“This is How A Black Artist is Made”
The Memoir My Dad Wouldn’t Write is a Radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn’t write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that.
In the 1940’s, East St. Louis, Illinois’ Black community was “art-full” according to my Dad. There were impromptu singing groups, and instruments created from refuse, discards and ordinary household items. Families listened to country, blues and gospel, and voice acted dramas on the radio. “Dial M For Murder” was performed at the high school and in the midst of all that a young boy came of age. Always a voracious reader, but also talkative and popular enough to be asked to M.C. the talent shows, my dad talks about how his community shaped him as an artist.