if by some impossible miracle: coming of age in underground new york

From an award-winning artist who was featured in Humans of New York comes a bold personal narrative about overcoming family trauma, addiction, poverty--and forging a creative life in the greatest city in the world.

Born in Brooklyn in 1963, Patrick Dougher grew up in some of the most turbulent and culturally impactful periods of NYC’s history. Often neglected as a child by his parents--a father who struggled with alcohol addiction and an overworked mother who struggled to make ends meet--he learned to fend for himself. Now a renowned visual artist, musician, actor and writer, Dougher brings to the page his memories, struggles, personal revelations, and a life intimately tied to the realities of growing up Black and disenfranchised on the streets of one of the most remarkable cities in the world.

Concrete Dreamland is tragic and triumphant, gritty and hard, poetic and outrageously funny. Told in Dougher’s brutally raw and courageously honest voice, these stories act as snapshots of a life lived in extremes: from gangsters to God, street style to sexuality, to recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism. He tells of his adventures as a pre-hip hop ＂hard rock’ and an original Black punk rocker surviving during the dangerous days of the crack and AIDS epidemic in NYC, while also sharing tales of racism, homelessness, and his many brushes with fame and death.

Audacious, unique, and moving, Concrete Dreamland is an unforgettable story of addiction, redemption, and life on the streets of a vanishing New York.

Patrick Dougher is a self-taught fine artist, musician, poet and actor who was recently name-dropped in the song ＂Saltwater＂ by Black Thought. He has performed and recorded with Sade, the Grammy award-winning Dan Zanes, Black Uhuru’s Michael Rose, Steel Pulses’ David Hinds and Hip Hop star Chuck D of Public Enemy. He has performed his poetry for the WNET Open Mic series, on BRIC TV and at venues around NYC. Dougher worked as an art therapist with HIV positive children at Kings County Hospital, as a youth counselor and teaching artist at Project Reach and Studio in a School, and served as the Program Director of Groundswell. His visual art has been featured in numerous exhibitions, as well as on TV shows including ＂The First Wives Club＂ and ＂Riches＂. He created the cover art for the reissues of Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (Amistad) and The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter Woodson (Penguin Random House), and illustrated the recently released children’s book Hold Them Close by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow (HarperCollins). His visual art can be seen on his website, www.godbodyart.com.