Monthly Archives: March 2011

Originality and having your own voice are two journalistic qualities Adrian Nicole Leblanc has achieved effortlessly.

As the inspiring author and journalist read excerpts from her book, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx to the audience, her sense of concern and endearment for the people she has gotten to know over a ten year period is evident through her writing.

Sitting in the Newman Library Conference Center, I listened to Leblanc read excerpts from her book, illustrating the lives Jessica and Cocoa. As I became enticed by the story of these two girls, my previous plans of catching the 7:20 ferry home and getting dinner no longer felt important to me.

Leblanc has taken an innovative turn in her career and is now focused on her new book about a struggling stand up comedian.

Through her voice and originality, Leblanc is able to capture the hearts and interest of her readers through these tragic yet motivating stories of life, hopelessness, addiction, and taking all the means necessary, even prostitution, to survive.

Author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc came to Baruch to talk about her book and experiences. Personally, I had not read the book beforehand nor had any idea what is about. Due to some personal business I had to take care of, I arrived fifteen minutes late to the event and ending up sitting all the way in the back of the room on the floor. I did pick up some of her thoughts on comedians and how hard they have it but most of what she said was lost on me

While it seems to take journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc years to write a nonfiction novel, it only takes her minutes to warm up to a group and talk about it.

Much like the stand up comedians she’s currently interviewing for her upcoming book, this spring’s Harman Writer- in- Residence stood up at the podium last night and simultaneously entertained and imparted words of wisdom to her attentive audience. In a friendly and casual tone, LeBlanc read from her first book, Random Family, and her work in progress,  and answered a series of curious inquiries afterward.

Her response to one question was that, both writing and comedy is like “a long apprenticeship. It takes a long time to find your voice.”

It’s clearly the case that LeBlanc has long found hers.

At exactly 5:45 PM in the Newman Conference Center on the seventh floor of the library building, Professor Bernstein began with her own Twiku, titled after Baruch’s slogan, “Baruch Means Business,” with a twist on the actual meaning behind the slogan. Soon afterwards, Professor Hallowell took the stage to introduce Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and began immediately by describing the silence he encountered from his students upon their completion of her journalistic, non-fiction novel, Random Family, that required over ten, jaw-dropping, tenuous years of reporting to complete.

Currently, I am in her Harman Writers-in-Residence class, and one of the required readings is her book, Random Family. I remember finishing her novel the moment I purchased it in the beginning of the year, and yes, it is an AMAZING book. But still, her vocalized reading animated the plot, making it really come alive. Hearing her voice, her humor, her journalistic approaches, and the connections she finds between stand-up comedians and journalists was both enlightening as well as enrapturing. Though I had to go home earlier before the reading ended to finish writing my creative non-fiction piece for her class, I stayed til the end because I couldn’t peel myself away from my seat.