“The Coldest Winter Ever is a beautifully woven tale about Brooklyn born Winter Santiaga, a teenaged ghetto princess, daughter of Ricky Santiaga, a prominent businessman and CEO of a drug dealing empire.
This is a cautionary tale which chronicles the decline of an illegal empire and the maneuvers of Winter Santiaga as she hustles to remain on top.
The Coldest Winter is a classic peace of literature which has sold well over one million copies and continues to sell today.
It is used by high schools and colleges and youth groups across the United States of America and in Britain, Germany and Spain.
This novel is for everyone. Parents may use their own discretion of course, as this book contains real life scenarios including sex.”
Description of The Coldest Winter Ever from Sister Souljah’s official web site.
In this episode the Spoilers get nasty with Sister Souljah’s classic tale of the ice-cold Winter Santiaga, one of the great characters of Black street lit. The crew is serious, funny, and informative as they employ their own impeccable skills to break down SIster Souljah’s masterpiece — and luckily no one gets cut in the process.
Mentioned in the Episode
What the Spoilers are up to!
- Urban Lit, Street Lit, Urban Fiction
- Chester Himes, Donald Goines, and Iceberg Slim
- Kissie Lee (Todd was thinking of the Margaret Walker poem)
- Stagger Lee
- Janet Jackson, Nasty
- Public Enemy, Night of the Living Baseheads
- Adriana — Sister Souljah, Life After Death
- Todd — Them on The Evil Empire (Todd votes no)
- Crystal — Resting her mind
- Anita — Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us
Hi! I’m currently listening to this episode. I’m about 36 minutes in and I have to point out that you all continue to refer to a 15 year old girl as a woman. Words mean things. The language that is used is very important and this- referring to Black/Brown girls as women/young women- adds to a larger societal issue of how these girls are treated unfairly. I’m thinking of work by Monique Morris and others who advocate for these girls.
Their childhood/girlhood is continually stripped from them many times, unknowingly, by those of us who mean well, yet are not examining our language.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the episode.
Hi, Jo. Thank you so much for listening. You make a great point. While we do mention that she’s 15, we mostly refer to her as “young woman” or “woman” but maybe never actually say “girl.” And she is indeed a girl! You’re right to point out that this is especially a problem because Black/Brown girls are adultified in ways that harm them in our society.
The Spoilers
Great point Jo! I also enjoyed this episode and everyone’s input. Makes me want to read it again as an adult. I, too, remember how this book was passed around in 1999 & all of us Black girls were reading it. I had never been so glued to a book! I lived a very sheltered life so Winter’s exploits were so intriguing to me. Thanks again for a great discussion on such a classic.