E-MAIL contactus@corneliagail.com | P.O. BOX 13322, RICHMOND, VA 23225
GIRLS IN DA GAME ON YOUTUBE | GIRLS IN DA GAME MYSPACE PAGE | IN DA GAME PRODUCTIONS MYSPACE PAGE
GIRLS IN DA GAME ON YOUTUBE | GIRLS IN DA GAME MYSPACE PAGE | IN DA GAME PRODUCTIONS MYSPACE PAGE
Cornelia's music, books and movies deliver a life-learned lesson straight from the source. Her testimony evolves from a street life full of crime, sex, violence and drug dealing to one of spiritual tranquility. Her message is simply saying, "Been there, done that, left that behind. It's a better way and a brighter day!"
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Romans 6:23
In 1995, Cornelia Gail, a 22-year old rising star from Richmond, Virginia, moved to New York to broaden her horizons. She then pursued a modeling and acting career, and landed work on numerous movies, television shows, music videos and television commercials. Some of her television and film credits include: New York Undercover, Law & Order, Swift Justice, Subway Stories, Players, Godzilla, The Substitute II, Sue, her own movie, Girls In Da Game, and more. On the music scene, Cornelia has appeared in videos featuring AZ, The Brand New Heavies, Rahsaan Patterson... and the list goes on and on. Cornelia knew that where there was no change, there would be no progress.
In May of 1997, after a series of life-altering events, God inspired Cornelia to write her life story and put it into Hip-Hop form. Compelled by her spirit, she then started her own record label and set up her own publishing company to go forth with the work God had given her. After writing and recording several songs, Cornelia directed her own music video for her first single, "Walk Right," to be released off her new album, "My Testimony." Cornelia became well-aware that where there is no vision, the people will perish. God later inspired Cornelia to write a book about her life story called, "My Testimony, Before & After Grace," available now.
As a rap artist, Cornelia has performed at the following venues: Malik Yoba's SummerFest, The Daughters of the King Conference, Club Downtime, Armanis Night Club, The Paladium, and the Military Retiree Club, to name a few. Cornelia appeals to all audiences.
In May of 1997, after a series of life-altering events, God inspired Cornelia to write her life story and put it into Hip-Hop form. Compelled by her spirit, she then started her own record label and set up her own publishing company to go forth with the work God had given her. After writing and recording several songs, Cornelia directed her own music video for her first single, "Walk Right," to be released off her new album, "My Testimony." Cornelia became well-aware that where there is no vision, the people will perish. God later inspired Cornelia to write a book about her life story called, "My Testimony, Before & After Grace," available now.
As a rap artist, Cornelia has performed at the following venues: Malik Yoba's SummerFest, The Daughters of the King Conference, Club Downtime, Armanis Night Club, The Paladium, and the Military Retiree Club, to name a few. Cornelia appeals to all audiences.
REVIEW OF MY TESTIMONY, BEFORE & AFTER GRACE
It's not easy being born and brought up in Mosby, a ghetto of Richmond, Virginia. In fact, it is one despairing struggle for survival - as author Cornelia K. Gail so intensely depicts in the first part of the real life story, "My Testimony Before and After Grace: Before Grace." Born in 1973 and raised by a single mother and grandmother, young Faith is soon ruthlessly exposed to the seamy side of ghetto life. Sexually active at the age of thirteen, she is pregnant at fourteen. Nine months after her son is born, the sixteen-year-old father of her child is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison for killing his mother's boyfriend. And why? Because, "one thing you don't do is watch a man beat your mother mercilessly not in the projects you don't."
Set against this squalid background, the chances for Faith's continued existence appear bleak. Miserable and despairing because of the humiliation due to her pregnancy, her mother's disgrace, and the problems of single parenting, she attempts suicide. But, recalls Faith, "I didn't die; I just slept for a couple of days. So many times I just wanted to die." She takes to selling drugs, and soon, "The money was rolling in, and I was looking better, dressing better...It was finally my time to shine." Nevertheless, the downward spiral continues; drug dealing, casual sex, hustling, driving junkie cars, street fights, alcohol, and of course, men. "I dated so many guys I don't even remember most of them," she says. "I changed men like I changed my underwear. In love one day, out of love the next." By the time she is eighteen, Faith is pregnant again.
This is a story of courage, of faith in God, and of the enduring belief that there is a guardian angel for everybody. Faith is most grateful that, "Through all my mess God put a hedge over me so Satan couldn't destroy me completely." She is bright, a straight A-grade student, and intelligent enough to stay away from drugs. She is aware that the pathway she has chosen will inevitably lead to self-destruction, but she continues nonetheless. Paradoxically, the turning point appears while she is in jail. "I went to jail, found out I was not an animal...that Jesus loved me, and violence was not of him...I found out I had a chance, a second chance..."
Does Faith take it? Is there a better future for her? Readers will have to wait to find out when part two of this book, "My Testimony Before and After Grace: After Grace," is published.
Cornelia Gail's style of writing is true to life. She takes you straight from the comfort of your armchair and the warm glow of your reading lamp, into the cold, merciless glare of the streets of the ghetto. Using the language of Mosby projects to telling effect, she reveals the stark realities of the life of under privileged African Americans. She is able to convey the despair, the cynicism, and yet, the hope and faith of Faith and the people of her world. This is a book for young adults; it's about the choices that they are compelled to make; and the consequences of making the wrong ones.
BookWire Review • April 27, 2006
Set against this squalid background, the chances for Faith's continued existence appear bleak. Miserable and despairing because of the humiliation due to her pregnancy, her mother's disgrace, and the problems of single parenting, she attempts suicide. But, recalls Faith, "I didn't die; I just slept for a couple of days. So many times I just wanted to die." She takes to selling drugs, and soon, "The money was rolling in, and I was looking better, dressing better...It was finally my time to shine." Nevertheless, the downward spiral continues; drug dealing, casual sex, hustling, driving junkie cars, street fights, alcohol, and of course, men. "I dated so many guys I don't even remember most of them," she says. "I changed men like I changed my underwear. In love one day, out of love the next." By the time she is eighteen, Faith is pregnant again.
This is a story of courage, of faith in God, and of the enduring belief that there is a guardian angel for everybody. Faith is most grateful that, "Through all my mess God put a hedge over me so Satan couldn't destroy me completely." She is bright, a straight A-grade student, and intelligent enough to stay away from drugs. She is aware that the pathway she has chosen will inevitably lead to self-destruction, but she continues nonetheless. Paradoxically, the turning point appears while she is in jail. "I went to jail, found out I was not an animal...that Jesus loved me, and violence was not of him...I found out I had a chance, a second chance..."
Does Faith take it? Is there a better future for her? Readers will have to wait to find out when part two of this book, "My Testimony Before and After Grace: After Grace," is published.
Cornelia Gail's style of writing is true to life. She takes you straight from the comfort of your armchair and the warm glow of your reading lamp, into the cold, merciless glare of the streets of the ghetto. Using the language of Mosby projects to telling effect, she reveals the stark realities of the life of under privileged African Americans. She is able to convey the despair, the cynicism, and yet, the hope and faith of Faith and the people of her world. This is a book for young adults; it's about the choices that they are compelled to make; and the consequences of making the wrong ones.
BookWire Review • April 27, 2006
Richmond Author Takes Her Message to Schools and Boys and Girls Clubs Across America
Tour Kicks Off February 16, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Tour Kicks Off February 16, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Richmond, VA (BlackNews.com) - Christian literature has experienced an explosion in recent years, but now there is an author destined to carve a niche in the realm of urban Christian fiction: Cornelia Gail. Gail was born and raised in the Mosby Court Projects of Richmond, Virginia. There she would learn the life that she writes about in her novels, My Testimony: Before & After Grace and Juvey--a life of drug dealing, violence, sexual promiscuity and even brushes with death.
Cornelia Gail's gritty urban tales speak truth to all of those who read them, and offer the hope of redemption to those willing to follow Christ. Gail's mission through her writing and other multi-media projects, is to empower people to move past their shame and into their future.
A Life Transformed
Having risen above her own past of dropping out of high school, and having her first child at the age of 14, Gail is the walking testimony of what God's redeeming grace can do. Now, as a college graduate, a record-breaking sales executive with Verizon, an entrepreneur, as President and CEO of Girls In Da Game Publishing, and founder and executive director of S.A.V.E. M.E. (Sexual Abuse Violates Everyone: Memories Everlasting), Gail is now the poster child for over achievement, and a role model that many young girls now want to emulate.
"I thank God for the pain of my past because it was during that dark time that I learned of the love of Christ and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior...and I haven't looked back since," states Gail.
Writing Down the Vision
Determined to start a new life, Cornelia left her native Richmond, Virginia, and moved to New York to pursue a modeling and acting career. While there she successfully landed roles that earned her television and film credits. During this time, she discovered an additional talent she has for creative writing. Inspired by God, she began writing in the genre she knew best: urban fiction. Fiercely focused and passionate about any new career endeavor she chooses to accomplish, Gail wrote and directed her own music video for her first single, entitled "Walk Right", which will be released on her new CD My Testimony, and is the complement to her first book, My Testimony: Before & After Grace. The "Walk Right" video can be viewed on the trailer of Gail's self-produced film, Girls In Da Game. The Girls In Da Game film can be viewed on web portals YouTube (www.youtube.com/girlsindagame) and MySpace.
Cornelia Gail attends church at St. Paul's Baptist, in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia, lead by the dynamic senior pastor and visionary, Dr. Lance Watson, who endorses her work, and has given this review: "Cornelia Gail is an urban jewel waiting to be put on display. Both her books examine the sensational and sometimes surly contours of urban life. Filled with riveting scenes and high octane emotion, she has shrewdly woven these chapters into a positive polemic about rising above poverty, abuse, discouragement and despair and discovering the beauty of life, faith and love after all. Gail is a keen and candid storyteller."
A Spirit to Serve
Cornelia Gail will be touring America in 2007, specifically visiting inner-city schools along with the Boys and Girls Club in the following cities: New York, Washington DC, Charlotte, Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit, Houston and Dallas, Texas. She will be donating a number of her books to each school and Boys and Girls Club that allows her to speak to the youth about making positive choices in their lives, walking into their purpose and setting high goals of achievement. Gail's desire to serve America's youth is sincere -- there is no fee for her to come to a school to speak, simply provide her the youth to talk to, and she and her staff will make the necessary arrangements to be there.
Cornelia Gail's gritty urban tales speak truth to all of those who read them, and offer the hope of redemption to those willing to follow Christ. Gail's mission through her writing and other multi-media projects, is to empower people to move past their shame and into their future.
A Life Transformed
Having risen above her own past of dropping out of high school, and having her first child at the age of 14, Gail is the walking testimony of what God's redeeming grace can do. Now, as a college graduate, a record-breaking sales executive with Verizon, an entrepreneur, as President and CEO of Girls In Da Game Publishing, and founder and executive director of S.A.V.E. M.E. (Sexual Abuse Violates Everyone: Memories Everlasting), Gail is now the poster child for over achievement, and a role model that many young girls now want to emulate.
"I thank God for the pain of my past because it was during that dark time that I learned of the love of Christ and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior...and I haven't looked back since," states Gail.
Writing Down the Vision
Determined to start a new life, Cornelia left her native Richmond, Virginia, and moved to New York to pursue a modeling and acting career. While there she successfully landed roles that earned her television and film credits. During this time, she discovered an additional talent she has for creative writing. Inspired by God, she began writing in the genre she knew best: urban fiction. Fiercely focused and passionate about any new career endeavor she chooses to accomplish, Gail wrote and directed her own music video for her first single, entitled "Walk Right", which will be released on her new CD My Testimony, and is the complement to her first book, My Testimony: Before & After Grace. The "Walk Right" video can be viewed on the trailer of Gail's self-produced film, Girls In Da Game. The Girls In Da Game film can be viewed on web portals YouTube (www.youtube.com/girlsindagame) and MySpace.
Cornelia Gail attends church at St. Paul's Baptist, in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia, lead by the dynamic senior pastor and visionary, Dr. Lance Watson, who endorses her work, and has given this review: "Cornelia Gail is an urban jewel waiting to be put on display. Both her books examine the sensational and sometimes surly contours of urban life. Filled with riveting scenes and high octane emotion, she has shrewdly woven these chapters into a positive polemic about rising above poverty, abuse, discouragement and despair and discovering the beauty of life, faith and love after all. Gail is a keen and candid storyteller."
A Spirit to Serve
Cornelia Gail will be touring America in 2007, specifically visiting inner-city schools along with the Boys and Girls Club in the following cities: New York, Washington DC, Charlotte, Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit, Houston and Dallas, Texas. She will be donating a number of her books to each school and Boys and Girls Club that allows her to speak to the youth about making positive choices in their lives, walking into their purpose and setting high goals of achievement. Gail's desire to serve America's youth is sincere -- there is no fee for her to come to a school to speak, simply provide her the youth to talk to, and she and her staff will make the necessary arrangements to be there.
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