Cole Brown is a Philly kid; he matured in the city’s predominately white private schools and neighbourhoods. During his undergraduate years at Georgetown University, Cole began writing his first book, Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World. Today, Cole splits his time between Sydney, Australia, and New York.
Today, Cole Brown is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions. Read on!
1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
This isn’t such a terrifying start! I was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana yet called Philadelphia home for much of my life. My mother’s side of the family is Ethiopian, and my father’s side is from the Midwest, so throughout my childhood, I spent summers between both those places. Since graduating high school, I’ve bounced around a bit – D.C., Chicago, New York, and now, Sydney.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve (and for all years prior) I wanted to be a lawyer. I had little idea of what a lawyer did then, but I knew that my father was one, and in those days, that was enough.
At eighteen, I wanted to be a broadcast journalist. My first real job, beginning at age 14, was reporting for a trendy, music website. They’d send me to hip-hop concerts up-and-down the East Coast and I’d interview the acts after their sets. To this day, it is the coolest damn job I’ve ever held.
I’m only 24 now, and still not entirely sure what I want to be, so I’ll have to circle back with you in six years; hopefully I’ll know by then.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
18 wasn’t too long ago for me, but oh how much I, and the world, have changed in the intervening years. I think I held a more gilded view of America and its promise then, as many did. Not that we were perfect, but that we were striving toward something better. I believed in the inevitability of progress and was largely committed to the hopefulness that came with the Obama years. Those days are no more.
4. What were three works of art – film, book or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your artistic career?
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The Godfather, and Between the World and Me.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write non-fiction?
In terms of medium, other creative expressions never seemed open to me. I am pitiful at painting, and singing, and all of those others, really. In terms of genre, I started with the story that I felt I needed to tell. It just so happened that that story was a true one.
6. Please tell us about your book!
Why thank you for asking! Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World is all about the experience of Black kids growing up in white spaces. I chart the journey toward identity for those of us who were, and are, surrounded by dissimilarity. I call it a “scrapbook”, as it is part memoir, containing many of my own stories from my slightly younger years, but it is part something else as well. It includes stories from peers whom I interviewed, letters addressed to myself and others, and one or two surprises too.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your book?
For years, I felt I could see only a limited range of possibilities for Blackness in popular storytelling. Those stories didn’t reflect who we really are – a broad and varied people. I’d like this book to add just one small, additional facet to our understanding of this beautiful experience that we share.
8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
Sheesh! So many… this is perhaps the most terrifying of your questions. I am sorry, but I simply cannot offer a single answer. The three writers that I looked to most throughout my life were Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. I stand in awe of each of them. In more recent years, James Baldwin and Colson Whitehead have both forced their way into my pantheon as well.
In each case, the “why” is slightly different. What they have in common is a willingness to stare at our most joyous and painful truths and write down what they see. I love that.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
A friend here in Australia recently told me that, to write well, “you must write without ambition”. His point was that ambition sullies a process that should have the singular goal of honesty. It was well taken.
As I sit here today, I do have dreams for the book. I’d love for it to be a great success and adapted to a screenplay and translated to a million languages and all the rest, but those dreams came after. The writing came first.
10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
I’d point them to Baldwin, “Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say.”
Thank you for playing!
—Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World by Cole Brown (NewSouth Books) is out now.

Greyboy
Finding Blackness in a White World
An honest and courageous examination of what it means to navigate the in-between
Cole has heard it all before - token, bougie, oreo, Blackish - the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an intersection of race and class that many doubt exists. He needed to get far away from the preppy site of his upbringing before he could make sense of it all. Through a series of personal anecdotes and interviews with his peers, Cole transports us to his adolescence and...
Comments
No comments