognition of the poet's 83 years of life. Beard, known as the Octo Griot, takes readers on an uplifting odyssey, revisiting rural life and confronting racial issues along the way. 

"Let Reason Roll: Race, Religion and Reflections" is the poetry debut of Elmer Beard, a lifelong freedom fighter and retired English professor. The work features 83 poems and eight decades of portraits that take a poignant look at life and death through the eyes of an African-American octogenarian. Beard, the Octo Griot, begins this literary journey with a prayer and ends with a eulogy in "When We Die." The southern storyteller reminisces about rural life and recollects his youth in "The Family Farm" and "What We Gained." Racial issues of the past in "Ole Confederate" and the present in "Black Lives Matter" punctuate the collection as they have the history of the country. This debut collection captures the mind and illustrates the world from a new perspective beyond black and white. "Let Reason Roll" may make you laugh and may make you cry, but it will remind you to shout, "Amen!"

Elmer Beard is a published author, retired educator and lifelong freedom fighter. He is the Democratic Election Commissioner of Garland County, Arkansas, where he ensures the enfranchisement of every resident. He also served eight, two-year terms on the Hot Springs City Council, securing funds to build infrastructure throughout the overlooked African-American community. Beard self-published his first book, "The Challengers: Untold Stories of African Americans Who Changed the System in One Small Southern Municipality," which was a grant recipient from the Clinton Family Foundation, the Arkansas Humanities Council, the Arkansas Black History Commission and the Oaklawn Scholarship Foundation. He co-wrote an unproduced play, "With All Deliberate Speed," about his experience as an English teacher preparing Black students to desegregate a White high school in the South. Beard earned a B.A. in English from Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock and an M.S.E. in English education from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. He also studied at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He ended his teaching career as an adjunct English professor at Arkansas Baptist College and National Park College in Hot Springs, Arkansas. At 83, Beard is making his debut as a published poet in "Let Reason Roll: Race, Religion & Reflections." Beard is known as the Octo Griot. The T is silent.