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REDEFINING READINGS
Shoot from the hip-hop
BY NINA WILLDORF

More often than not, book readings are a rote affair. File in; claim a seat; remain rapt while author reads from text and looks up occasionally to establish connection with audience; throw some softball Q’s to be A’d; and then exit, enriched.

Not so with a young author who'll breeze into town twice in the next two weeks. Adam Mansbach, a 25-year-old Newton native who recently completed his MFA at Columbia, will be traveling through 13 cities with a three-piece band and an evocative blend of live spoken-word, hip-hop, and jazz performance. Consider it a fitting way to flag his two new music-themed books — a novel, Shackling Water (Doubleday), and a book of poetry, genius b-boy cynics getting weeded in the garden of delights (Subway & Elevated) — which Mansbach wrote simultaneously.

"I want to re-imagine what a reading or a book tour is," he explains over the phone from his home in Brooklyn. "I’ve seen enough of them. Even if a reader is good, it’s a fairly dry format. There’s some guy up there reading, and for five minutes you’re intrigued. Then you start thinking about your taxes or something."

Plan on putting away all thoughts of deductions and W-2s at these readings, however. Mansbach, whose style has been compared to that of Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, will be at the mike reading from both Shackling Water and genius b-boys. Mark Hanson on saxophone, Jason Fifield on upright bass, and the Applejuice Kid on drums will back the author, a Brooklyn MC who has performed in various venues around New York.

Shackling Water, which has been lauded by Tupac Shakur biographer Michael Eric Dyson and No More Prisons author William Upski Wimsatt, tells the story of a young saxophonist on his journey from Roxbury to Harlem — from young hopeful talent to street-smart student of hard knocks. Though his work is easily classified as "hip-hop poetry," Mansbach balks at the label. "If it has some sort of street mentality or spells fat with a ‘ph’ or spells gangster with an ‘a’ at the end, [people] say, ‘Oh this is hip-hop poetry.’"

Instead, Mansbach spells out his own definition. "To me, hip-hop in general has some sort of artistic pillars in all of its different art forms. There are collaging techniques; there’s a premium on verbal humor and interplay, quickness of wit; there’s an improvisational element; and an impulse to re-contextualize things that already exist and put them in a new context." Having delineated his terms, the writer adds, "I hope that my poetry does that."

See for yourself tonight and March 6, when Mansbach will spit, flow, and rhyme his way through both texts.

Mansbach will perform at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 28, at the Market Theater, 1 Winthrop Square (across from WordsWorth Books), in Cambridge; and then again at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street, in Newton. The events are both free. Call (617) 354-5201 or visit www.adammansbach.com for more information.

Issue Date: February 28 - March 7, 2002
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