A.D. Carson was insistent, COLD is a fictional work. The A.D. character of the book is not him. Logic and emotion told me that simply could not be the case. The words on the page were so real I could feel them. He has to be him. He could not not be him. He could not tell his story so well if he was not him. Midway through the book, I realized why A.D. Carson was so insistent. He is not him. He is, however the very reason that Hip-Hop exists…the reason it thrives…its soul/sole purpose for living. He is not Hip-Hop and he is not A.D. Carson. He is h.e.r. child. He is the son that Hip-Hop created; the Darker Brother of prose; the incestral grandson and lover of poetry who takes up the ancestral tradition of the griot recounting the experiences of h.e.r sons. In a mixed medium setting, the Decatur, IL bred writer brings us COLD, A Novel By A.D. Carson, a fictional work that examines “the curious thing that is the [metaphysical] dilemma of a Black poet” and his attempts to reconcile the concrete and theoretical binaries that comprise his existence. A.D. Carson delivers it just the way it comes to him—with prose, poetry and lyrical tracks.
Through COLD, A.D. explores the intricacies of world traveling. What we get is the internal battle he fights to live in both worlds separately and simultaneously. And we experience that struggle firsthand as the mixed medium format forces his readers to travel through each of his worlds in much the same way A.D. does– back and forth, and sometimes with very little warning. One minute the reader is examining the Oedipally complex nature of A.D.’s female relationships. The next minute, the reader is confronted with the patriarchal nature of fatherless households in the Black community. Read more »
During an interview last week, one of the interviewers asked (seemingly out of the blue) what high school I had attended. If you know me you already know the answer to that question. Still, lots of thoughts ran through my head. Who asks what high school you attended once you’ve obtained a college degree? What difference does it make what high school I attended? Does she know me from somewhere? Didn’t she just hear her fellow interviewer say that with a resume like mine he was pretty sure I could walk on water? Who asks a water-walker what high school she attended? Of course, the reason I pondered all of this is because I didn’t actually go to high school and was considering how my response might affect my hiring potential. For a split second, there was a bit of shame about the fact that I didn’t go to high school. I suppose some people might count those first couple of months during freshman year but the fact is that I didn’t even stick around long enough to get a report card. Two months into freshman year and I was out. By then I had baby to raise. Of course telling her that didn’t seem ideal. Then I remembered what the first interviewer said when I walked through the door. Not that I took him literally. Thinking I can walk on water is pretty close to blasphemous and I don’t play with Jesus. But sometimes I forget…. I am pretty badass. We as women of color tend to downplay our accomplishments and ourselves far too much. My first thought should have been to tell her that I pretty much raised myself from about age 13, I dropped out of high school freshman year, got a GED at the age of 18, attended college as a philosophy major, got accepted into one of the nation’s top law schools and then went on to a graduate program in politics, all while raising 3 kids and kicking intellectual butt along the way. That’s what I should have said. Instead I gave her the short version—I didn’t attend high school, I dropped out and got a GED. Still, the male interviewer knew enough to read between those lines. When he heard my response he smiled and said, “ I knew she could walk on water.” Maybe it’s time I knew it too.
The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized
Idiot boxes of the world unite! To fight off the effects of intelligence, replace smart quotes with fart jokes, substitute sense with scenes from Martin, let the baby’s bathe in that glow and learn all manner of things they don’t really need to know!
The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized! Read more »
General | Erica | 
July 5, 2011 4:26 pm | 
Comments (2) 
Subscribe