Researching Alexs Pate

Throughout his career Alexs has attacked racial stereotypes that limit the realities of people of color. He has worked to create worlds in which the humanity of everyone is recognized, known and finally assumed. Alexs founded Innocent Technologies to build a world in which we can live our authentic humanity, uninhibited by the stories about who we are supposed to be. The success of the Innocent Classroom has led to the development of Innocent Classroom for Early Childhood Educators and Innocent Care training for health care professionals to build quick connections with their patients.

Alexs leads his company through his vision for a world in which our children are free to achieve their unlimited potential, our people are free to live healthily and fully, and our individual humanity is prioritized and valued in the structures of society.

Alexs has published five novels to date. His best-known work is the New York Times Bestseller Amistad, which was commissioned by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks/SKG and was based on David Franzoni's screenplay. His other novels include Finding Makeba, The Multicultiboho Sideshow and West of Rehoboth, which was the "Honor Fiction Book" for 2002. Alexs's first nonfiction book, In The Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap was published in 2010.

In an interview with Lauretta Pierce of Literary World Alexs talked about his writing,“Defining oneself is, perhaps, the hardest thing to do in life. In fact, that is, in a way, what life is all about. But on some level, I feel that my work provides a lot of information about who I am. If you read my novels, essays, poems, etc., you will discover someone who is passionate about the art of storytelling. Someone who believes that art should strive to save lives, liberate people, challenge stereotypes and so forth.

Reflected in my writing you will, I hope, see someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time interrogating myself, my values and behaviors as well as those of the people around me–and who continues to learn what it means to be African American and male. You would see that I am currently fixated on the idea of “home” and on the concepts of “guilt” and “innocence” (particularly as it relates to black men)."