Gaikokujin—The Story: Hip Hop, Race, and Pursuing the American Dream
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Description
外黒人 is a spiritual rags to riches adventure. A confused son trying to appease his angry father, like so many neglected children, Takuan was a stranger in his own home. This led to his search for a surrogate family in the street—mainly at the local basketball courts. A sanctuary for teens, the courts served as a personal mental-health facility. Amidst the laughter, fun, fights, and tension provided by his peers, not only did he get ‘schooled' by playground legends, even more significant were the off-the-court tutorials by older playboys and pushers on the neighborhood value system: which was how to get over on society. After learning how to ‘make a dollar out of fifteen cents' Tak was heading down a tried-and-true path for disaster. Part memoir, part historical treatise, and part survivor's guide, the perspective of a ‘mixed-race' child is articulated along with the slang-jargon, musical references, and pivotal news stories of the 1970s and ‘80s to paint a vivid landscape of the times that can be seen, heard, and almost touched.
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About the Author
Takuan Amaru is an author, teacher, and mental-health specialist. Former columnist of the Examiner (Philadelphia) magazine, he has written over 100 articles on various topics such as popular culture/music, ancient spirituality, and philosophy. Tak borrows from diverse life-experiences as a soldier, social worker, athlete, as well as music artist to connect with readers. He makes his home in Nagoya, Japan. For more information, please email him at [email protected]. Or, he can be reached on Facebook
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I sat so merry in my abode
Loving hands around me
I dreamt of such glorious days
One day i would see
I remember the day I left
My room
I closed the door behind me
One quick look again
Then walked away
The room which would always remind me
The glorious days I had dreamt
I did merrily spent
How little did I then know
Life turns on a dime
My room is now not as it was
When I closed the door
Behind me
My room now is a prison
But not how one would invision
It is one of sorrow and grief
Sadness burns into the bare walls
I catch my breath
And weep
Why did thou'st doth betray?
The room which once embraced me
I ask with riddled heart
Jagged and torn
Which wicked riddles have I thus sought?
I sit still
I am now my room
No dreams as once before
I age before my open door
In my room long ago
I sat merrily in my loving abode
Loving hands did hold me
All gone
My room and myself
Now one
Two thrust to be together
Forever
Alone