Mikel Jollett - Hollywood Park
The Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love, and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.
Pre-order a copy of Jollett’s upcoming memoir, “Hollywood Park,” to attend an exclusive VIP meet and greet with the author before The Airborne Toxic Event concert at the Buckhead Theatre on June 5, 2020. This offer is available to concert ticketholders only. You must have proof of purchase of both your concert ticket and book order to gain access to the VIP event.
Purchasers will have a chance to meet Jollett, have your copy of "Hollywood Park" signed and personalized, and take a photo with him ahead of the show.
Please note that pre-orders will not be shipped prior to the event. We will have your copy of "Hollywood Park" for you at the reception.
This event is limited to 300 guests.
About the Book
We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then they’d disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion…
So begins “Hollywood Park,” Mikel Jollett’s remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country’s most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader’s mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult’s “School.” After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic.
In his raw, poetic, and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency, and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed, narcissistic mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician. “Hollywood Park” is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett’s story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal.
About the Author
Mikel Jollett was born in an experimental commune in Southern California called Synanon. Started as a drug rehabilitation program, it later morphed into one of the most notorious cults America has ever seen. When the community became violent, his mother fled the group with Jollett and his older brother. Raised in abject poverty and fighting the lure of drugs and delinquency, Jollett escaped with the help of his estranged father. He went on the attend Stanford University, before becoming an on-air columnist with NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Editor-at-large at Men’s Health, and an editor at Filter Magazine. After McSweeny’s published his short story, “The Crack,” he was accepted to Yaddo artists’ community, but ultimately decided to pursue music instead. He named his band The Airborne Toxic Event after a section in Don DeLillo's novel “White Noise” and quickly built a loyal fanbase.
