Erskine Hawkins Jr.

Stepchild is the saga of the Gibsons, Adrienne and Josh, a fictional contemplation of love and race in America in the post-civil rights movement era. Set in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1980s, it chronicles the love affair of Josh, a dispirited soul haunted by tragedy, and Adrienne, the love of his life. Determined to provide a solution rather than a conversation about America’s most enduring problem—race—Adrienne is pursuing her doctorate in sociology when she arrives at Morehouse College and meets the man she will come to call my Josh. They fall in love amongst the ruins of the crack epidemic beginning to rage through America and struggle with Josh’s battle to overcome an addiction to the devil’s dandruff. Loss seems to be the theme of their life together, but they never cease to believe in the power of love—the same belief Adrienne bequeaths her community in her dissertation, a document dedicated to the power and consequence of choice.