[DOC] Shakespeare's Wordcraft (Softcover) by Kaiser Scott at Arts-Photography

Description

A pitch-perfect account of how hip-hop culture drew in the author and how his father drew him out again-with love; perseverance; and fifteen thousand books. Into Williamss childhood home-a one-story ranch house-his father crammed more books than the local library could hold. "Pappy" used some of these volumes to run an academic prep service; the rest he used in his unending pursuit of wisdom. His sons pursuits were quite different-"money; hoes; and clothes." The teenage Williams wore Medusa- faced Versace sunglasses and a hefty gold medallion; dumbed down and thugged up his speech; and did whatever else he could to fit into the intoxicating hip-hop culture that surrounded him. Like all his friends; he knew exactly where he was the day Biggie Smalls died; he could recite the lyrics to any Nas or Tupac song; and he kept his woman in line; with force if necessary. But Pappy; who grew up in the segregated South and hid in closets so he could read Aesop and Plato; had a different destiny in mind for his son. For years; Williams managed to juggle two disparate lifestyles- "keeping it real" in his friends eyes and studying for the SATs under his fathers strict tutelage. As college approached and the stakes of the thug lifestyle escalated; the revolving door between Williamss street life and home life threatened to spin out of control. Ultimately; Williams would have to decide between hip-hop and his future. Would he choose "street dreams" or a radically different dream- the one Martin Luther King spoke of or the one Pappy held out to him now? Williams is the first of his generation to measure the seductive power of hip-hop against its restrictive worldview; which ultimately leaves those who live it powerless. Losing My Cool portrays the allure and the danger of hip-hop culture like no book has before. Even more remarkably; Williams evokes the subtle salvation that literature offers and recounts with breathtaking clarity a burgeoning bond between father and son.Watch a Video