Features

Perspective: Miles Marshall Lewis

Miles Marshall Lewis
Author/Journalist
Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises
Paris France

Job History
I worked as an elevator man in swank Manhattan apartment buildings during college summers. The job had its ups and downs. Years later, I brought in New Years at a house party in one of these buildings and had the whole "Jeffersons" "movin' on up" moment. ("Didn't you used to work here?" "Yeah…seventh floor, please.")
I worked at two law firms while attending law school. Pretty boring stuff. Law school in general was a smoke screen for the 'rents, a Clark Kent moment while I spent my Superman time bogarting my way into magazines writing music reviews and celeb profiles.
I became a contributing writer to The Source, then wrote some Time Out New York pieces, which swiftly somehow led to Rolling Stone. Then LA Weekly, Spin and The Village Voice followed, plus editor positions at XXL, then Vibe, then BET.com. The dotcom bubble burst (we all got fired) and I got a book deal.
My essay collection Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises was published in October 2004, after two years of dredging up my childhood memories of the Bronx and mourning the loss of hiphop culture.

What are you currently working on? Your day-to-day responsibilities?

I'm currently working on a lengthy profile of poet Sarah Jones for The Believer (author Dave Eggers' latest ironic, postmodern monthly mag) and a novel about an MC sparking revolution in America. But then, I've been learning French to navigate Paris since May 2004. And practicing the guitar. And painting. And reading, reading, reading: right now, Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco.

What inspires/motivates you?

Every day, we create the moments of our own lives, and as enough of those days and moments pile up, we've built our own legacies based on consistently self-inventing who we are. That's pretty inspirational/motivational.

How do you balance your personal and professional life?

"My job's not a job, it's a damn good time," one of the Beastie Boys once said. I always loved the arts--painting and music and film and photography. Always loved museums and theatre and concerts. One of the biggest swindles I've ever pulled off is getting free music and tickets and premiere invites as a job! I don't think I have a "professional life" so much, I don't look at it like that. My so-called career is an extension of my personal life as a writer and arts lover.

What career achievement are you most proud of?

Having created Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises has got to be no.1 for the moment. Most of the writers who record hiphop history now grew up outside of New York City and moved (inevitably) to Brooklyn in the 90s. I wanted to address the decline of the culture from my own Bronx born-and-raised point of view, having seen hiphop from the very beginning. (Everyone remembers "Rapper's Delight"--but as a 7-year-old, I remember stuff like Kool DJ AJ spinning in St. Mary's Park even earlier in 1978.) I fondly recall hiphop's former glories and higher standards, and my book doesn't do too bad a job of getting my nostalgia across. With the next book, I hope to fail even better.

What was your biggest personal/career mistake and what did you learn from the experience?

I'm of the belief that I cause everything that's happened in my life to happen, so I don't really claim mistakes. Nothing happens that wasn't meant to happen, and we're all one, and there's enough for us all, and yadda yadda. Maybe my biggest personal mistake was thinking that everyone knows this already.

Guiding principles?

All is mind.

Birthday? Where you grew up? Where you went to school?

I was born December 18 in the Boogie Down Bronx, under the Sagittarius birth sign of Gordon Parks and Jay-Z, Mos Def and Richard Pryor. I went to public school at Truman High in the Bronx (very funny to see Truman as the fictional high school on the WB's Jack & Bobby), currently listed as having the most reported felony incidents of all Bronx high schools. From there, wack grades got me into Atlanta's Morris Brown College. (Their accreditation was since stripped). From there, transferred and graduated from Morehouse. From there, Fordham Law.

For more info visit MilesMarshallLewis.com or click here to buy his current book, Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises!

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