Baltimore Magazine/Baltimore Memoirist 4/07

"Growing up in Black and White"

article written by Geoff Brown on memoirist David Matthew's

Ace of Spades, David Matthew's engrossing new memoir about growing up in Baltimore, provides a unique look into the city's white and black societies. Matthews is the son of Ralph Matthews Jr. the black Afro-Americna reporter, and Robin Kahn, his white mother. "I remember kids from Pigtown calling me "nigger" and I remember kids from the Murphy Homes calling me 'honky' Matthews, 39 says from NYC. "But as with any place where your identity is formed, Baltimore has remained for me a crucible-the only place I could have come from. A few people have found me because of the book, and they have all said the same thing:

"Thank you for nailing Baltimore."

When I tell people about the segregation, the danger, the smallness and the charm-"they don't believe me"

Elana's note:

Virtually no one will believe what I have lived through either.