The High School of Art & Design…Again, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #284 |@MDWorld

September 20, 2012 Michael Davis 5 Comments

I’ve been on a nostalgia kick lately.

I’ve been reminiscing about my very first girlfriend, my high school sweetheart Yvonne, and my college girlfriend Donna. I’ve been thinking about my time in high school that, incidentally, was the greatest high school in the world.

The High School of Art & Design in Manhattan, or A&D as we alumni call it, is without a doubt the greatest high school in the history of the world.

Yes, I’m both jaded and biased, and I don’t care who knows it.

I wrote about A&D in my last article on Comicmix, but I may have missed an opportunity to really express my feelings.

The greatest experience of my life was when I attended A&D, and that is not an exaggeration on my part. Don’t get me wrong– I’ve had wonderful experiences in my life, but if I had to choose, my time at A&D would win the “best time of my life” poll.

I knew I wanted to attend A&D since I found out about it, and that was in the sixth grade. My sister had a friend, and her name was Cheryl Artist. Yes, Cheryl Artist was her real name, and she was a fantastic artist. She knew I was interested in art and would show me some of her work from time to time. When she told me she was going to an art high school, I was hooked like an addict. It turns out my mentor and cousin William T. Williams was also a student at A & D, and when I found out that little tidbit, I was determined to attend that school.

I took the test when I was in the ninth grade, hoping to be admitted to the 10th grade at A&D. The teacher administrating my test was named Mrs. Fraser. I learned much later that she was NOT to be fucked with. So, what did I do?

I fucked with her, she failed my test, and I was denied admission to my dream.

When I got the letter of rejection, it was the worst pain I’d ever had to deal with at that time in my life. I was completely devastated. I’m serious, I was beyond heart broken.

However, there was a slim ray of hope. I found out that I could apply in the tenth grade for admission to the eleventh grade. The catch was that it was almost impossible to do that. When you applied to be admitted to the 9th or 10th grade, the odds were one in six that you would be accepted. Applying for the 11th grade would mean that you would miss both 9th and 10th grade, which were your foundation years. In other words, if you were admitted into the 11th grade, you would have to choose your major without the benefit of one or two years of study. The odds of getting into the 11th grade were one in twenty-five.

Once I learned that, I made it a point to do nothing but prepare for the A&D test and portfolio review. I didn’t care what else was going on in the hood in the year before the re-test–all I did was work on my art and practiced shutting the fuck up, in case I got Mrs. Fraser again as the test administrator and portfolio reviewer.

I was attending Beach Channel High in Rockaway Beach, and my art teacher Mrs. Darwin somehow found an A&D student to talk to me about both Mrs. Fraser and the admissions process. The insight from that student and Mrs. Darwin were invaluable to me.

I forget the name of the student, but I will NEVER, EVER forget Mrs. Darwin and what she did for me.

I was accepted into A&D, and the next two years were the greatest two years of my life.

Yes, I learned about art, but much more important was what I learned about people. I was a fag-hating, white-boy-hating nigger from the hood when I got to A&D.

Within the first few months I had gay and white friends, and would take a bullet for both.

What A&D taught me was not just tolerance and acceptance, but a way of looking at the world that was not just “me” or “them.”

I talk a lot of smack, and I’m proud of my “hood” upbringing and Ivy League education, but if you want to see me cry like a little bitch, talk to me about Mrs. Darwin, Frank and Debbie Wallace, Pat Alexander, Tony Tutt, Curtis Johnson, Jamie Perry, Mike Carlin, Joe Rubenstein, Joe D’esposito, Gil Ashby, and about two dozen other people I remember with love from my high school days.

Yes, I’m aware that you “can’t go home again,” but that does not apply to me because I never really left A&D, and in some real ways, that school will always be my home.

A&D forever!

Or to put it another way, FUCK the High School Of Music & Art.