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CREATED:20150821T193900Z
DESCRIPTION:Very recently Watkins's "Too Poor for Pop Culture" essay went viral almost 
 immediately after it appeared on the website Salon. It's a vivid meditation 
 about how little pop culture matters to the people who live paycheck to 
 paycheck. Two more essays followed-"How Glamorizing Drugs Is Killing Black 
 Kids" and "Poor Black People Don't Work? Lessons of a Former Dope Dealer."  
 Thousands eagerly shared and tweeted them. He has since been a frequent 
 guest on NPR and been published in The Huffington Post, Aeon, Vice and 
 Salon. \n\nIn short, Watkins is writing a perennial American dream 
 narrative, an intimate saga of overcoming adversity. And he's doing it 
 after that dream has long since vanished, when the American narrative for 
 most people isn't a triumph over adversity but a steady struggle to simply 
 get by. And he's doing it as somebody straddling two worlds. He's writing 
 about the underemployed, the undereducated, the people who only appear in 
 the newspaper in crime blotters or homicide reports. \n\nWatkins is still 
 fighting his way out of where he came from. What sets his writing apart is 
 his own fierce contemporary class consciousness, coming from the 
 perspective of somebody who didn't just come from little. He's still there. 
 Growing up in East Baltimore (where The Wire was made), when his brother's 
 drug selling got him killed, D. Watkins took on the work, and put himself 
 through Johns Hopkins University while dealing. What makes Watkins' story 
 sting is that it's a story of a member of the underclass wanting to be 
 recognized as human.\n\nPresented by KPFA Radio 94.1FM and Marcus Books 
 \n\nHosted by Greg Bridges, a radio dj and journalist living in Oakland. He 
 can be heard over KCSM 91.1fm (www.kcsm.org) Tuesday nights 6 to 9 pm, and 
 Thursday nights 6 pm to 2 am, on  KPFA (94.1fm) Monday nights 8 to 10 pm. 
 \n\n$12 advance tickets: 800-838-3006 or independent bookstores, $15 door, 
 KPFA benefit   www.kpfa.org/events  poster: bobbaldock.com\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/08/21/18776453.php
SUMMARY:D Watkins: The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America
LOCATION:First Congregational Church of Oakland\n2501 Harrison St\nOakland, CA 
 94612\n510-444-8511\nhttp://firstoakland.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/08/21/18776453.php
DTSTART:20150923T023000Z
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