Denver author inspires next generation: "To the little Black girls and women, don't give up on your dream"
Denver native Patricia Duncan is proud of how far she's come since her days at Smith Elementary.
"Who would've ever thought a girl from Park Hill who didn't go to college could advance as far as I've advanced?" she said with a beaming smile.
"I've had an amazing journey in life. I have two grown daughters, married to a retired captain for the fire department. I've worked for the Nuggets and Rockies. And my sister was the first Black twice-elected Secretary of State of Colorado," she continued. "Her name was Vikki Buckley. We used to talk about me starting a business. She would say, you need to start a company. And I said, oh I have time. On July 14, 1999, she died suddenly. My world crumbled because I carried everybody on my shoulders," she said.
In her sister's memory, she set out to start her own business, picking up a long-lost passion for photography. Patricia's first assignment came from black-owned newspaper Denver Urban Spectrum.
"My first assignment was to photograph Barack Obama in 2006, and the first thing I said to her was, 'Who is Barack Obama? And she said, 'You don't know who Barack Obama is?'" Duncan laughed.
And she quickly found out, as Obama became the topic of her first book, "Defining the Times: Barack Obama - The Historic Journey of the First African American President." She spent years chronicling his time as president. Her book was wildly successful, five-star rated and now housed at the Library of Congress. She was able to publish it due to her own company she eventually founded, PSS Publishing LLC.
"I worked hard, kept God first, and took my dreams and turned them into goals," said Duncan.
She is now expanding to publish other authors' works with her series "Inspiring Untold Stories." It's a call for other authors to share their stories, too, and to never give up.
"I say to the little Black girls and women: Don't give up on your dreams. My dream didn't start till I was 55 years old. The goal doesn't have to have a deadline, it just needs to be finished," she said.
To get in contact with Duncan to share your story, visit photoreflect.com.
