I Am the New Black

I Am the New Black
Author	Tracy Morgan with Anthony Bozza
Country	United States
Genre	Autobiography
Published	2009 (Spiegel & Grau)
Media type	Print
ISBN	978-1-58836-941-3

Last updated September 04, 2019

I Am the New Black is a 2009 autobiography by American actor and comedian Tracy Morgan, co-written with journalist Anthony Bozza.^[1] It was published on 22 October 2009 by Spiegel & Grau.^[2]

An autobiography is a self-written account of the life of oneself. The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical The Monthly Review, when he suggested the word as a hybrid, but condemned it as "pedantic". However, its next recorded use was in its present sense, by Robert Southey in 1809. Despite only being named early in the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical writing originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective mode of journal or diary writing by noting that "[autobiography] is a review of a life from a particular moment in time, while the diary, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments in time". Autobiography thus takes stock of the autobiographer's life from the moment of composition. While biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints, autobiography may be based entirely on the writer's memory. The memoir form is closely associated with autobiography but it tends, as Pascal claims, to focus less on the self and more on others during the autobiographer's review of his or her life.

An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of their role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might take many forms including jokes, satirical observations, amusing situations, acting foolish or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian. Other practises include the sitcom, sketch comedy and improv genres.

The book includes tales about Morgan's life as a child, living in Tompkins Projects in Brooklyn, the desperation of the drug dealers' trade and how he rose to fame performing on Saturday Night Live .^[3]

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City coterminous with Kings County, the most populous county in the U.S. state of New York and the second-most densely populated county in the United States. It is New York City's most populous borough, with an estimated 2,504,700 residents in 2010. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, it borders the borough of Queens at the western end of Long Island. Brooklyn has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan across the East River, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connects it with Staten Island.

Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live television variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast as with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.

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References

↑ "I Am The New Black". Randomhouse. 22 October 2009.
↑ "Top 15 Most Jaw-Dropping Revelations From Tracy Morgan". abc news. October 22, 2009.
↑ "Tracy Morgan on being "The New Black"". npr books. October 22, 2009.

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[1] "I Am The New Black". Randomhouse. 22 October 2009.

[2] "Top 15 Most Jaw-Dropping Revelations From Tracy Morgan". abc news. October 22, 2009.

[3] "Tracy Morgan on being "The New Black"". npr books. October 22, 2009.