Brian Copeland is a remarkable African-American author/performer. He's 43 years old, and looks half his age. In his funny, surprising, and ultimately moving memoir, Copeland shows exactly how our surroundings make us who we are. At Borders on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 he described the genesis of his book: Not a Genuine Black Man, Or How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs to a diverse crowd. (Hyperion Press, 2007). (wwwbriancopeland.com)
My one-man show was a gift. It played 2-1/2 years in San Francisco, went to Off-Broadway, then to Los Angeles. It will be a feature film, TV series, and now I am launching the book. Colleges have emailed me: theater, sociology, African-American departments may be using it as textbook. I may be the new Catcher In The Rye in a couple of years! Just like Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, her only book). How come she never wrote another book? Because she didn't have to that's why!
In 2,001 I was divorced and got custody of 3 kids. I had been doing stand-up opening for Smoky Robinson, and all of a sudden I was stuck at home with three kids. Then it became all about lunches, car pools, baseball practice, and how I cut my elbow shaving. Then 9/11 hit. The story that resonated with me was about Cantor-Fitzgerald.
That particular day the President of the company was accompanying his son to kindergarten. He was not at his desk. He lost 90% of his company that day: they all died. I thought about all the Sundays (Tuesdays), you never know when your number's up. What was at the top of my list: a one-man show! I wanted to mix drama and comedy, tell a coherent story, but what to write about?
I was doing a radio show for KGO in the City, ABC affiliate, and Carl Reiner, a guest, one of my comedy heroes advised me about my impasse. "When I was in your position, in 1959, the Sid Caesar show had just been cancelled. All of a sudden I didn't know what to do. My advice: find a piece of ground that you alone stand on and nobody else, and write from there." (We all know what happened: the Dick Van Dyke Show).
What's unique about me? As fortune would have it, I get this letter in mail. Letters are basically from little old ladies and nuts -wack jobs- TYPED, in 2001. It said: AS AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN, I'M DISGUSTED EVERY TIME I HEAR YOUR VOICE, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN." I thought: I've a winner. This is my piece of ground. This is something I've heard all my life as a black man growing up in the all white suburb of San Leandro (East Bay), California in the 1970's.
Brian Copeland's new book is on my MUST-READ list! In the question and answer, someone commented that he is so a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-t-e!
A: I did not realize until recently how condescending that is! Has anyone read the Boondocks cartoon? Grandfather moves his 2 children to suburbs outside of Chicago, so they can have a better life. 2 radicals trying to keep blackness. Huey, the older grandson, has a dream he's at a garden party with string quartet. I just want to say, Jesus was black, the government knew about 9/11, and Ronald Reagan was the devil. Everyone screams, riots goes crazy. Grandfather is disgusted: Don't you ever tell white people the truth! Later at a real garden party, the same thing happens, and cartoon ends with older gent saying, ISN'T THAT THE MOST ARTICULATE BLACK MAN?
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Brian, Listen to you every Sunday in Visalia,
Please do a show segment on Herman Cain- " I was pooo before I was poor."
True, Ronald Reagan success story, The African American version.
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