Man-child

[Luis Fok]

A term originating from Claude Browns 1965 memoir Man-Child in the Promised Land about growing up in the streets of 1940s and 50s Harlem, NYC, one of the earliest and most powerful accounts of ghetto life and its culture. A Man-Child originally referred to a boy or adolescent from the streets who was prematurely exposed to and knowledgeable about sex, violence and crime, incarceration, adult responsibility for younger siblings due to a dysfunctional home, and hustling to make a living.