Kevin Scott Hall Talks About A Friendship Born from Hurricane Katrina

Telling the riveting true story of what happened when Kevin Scott Hall took in a refugee of Hurricane Katrina, Hall’s second book, ‘A Quarter Inch from My Heart’ is a story of love found in the unlikeliest of Determined to help Maurice “get back on his feet”, Hall was still thrown for a loop by what transpired. Over two-and-a-half years, the two men lived as roommates and friends, forcing Hall to examine his own feelings about race, class and love. When Maurice was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer and AIDS, Hall stayed with him until the bittersweet end, looking after his friend and watching his spiritual and emotional growth.

“When Maurice died, I realized what I’d lost and I began to revisit many experiences that I hadn’t thought of in years,” says the author. “I was the victim of a random street stabbing in 1994, and the event reverberated through my life. In writing the memoir, I detailed my struggles as an artist, family tensions and other events from my past in an attempt to understand how I had come to this moment – letting a mysterious stranger into my life and growing closer to him than I’d ever been to anyone.”

“A Quarter Inch From My Heart is a harrowing account of love and loss. Kevin Scott Hall writes about being young in New York City and reckoning with how we all must grow up by taking care of each other and ourselves. His memoir is not only about one life or even the defining, complicated friendship at its center, but about the universal project of being decent, thoughtful citizens of the world. It is at once deeply introspective and outward reaching.”