I, Stagolee

cecil brown never ceases to amaze me! i have been a fan of his forever. he has a way with words that actually makes the readers feel like they are right there witnessing the action!

My plan was to read I, Stagolee on next week's flight to Madrid. My mistake was to review the first chapter last Friday. I GOT HOOKED! I couldn't put it down all weekend. I've known the story of Stagolee since childhood. I've even sung Jackie Wilson's version of the ballad with friends. Most of my acquaintance with late 19th century African American literature comes from my research on black utopias written since that period. Amazingly, Cecil Brown's narrative is reminiscent of that staccato, syncopated, blues laden style. Brown has raised the pimp and infamous "bad nigga" Stagolee to the heroic proportions many, if not most, downtrodden, harassed, ill treated African Americans of that day must have seen him. Even today the pimp is celebrated as a person with guts, ingenuity, style and charm. In underclass neighborhoods one can't get more dynamic or independent than the pimp or the gangster. After all, post Civil Rights, everybody else with those qualities has long since moved away. Rap and Hip Hop artists portray themselves as today's equivalent of a Stagolee and despite being reviled by those outside the community they rake in huge sums of money from both the underclass and from the very middle and upper classes by whom they are condemned. One hundred years after the death of Stagolee virtually the same relative socio-political conditions prevail among blacks in America. There was then and is now little chance for an uneducated black man to achieve both wealth and respect in the rough and tumble slums and there is a wealth of undereducated humanity living in those slums. We cannot say whether or not a pimp or gangster would turn to altruistic politics given the chance for sober reflection. Many people say that the Cripps gang leader recently executed in California, Stanley Tookie Williams, made such an attempt once given that chance in prison. Rap music mogul, Russell Simmons of Def Jam records, while not born of the underclass, is a rare person still to reach back and try to build a political movement founded in those who celebrate the gangster and pimp life style both in and outside of that community. Maybe post 2000, Russell Simmons represents the new form Brown's Stagolee has taken. He's a "bad nigga," no doubt; pushed forward and inspired by, perhaps utopian, but still very much necessary dreams for a stable, peaceful, prosperous independence minded African America. I'm just pissed that he, Cecil Brown, and Stagolee have upset my plans for next week. Can anyone suggest a good book for my flight to Madrid?