When the Alphabet Comes

By the time Jerome Allen was in junior high, he was on a trajectory that would expose him to worlds beyond his North Philadelphia neighborhood. Basketball was his passport from poverty to privilege and access. Privilege and access would be his undoing, almost costing him everything. In his memoir, WHEN THE ALPHABET COMES: A Life Changed by Exposure, Jerome Allen chronicles not only his exposure to affluence, celebrity and living abroad, but the consequences of unwanted public exposure during a college admissions scandal and federal prosecution. As Allen reviews his changing personal landscapes of integrity, reputation, leadership, altruism, access and privilege, he reveals how he remains grounded in faith and family.