Memoir Launch: Roadside by Dylan Park-Pettiford

Join us at Village Well Books & Coffee for the launch of Dylan Park-Pettiford's memoir Roadside: My Journey to Iraq and the Long Road Home.

Dylan will take us through his childhood, his military service, his challenges back home, and the future in this highly informative and important discussion. Joining Dylan is actor and activist Jeremy Tardy.

About the book:

A military memoir by a biracial child of refugees and survivors, Roadside is about life and death, about family lost and gained, and about America, as a dream and a reality. It’s about the roads one takes to leave home and find it again.

As a half-Black, half-Korean kid in Campbell, California, Dylan Park-Pettiford never really fit in, so he and his little brother Rory became joined at the hip. But after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, swept up in patriotism, Dylan enlisted in the US Air Force and was sent to Iraq, and the brothers were separated.

There Dylan’s days alternated between boredom and terror, and rare moments of levity and learning came thanks to an Iraqi boy named Brahim. Like Rory, Brahim was wise beyond his years, and he and Dylan bonded as much over rap music as about life. Over the following year, Dylan would bring Brahim food and toiletries to keep him going; Brahim would bring intel to keep Dylan and his friends alive. When they said goodbye at the end of Dylan’s tour of duty, he knew it was for the last time.

Or was it?

Dylan returned to a world that had moved on without him. He would go through a soul-crushing divorce, a bout of homelessness, and struggles with prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health. Eventually, he caught a few breaks and overcame the odds—until the violence Dylan thought he’d left in the Middle East followed him home.

Just when his life was at its darkest, fate intervened again, but this time to orchestrate an impossible reunion. In a world marred by a seemingly endless wave of negativity, this story of love, loss, and brotherhood may offer a faint glimmer of hope as we face an uncertain future.

About the participants:

Dylan Park-Pettiford is a writer/director from the San Francisco Bay Area. His work includes writing for a forthcoming spinoff of the popular detective series Bosch, the courtroom drama All Rise, and the Ron Howard-produced military comedy 68 Whiskey. He’s a former AMC Network writing fellow and a participant/mentor in the Writer’s Guild of America Veterans Writing Project. Dylan was a contributing author in the New York Times bestselling books The Moth Presents: Occasional Magic and How to Tell a Story. He’s also penned several Marvel comics. Following his military service, Dylan returned to school and received his BA in film from Arizona State University before attending the University of Southern California for graduate school. He now calls Los Angeles home.

Jeremy Tardy is an actor, director and musician from Milwaukee, WI. Jeremy got his start working with First Stage Children's Theater where he performed in several plays and musicals, making a name for himself in the Milwaukee area. Jeremy went on to study in Oxford, England at the British American Dramatic Academy. He received his BFA in Drama at The Juilliard School. Now residing in Los Angeles, he enjoys a career with TV/Film credits including: Paramount Network's 68 Whiskey, HBO’s Ballers, Netflix’s Dear White People, The Mindy Project, 10 Days in the Valley, Castle, Prey, Voodoo Macbeth, War Dogs, and more. Jeremy now serves on the board of directors of First Stage Children’s Theater and CLIMB USA, a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster economic empowerment in underserved communities. Jeremy believes that financial literacy and education is a key component for empowerment and liberation in America. As an artist and activist, Jeremy has worked with the NAACP and ACLU and he strives to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

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