7/18 Yonder Reading Recap

On Thursday of last week, I read a piece of my novel manuscript TOKEN at Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Brew in Hillsborough during their Noir at the Bar event. This manuscript has been a work in progress since 2021. I received representation in summer of 2023 and have been working on the novel with my agent since then. The last reading I did was the one at Backlot Garden Spot in Chapel Hill last summer which I helped organize. I used to read at open mics regularly when I lived in New York City but have been sticking to working quietly at my rented home in east Durham on my novel projects and reading at events as an invited guest or organizer. It's a little easier to do it that way because I get more time to read when I'm invited or when i've helped organize something. This time I got eight to ten minutes and read the critical moment in TOKEN when things begin to start falling apart for the main character at a frat house.

To prepare for the reading, I printed out my piece and read it aloud–pacing myself so that I'd know if I were within the sweet spot of time I was offered. I also read it aloud with my girlfriend Elisha and she gave me some pointers about making sure I maintained eye contact with the audience and slowed down a bit so that people could fully be immersed in what I was saying. There were a good amount of people at the event. Every chair was taken and there were people standing too. I saw some friends I'd made the last time I came to Yonder after Eryk, SA, and Rob's event. My parents and Elisha were also in attendance. A new friend I made at Ella West gallery named Nehemiah also made the trip. 

The event was a lot of fun. I got to talk to a few of the other authors and learned about their writing backgrounds which were similar to mine and their places of origin (including New Orleans which I will be making a trip to soon). When I got on stage, I told a joke about the excerpt being the raunchiest thing I'd ever read in public followed by acknowledging the fact that my parents were there. It got a nice laugh that set me at ease for the rest of the performance. I was sort of afraid my parents might judge me for recounting a smarmy scene involving nudity and drugs... lots of drugs... all fictional of course. But my parents seemed to just enjoy hearing me read from something I'd been working on for so long. The audience seemed to too. I could hear them laugh or groan at certain points along the way when the text called for it. I used to pause for laughs or reactions and, most of the time, fail to receive it, when I was first starting out. But this time it seemed to come naturally. I suppose that means I'm developing as a writer. I hope that also means that you all will get to read this novel sometime soon. It's been a journey learning how to tell the story and growing into a person that can begin to understand what it would mean to someone who is viewing it from an outsider's lens. The positive responses I received after reading a piece in public made me think I might be onto something. 

I feel like I've grown a lot in the last few years and I'm hoping this novel will show a character going through a similar change. Maybe it will inspire people to seek out that change within themselves. I've been losing friends to the carceral system and to mental health issues lately. All of them have been young black men. Some part of me feels like if they or others like them, could just have a character that is struggling the way they are but, makes their way out of it, then maybe they wouldn't feel so alone in the things that they're dealing with. I certainly felt that way when I was younger and started to read authors like Gaines, Hughes, and Wright. Some say there's not a market. Some say they wouldn't read it. But I can't tell you how valuable it was for me to know that I wasn't going through my journey alone. Showing people that they have more in common than they think has always been what I said I was doing but, with this manuscript, I feel that I've truly done it. I hope you'll feel the same way when it's in your hands.

Thanks again Katy and Eryk for the opportunity to share TOKEN with folks in public for the first time.