I saw myself today. At 16, pregnant and pushing another infant in a stroller. I watched her break down in tears, unable to breathe through uncontrollable sobs. And with faith and confidence, I looked my reflection in the face and said, “you can do this.” There were times in my life when I asked God (not so politely), “why me?” Sometimes, the answer becomes more evident, quite literally staring me in the face. For such a time as this…
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1) Spending upwards of $300 to have JH, H&R Block or other big name tax preparer file your returns because a) you want to get a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) b) you don’t realize they base their filing fee off the amount of your return. The bigger your return, the more they charge (doesn’t make sense when you say it out loud either) and c) You don’t realize you can push the exact same buttons yourself with a program/software like TurboTax. To make it worse, they tell you that the fees are “computer generated” and they have no idea how much you will pay until they are finished.
2) Getting the RAL. This is a loan, with interest and fees. You’ll pay money to get your money. Doesn’t make sense at an ATM, makes even less sense here. Of course, emergencies arise so it might be useful to get the money sooner. In that case, see number 3. Read more »
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 »
Season 1 | Erica | 
January 30, 2012 9:04 pm | 
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