Every Day Life

M.G. Hardie
Llumina Press (2008)
ISBN 9781605940366
Reviewed by Danelle Drake for Reader Views (12/08)

 

It has been a very, very long time since I have read a play.  With that said, even I realize that “Every Day Life” is not your typical play.  Hip, although a dated word is the first one that came to my mind.  We are a fly on the wall with four African-American men in the Long Beach inner city in the late 1990s.  While the guys were hanging around smoking dope and talking, they taught me more than I could ever imagine. 

“Responsibility and guilt aren’t the same thing, especially when you make the rules.” They say of the white man.  “Shut yo’ sounds-of-blackness ass up.  You black – black.  Yo’ forehead, yo’ lips, yo’ whole fact just black” They say of the black man. 

Struggling with drugs, sexual freedoms (lots of condom talk), gang violence, and sometimes poor choices in relationships we take this walk into what some would call “the wrong side.”  After reading “Every Day Life,” you realize it is not “the wrong side” - maybe a more accurate description would be “the side for those yet undecided.” 

In “Every Day Life,” M.G. Hardie has provided this glimpse inside the walls of this tiny one-bedroom apartment that provides an education, resounding in nature.  You see to the souls of these individuals; while making you laugh, they make you cry.  And you can only hope that each of them realize what a precious gift they are wasting.

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