Rosie Perez to present memoir in Brooklyn

Brooklyn BookBeat: Greenlight Bookstore and St. Joseph’s College Partner to Present Brooklyn Voices Lecture Series

February 21, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Oscar-nominated actress and Brooklyn resident Rosie Perez is known for her effervescent personality and memorable roles in “Do The Right Thing,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Pineapple Express” and “The Counselor.” But most of her fans would be surprised to learn she had a childhood straight out of a Dickens novel: abandoned by her schizophrenic mother, then sent to live at a Catholic home for boys and girls.

In her new memoir “Handbook for an Unpredictable Life,” Perez tells her story in her own inimitable voice, as well as sharing stories from her professional life: her appearances on Soul Train which led to her work as a trail-blazing hip-hop choreographer, Spike Lee “discovering” her at a “big booty” contest at a club, which led to her being cast in her first acting role; meeting Sean “Puffy” Combs, Jennifer Lopez Tupac, and others before they were famous; and more.

“Handbook for an Unpredictable Life” has been highly praised by fellow artists, including author Hilton Als, who writes, “I read Rosie Perez’s magnificent, very real and heart wrenching book with equal parts joy and horror — horror that the world can and routinely does inflict its terrors on its children, and joy that Rosie made it out to become not only the superior, iconographic artist she is, but the magnificent woman this book reveals her to be. Her voice is the captivating instrument here: forthright, funny, and utterly her own.”

Als, a New Yorker staff writer, winner of a Guggenheim for Creative Writing, and author most recently of the hugely acclaimed essay collection “White Girls,” will talk with Rosie about her memoir at St. Joseph’s College on Feb. 26, with a book signing to follow. The event is hosted by Greenlight Bookstore and St. Joseph’s College and is part of the Brooklyn Voices series of lectures, forums, performances, and public discussion. The Brooklyn Voices series promotes and enhances the creative vitality of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill by providing writers, artists, and intellectuals with a local forum in which to discuss and present their works.

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The Feb. 26 event will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is event is free and open to the public; seating is first come, first served. St. Joseph’s College Tuohy Auditorium is located at 245 Clinton Ave.