after reading brown girl dreaming, i was looking up jacqueline woodson's other works online and came across after tupac and foster d. since i had seen a tupac exhibit at the grammy museum in february, i decided to check out this book.
the novel centered around the narrator and her best friend neeka's life and their friend d foster that entered their lives for a moment. the narrator and neeka's parents are protective and do not allow the girls to leave the block so part of d's appeal was that she could travel on our own and around the city. however, the girls learned that her life is not that idealistic. due to her mother being unfit to take care of her, d had been in and out of foster care. her foster mother at the time took good care of her but she shared stories with the girls of starving. due to her experiences, d identified with tupac. all the three girls love him but for d, his songs were about her life.
i hate to admit this but i only recently saw for myself how tupac's work was pretty high brow considering he was a rapper. i mean he had a song about van gogh! and i know that there are college courses based on his songs and poetry, but i never look into his work like i should. this novel and the grammy exhibit reminded me that his writing is an important part of sharing the black experience of the nineties. it is important that the history of others is told and i am glad that woodson lets young adults know that music can be a means of self discovery and expression. i think about how much music was important for me in high school, how i would listen to songs that seemed to understand me. it's important for kids to know that they have this outlet.
though i have to admit i am disappointed that tupac did serve time for sexual asault. the novel does address it but played up the fact that tupac only touched some girl's butt and that the judge was bias. i googled to look up what happen but i mean no one will really know. and as a feminist, i believe we can't blame the victim or try to slut shame her.
the thing that i liked most about this work was that one of neeka's brother, tash, was gay. they did call him sissy which i found as tat offensive but perhaps it was trying to be authentic. i mean woodson did use queen which i didn't bat at eye at but which i use. i think it was great to see a strong gay character in this book. granted he was incarcerated (though it wasn't his fault and he was released early because it was finally realized that he was not involved with the assault and robbery), his message was about being yourself and not trying to act like a thug and ending up in jail. also tash was gay and proud and i was happy to read about it.
all in all, a great novel for young adults. it demonstrated that not everyone and their experiences are the same but what is important are the connections that you make.
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