Milwaukee born-and-raised writer and pop culture critic Ira Madison III has a new book that tells the story of his life through the lens of one of his greatest obsessions: pop culture.
N*SYNC, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Coldplay (which Madison loves and calls not just “white music … but … also uncool white music”) and “Family Matters” are just some of the many and varied ’80s, ’90s and aughts pop culture references that he makes in “Pure Innocent Fun.”
It’s a mix of pop culture commentary, essay, memoir and humor writing.
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Madison recently spoke with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” about growing up in Wisconsin and his new book.
The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Kate Archer Kent: Can you set the scene a little bit about growing up in [Milwaukee]?
Ira Madison III: I think that a lot of people, particularly artists … [have] this sort of fraught relationship with their hometown. They want to leave, and they want to go and do other things. And I think that that was very much me when I was younger. I wanted to do theater, I wanted to do television, and I just knew that living in New York or living in L.A. was somewhere that I needed to be, and I couldn’t really accomplish those goals in Milwaukee.
Coming back recently, it was a lovely homecoming. Some high school friends showed up. I actually had no idea they knew I had a book coming out, or had listened to my podcast for years. So that was actually a very lovely, sort of welcoming moment for me. There’s been a lot of moments that have just been making me fall back in love, I guess, with my hometown.
KAK: It’s your mom who decides you go to Marquette University High School, the all-boys Catholic school. And you’re just like, not okay with that as a kid. What was that experience like for you, coming from predominantly Black Milwaukee schools?
IM: I had gone to Morse Middle School. I made a lot of really close friendships, and all those friends were talking about going to Rufus King or some other school that wasn’t an all-boys school.
[Marquette University High School was] all white and full of mostly just people who I hadn’t met before. I mean, that was really the biggest thing. I talk a lot in the book about how I was a closeted teenager at the time. So, you know, going to an all-boys school … Everyone would always make a joke about, you know, it being a school full of gay people. That’s the common refrain I would hear in middle school, so that stressed me out.
I was going into unfamiliar territory. I didn’t know anybody. And I was an anxious sort of kid who liked to keep to himself, and I liked to read and watch movies and television, et cetera. I had really found people who made me comfortable throughout four years of middle school, and then I was suddenly just not going to be with them anymore.
KAK: I appreciate all of the glimpses of your grandmother, who you call “Gran.” There’s this point where she tells you to be like those “nice, white boys.” That must have been so hard for you to hear that as a kid, because you couldn’t be — nor had you … intention of being like them. What was that like?
IM: It was hard to hear. But I think when you revisit moments from your childhood, you sort of get a perspective that you didn’t have before. I mean, she was a person who grew up through Jim Crow in the South. She had lived in Tennessee, and she had moved to Wisconsin.
Now, as an adult who has worked in the media and been a writer for 15-plus years, I get exactly what she meant. I know what it’s like in the current political climate. I think that it was sound advice. It wasn’t maybe presented in a way that was helpful to me as a teenager, but I think it’s a thing that is relatable to a lot of young people of color in America, particularly people who grew up in Wisconsin, and go to schools and spaces where there aren’t other people like them. You do have to, in a sense, perform and be like the people around you so that you can appear either non-threatening, you can appear relatable, et cetera.
KAK: I want to talk about the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” There’s the specific episode that you write about where Will’s father, who left the family years ago, shows up out of nowhere, planning a road trip with the son. But Will’s dad ends up letting him down again, canceling the trip at the last minute.
IM: I think that the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” was just this sort of wish fulfillment show that came right after the era of dynasty TV — Diane Carroll and Dominique Deveraux. It came after this Reagan excess on television. Glamorous soap operas. I think it was a way to bridge the gap between shows like that and the burgeoning hip-hop culture and youth culture that was rising on MTV.
And I think that it allowed Will Smith to be placed into that world, so you could see some of the glamorous wish fulfillment, but then you could also see what it would be like if you just were plopped into Bel Air as a young Black person. I think that it was a really fun balance of stories that maybe seemed a little soapy and outlandish … and just really fun sitcom stories, and then also some real emotional stories of what it was like to be Black in America at the time.
KAK: It’s not until college that you come out, I understand. What was that like? How did that go for you? I think you thought it would be easier in college.
IM: I mean, it was easier than high school; it wasn’t as easy as when I moved to New York after college.
A lot of people think that because Loyola University is a Jesuit college, it’s a lot more austere, like I probably would have felt claustrophobic, as I did in high school. But the fact of the matter was, I was in the theater department, so I did not feel the same sort of oppressive nature of being at a Jesuit school, per se, as I did in high school. In high school, you had to go to mandatory liturgies, you had to take theology classes. I didn’t have to do any of that in college. The theater department was its own world.
KAK: As a pop culture nerd, what are you currently obsessed with? What are you crushing on?
I’m really enjoying “Beyond the Gates.” I’m a reality TV person, so I just watched the premiere of “Survivor.” It’s fun. I’ve watched “Survivor” ever since it premiered, but I prefer Australian “Survivor,” which I am also watching. I’m a big competition reality person. You know, I love “The Traitors.” I’m loving “Deal or No Deal Island.” Those are the kind of shows that I love when I’m done writing — sitting down and watching to turn off my brain. You’re seeing how human beings interact with one another, seeing strategy and gameplay, within a space where they’re also performing a role. It’s fascinating for me to watch.
KAK: I’m wondering — for a kid who’s listening to you and seeing a lot happening in their world, especially with DEI, the Trump administration: What would you tell that kid?
IM: I would tell them, first of all, that words are powerful. That’s why I love writing, and that’s why I love reading.
There is a lot of focus on DEI. What does that mean — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? To make a point, a lot of people just throw those words out when they don’t even know what they’re talking about. It’s just an easy way for them to latch it onto something that they don’t particularly like.
Learn other words. Learn ways to change the conversation. And don’t talk about DEI. Don’t talk about diversity, equity, inclusion. Don’t stick to buzz words.
Read a lot more. Expand your worldview, expand your vocabulary, and then you won’t have to play the game that other people are playing. That’s also why you should watch “Survivor.”
