Were all the gift books successful?
Yes! Each one took me to a place I would not have gone otherwise.
Hook by Randall Horton. His memoir, helped me see the bravery of a man who will tell the truth and bear the consequences. Because of this, previous stereotypes came apart for me in my understanding of the power of addiction, the rancidness of the racial and social constructions of America, and the horrors and sins of the Prison Industrial Complex.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This novel took me to great places of pain and heartbreak and guilt as I journeyed with the main character through his years as a child born from a master and enslaved woman on a Virginia plantation. From his painful, yet powerful escape from slavery to his experience living in freedom for a year in Philadelphia, to his journey back to the plantation as part of The Underground, with his special gift of Conduction, I learned as I traveled his path.
Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump. This is a terrifically told contemporary story of a young man born on the South Side of Chicago, raised by his grandmother and her friend Paul. He is a great kid, good listener, quiet, and yet constantly barraged by a family who want him to be more and do more, especially in terms of acting for social justice. And yet he sees the faults on all sides, not wanting to choose sides, afraid to do anything. He leaves home for college, but finds there’s no getting away from the South Side, from the family, from their expectations of him, nor from their love. It is a story told with an authentic voice from a perspective totally new to me.
Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now by Andrew Perry. This book of essays come from a transforming, honest voice in the form of screenplays, imagined talk-show conversations, multiple choice questions, and conversations from childhood schoolyards to Midwestern bars. The last essay, “Americana/Dying of Thirst” describes the moment Perry stands at a concert in Iowa City, surrounded by over 1800 white people, and knew he was alone, the smallest black man in the world, listening to a live concert by rapper Kendrick Lamar. He describes this experience in a love letter to Emma, and as he slowly backs out of the concert, and considers where his hunger can be fed, his thirst assuaged. What eye-opening essays can be found here!
One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses by Lucy Corin Is a book full of “apocs,” which are short stories, some only a sentence long, some going for pages, that describe one moment, one event, almost like a frozen moment with only the author’s perspective circling the moment and describing in details unlike any you have heard before. Each apoc is a challenging read, but each one gave me a different way of seeing reality.
Did any of the books inspire you to read other works by the authors?
Tracy K. Smith! I found her appearances from this year’s recorded Unbound Book Festival and was enlivened by her readings and by her conversations with others. I read her collections Wade in the Water and Life on Mars. Which led me on to read the amazing Jericho Brown’s The Tradition and The New Testament. Which led me to Frank X Walker’s Pandemic & Protest Poems. I never expected poetry to be the power that would bring meaning to this year. Those three authors present a powerful witness to what could have been so easily forgotten, or not heeded, during this past year. They feel like friends who will accompany me forever.
What insight has been deepest from your reading so far?
The necessity of listening to how those different from me speak their own experiences, understand their own lives, and organize their understanding of our culture, society, and history.
What line from the six books still remains with you?
It’s a thought I heard through all the books, but written very simply by Andre Perry: “That when we said ‘slavery’ we didn’t just means ours, we meant yours too.” … A good line that carries that thought forward is this: “And fractured lives are not just black lives but Native lives, immigrant lives, and white lives too – the whole continent.”
Which of the writers would you most like to have coffee with?
Jericho Brown. He can laugh like no one else I know!
What are you hoping for in the readings for the next 6 months?
A continuation of the “new and unusual.” That’s how I learn best.
