Gabriel Patterson is Hip Hop emcee Surpass Flavor. After his 2014 release, Over/Under, Patterson took a sabbatical from the microphone and started writing haiku. Patterson fell in love with crafting haiku, then haibun, and eventually, essays. Over the next two years, Patterson would be published in over a dozen of journals worldwide, and was a semifinalist in KYSO Flash’s HTP Writing Challenge for his haibun, “The Here & Now,” published in State of the Art, KYSO Flash 2016 Anthology. Patterson realized he could use his gift of writing to tell a story that was not only important to his own history, but the history of his hometown: Denver, Colorado. Thus, with the blessing of Denver culturist Cathy Maestas, Patterson set out to write a memoir about his friend, Geranimo Maestas, who was murdered in 1993 for his Denver Broncos jacket. Patterson’s DIY Hip Hop foundation was critical to executing the memoir, and after a three-year process, Reminding Me of Mo, the book detailing Geranimo’s life, was delivered.