Kai Wright’s non-fiction book, ‘Drifting Towards Love,’ engagingly chronicles the lives of young gay men of color. (Photo by Jedd Flanscha)
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ZACK ROSEN
Friday, January 11, 2008
In
his
book
“Drifting
Towards
Love:
Black,
Brown,
Gay
and
Coming
of
Age
on
the
Streets
of
New
York,”
Kai
Wright
manages
an
impressive
feat.
Instead
of
an
overly
theoretical
or
academic
text
on
the
unique
challenges
faced
by
coming
out
in
non-white
cultures,
he
simply
tells
the
stories
of
a
few
interesting
young
men
and
lets
the
reader
draw
their
own
conclusions.
“Drifting”
is
a
non-fiction
book
written
in
the
journalistic
style
of
Alex
Kotlowitz’s
“There
Are
No
Children
Here”
or
Patricia
Hersch’s
“A
Tribe
Apart.”
Wright
follows
the
lives
of
his
subjects
over
several
years,
intertwining
narrative
accounts
of
their
trials
with
interviews
with
the
main
players
and
several
knowledgeable
third
parties.
Recently
deceased
Greenwich
Village
activist
Bob
Kohler
plays
an
important
role
in
providing
a
history
of
the
neighborhood
and
giving
a
context
for
the
current
struggles
of
its
residents,
but
the
most
engaging
voices
in
the
book
belong
to
the
youth.
Most
of
the
boys
and
men
profiled
are
residents
of
low-income
neighborhoods
in
Brooklyn.
Manny
is
both
black
and
Puerto
Rican
in
his
mid-teens
and
begins
tricking
in
Prospect
Park
with
his
boyfriend
to
finance
a
coke
habit.
Julius
is
an
often
promiscuous,
sometime-sex-worker
and
a
young
black
man
who
ran
away
from
an
abusive
foster
family
in
north
Florida
to
try
and
make
it
in
New
York.
Carlos
is
a
shy
Puerto
Rican,
about
the
same
age
as
Julius,
who
is
slowly
working
up
the
courage
to
come
out
to
his
large,
overbearing
family.
And
tying
them
all
together
is
the
Korean
Lionel,
whose
newly
purchased
house
in
Brooklyn’s
rough
east
New
York
neighborhood
becomes
an
unofficial
community
center
for
all
of
them.
These
sound
like
caricatures,
but
Wright’s
greatest
strength
is
his
ability
to
take
what
could
be
a
series
of
after-school
specials
and
find
the
truth
behind
the
set-ups.
MUCH
OF
THE
BOOK
focuses
on
Manny
and
with
good
reason.
Raised
in
London
before
a
brief
stint
in
the
Meat-Packing
District
and
his
permanent
stay
in
Brooklyn,
Manny’s
life
is
a
series
of
contrasts.
He
tests
into
an
elite
Manhattan
prep
school
where
only
one
of
his
classmates
knows
the
full
details
of
his
life
at
home,
and
he
drops
out
after
the
10th
grade
to
become
a
full-time
activist.
He
has
had
a
boyfriend,
Justin,
since
middle
school
but
only
begins
to
reconcile
his
innate
sexuality
with
an
actual
queer
identity
when
he
meets
other
gay
youth
through
a
West
Village
community
center.
Wright
paints
the
seamier
sides
of
Manny’s
life
—
the
drug
use
and
the
prostitution
—
as
just
facets
of
his
personality,
not
his
entire
character.
This
makes
an
almost
inevitable
tragedy
hit
even
harder,
because
the
reader
has
become
so
involved
in
Manny’s
life.
Beyond
just
these
character
portraits,
“Drifting”
has
an
overriding
arc
that
kicks
in
at
about
the
time
the
boys’
own
stories
begin
to
mesh.
Lionel’s
understanding
of
his
own
sexuality
and
the
role
he
plays
in
helping
the
boys
come
to
terms
with
themselves
serves
as
a
constant
element
throughout,
but
the
most
tension
in
the
story
comes
over
a
fight
for
the
West
Village
piers.
The
piers
had
long
been
a
spot
where
queer
New
York
youths
of
color
came
to
gather,
and,
as
it’s
stressed
several
times
in
the
book,
it
was
a
place
for
community
in
an
otherwise
white-dominated
scene.
When
the
gradually
gentrifying
neighborhood’s
new
residents
began
taking
action
to
keep
the
kids
off
the
pier,
even
barring
the
social
activists
that
waited
on
the
sidelines
to
hand
out
condoms,
the
kids
fought
back.
Manny
and
others
become
involved
with
the
Fabulous
Independent
Educated
Radicals
for
Community
Empowerment,
or
FIERCE,
a
group
that
eventually
wins
some
success
in
holding
onto
the
pier
as
a
social
scene.
Though
all
the
characters
do
not
fare
as
well,
and
their
futures
are
left
open,
it’s
this
mix
of
successes
and
disappointments
that
cements
“Drifting”
as
a
realistic
and
dynamic
look
at
the
minority
gay
experience.
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