Alfred Brown IV
http://www.alfredbrowniv.com/
https://www.instagram.com/alfredbrowniv/
MFA Columbia, BFA Princeton, PhD USC (?)
Lead Singer of DANGERS
Fiction writer, photographer, teacher, gym and soccer coach, and 

Recorded July 15th, 2019 at Gate 14 in El Segundo, CA 

• A renaissance man…or a Jack of all trades…Alfred does not sleep. 
• Ninja Turtles Pizza has marshmallows. 
• Being a wandering nomad around all the beach cities of California as child. 
• How a competitive edge and doting grandmother drove Al’s scholastic endeavors. 
• Al went to Mira Costa High school: Alma Mater to Keith Morris, Bill Stevenson, and Greg Ginn of Black Flag; Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, and Robert Hecker of Red Kross, and members of 98 mute. 
• Theologian records. 
• Sneaking in to see RATM during the battle of Los Angeles tour. 
• Despite academic accolades, 18 year old Al only wanted to play music and had no interest in going to college…yet eventually gets into Princeton for English, 
• Einstein’s classroom, Cornel West, and Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton…and the proximity to Philadelphia and New York City with out needing a car. 
• 9/11 as the first day of college. 
• Dangers is a California band, but started at Princeton with “Tim” the bass player.
• The Miracle Mile. 
• Never start a band on the east coast, never date on the east coast, never live on the east coast; California calls you back. 
• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/nyregion/yale-black-student-nap.html
• Wrote a book at 22 for a dissertation at: “The end of me is the beginning of You” 
• Books have been written, but Al hasn’t published full books. 
• Princeton: 2001-2005.
• In 2002, Al starts Sink With Cali with a grant from Princeton. 
• Sink with Cali, Sound and Fury fest, and the Have Heart “Smoke with Cali” T-shirt. 
• From the Beach, not downtown LA. 
• 2005, enter graduate school at Columbia for a MFA in Fiction. 
• Jonathan Safran Foer and being $200,000 in debt. 
• Photography electives and Jocelyn Lee https://www.jocelynleestudio.com/
• Communication transcends every art 
• “The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.” 
• -Donald Barthelme
• https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/07/donald-barthelme-not-knowing/
• Learning by Failure and treating negative outcomes as data. 
• HOMELESS
• http://www.alfredbrowniv.com/home-less-blog
• LA vs. NYC / BEST COAST vs. BEAST COAST
• WHAT DO YOU DO? 
• Prius, Toe Shoes, and shopping at Whole Foods. 
• “The Problem with Centaurs”- Short story collection for dissertation fulfillment at Columbia. 
• Moves back to LA, gets involved with special needs, and “The grapes of wraith.” 
• 2013: started a PhD in creative writing at USC
• Pursuing your own desires, encouraging your own curiosity, and our societal inability to empathize. 
•  money, not living comfortably, and the privilege of time. 
• Good use of emojis and wanting to be a writer.
•  songs you like, songs you don’t
• cancer and laughter and owning up to your mistakes and the future of dangers 
• the most dangerous think you have is your mind and the pale blue dot. 
• The worst teachers are the ones that don’t listen.