Scenes from My Life: A Memoir

Michael K Williams is one of my favorite actors ever, and he's played several of my favorite characters on TV. When he died, I was gutted. I was sad for days. I'm still sad. I knew about the work he was doing in the community and how inspiring he was to at-risk youths and selfishly, I wanted to see him do his thing for years to come. When I saw this memoir was coming out, nearly complete at the time of his death, it shot up in my most anticipated releases of the year.

And it really delivered. MKW talks candidly about his upbringing, his confusion regarding his sexuality, how he was bullied as a child and found refuge in the arts and dancing, his descent into addiction, and some figures in his life that really set him straight. He details his journey from model to dancer to actor to community activist with poignancy, honesty, and wisdom. I feel like he really gets to the core of why art is so transformative, and so valuable, and why acting is such a powerful therapy tool for many (without a doubt, a lot of actors are working through their own baggage while playing roles). The way Williams discusses working through his trauma with the roles he's played, using Omar Little as a paper tiger to hide behind, using Freddy Knight from The Night Of as a mirror into his nephew's life and the life he could have had, using Montrose Freeman from Lovecraft Country as a way to explore generational trauma and how that his impacted his life, as well as many other examples, I really feel like this memoir is a love letter to the arts.

The last 40% of the book really focuses on community outreach and things Michael had done to engage and give back to the communities he's lived in, the youth who need guidance, and other very admirable programs and events he's given his time to. He seemed like a very good person who was using his gifts to change lives. I would say that if this memoir had been complete and released as is, it'd be a four star, because there isn't enough depth on the personal level during all of this (he talks candidly about many topics, but the last 15ish years of his life are basically glanced over) and I personally just like more breadth of experience, this memoir was very short. But of course, it wasn't finished, and who knows how much MKW was planning on adding if he'd had time. Jon Sternfeld did an admirable job making this feel cohesive and final, as if it was intended to be this way all along.

If you like Michael K Williams, or want to learn more about how art can transform lives, or learn about some of the harrowing things that people go through in these rough, poverty-stricken neighborhoods, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Rest in Peace, Michael. Ay-yo, Omar Coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.