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Patrick Dougher’s “Concrete Dreamland” Launch + Artist Talk
Join us at the cafe at MoCADA Culture Lab II on Friday, May 2, for a special Concrete Dreamland book launch and artist talk with the author Patrick Dougher in conversation with celebrated photographer Jamel Shabazz.
In brutally honest and outlandishly hilarious prose, ‘Concrete Dreamland,’ the debut novel by visual artist and writer Patrick Dougher illuminates the development of an artist struggling with family trauma and generational addiction.
Set in Brooklyn, New York, the book opens in the 1970’s, during Bruce Lee mania, when Patrick Dougher, who grows up with “absent” parents, takes his first drink at six years old and falls in love. Through the 1980’s and 1990’s, during the crack era and the hip hop explosion, the future-fine-artist is seen on punk rock stages, drumming for Sade, working in art galleries and bookstores, in a waist down body cast (the result of trying to impress a girl), in tears after being harassed by the police, and when not homeless, living in an illegal rental.
Ultimately, ‘Concrete Dreamland’ is an audacious and peculiar memoir about using your gifts to overcome a life of addiction and tragedy. Funny and incisive, it covers the legendary Nells night club, possessed pets, one-way integration bussing, Jamaican rude boys, achy feet, bike messengers, and murder. These epic tales have a feel of magical realism, with a hip hop, punk rock flavor, revealing the underbelly of New York and the colorful characters who “never get enough of what they don’t want.”
WHAT: Concrete Dreamland book launch, featuring the author Patrick Dougher in conversation with Jamel Shabazz
WHEN: Friday, May 2 @ 7pm – 9pm
WHERE: MoCADA Culture Lab II + Cafe, 10 Lafayette Avenue, 2nd floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217
This artist talk is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required. Made possible thanks to the generous support of the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Coalition for Theaters of Color.
RSVP
Want to get the book? Purchase it here! There will also be books on site for purchase and signing.
Patrick Dougher has worn many hats as a graphic designer, drummer, poet, art therapist, and educator. He has performed at such musical venues as CBGB and Webster Hall. He was the program director for Groundswell and is responsible for leading artists in the creation of 300+ murals throughout NYC. His art has been featured on big and small screens—The First Wives Club, Riches, and Harlem. Patrick is a self-taught fine artist, musician, poet, and actor. He has performed and recorded with Sade, the Grammy award-winning Dan Zanes, Black Uhuru’s Michael Rose, Steel Pulses’ David Hinds and Hip Hop star Chuck D of Public Enemy. His art has been featured in numerous exhibitions, and he created the cover art for the reissue of Zora Neale Hurtson’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. His visual art can be seen on his website, www.godbodyart.com.
