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Photo credit is Kenneth Thompson
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Daniel Omotosho Black is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, yet spent the majority of his childhood years in Blackwell, Arkansas. He was granted a full scholarship to Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in English. He was awarded the Oxford Modern British Studies scholarship and studied abroad at Oxford University, Oxford, England. Upon graduation from Clark College (magma cum laude in 1988), he was granted a full graduate fellowship to Temple University in pursuit of a Ph.D. in African American Studies. Completing this phase of his academic career in 1993, with Sonia Sanchez as one of his dissertation advisers, Dr. Black returned to his alma mater in order to help establish the tradition of top-notch scholars who publish and remain at historically black institutions. As a tenured associate professor, he now aims to provide an example to young African Americans of the importance of self-knowledge and communal commitment.
Omotosho, as he prefers to be called, is the founder of the Nzinga-Ndugu rites of passage (or initiation) society—a group whose focus is instilling principle and character in the lives of African-American youth. He is currently at work on his next novel. |
| Twenty-eight-year-old protagonist Tommy Lee Tyson steps off the Greyhound bus in his hometown of Swamp Creek, Arkansas—a place he left when he was eighteen, vowing never to return. Yet fate and a Ph.D. in black studies force him back to his rural origins as he seeks to understand himself and the black community that produced him. A cold, nonchalant father and an emotionally indifferent mother make his return, after a ten-year hiatus, practically unbearable, and the discovery of his baby sister’s death and her burial in the backyard almost consumes him. His mother watches his agony when he discovers his sister’s tombstone, but neither she nor other family members is willing to disclose the secret of her death. Only after being prodded incessantly does his older brother, Willie James, relent and provide Tommy Lee with enough knowledge to figure out exactly what happened and why. Meanwhile, Tommy’s seventy-year-old teacher—lying on her deathbed—asks him to remain in Swamp Creek and assume her position as the headmaster of the one-room schoolhouse. He refuses vehemently and she dies having bequeathed him her five thousand–book collection in the hopes that he will change his mind. Over the course of a one-week visit, riddled with tension, heartache, and revelation, Tommy Lee Tyson discovers truths about his family, his community, and his undeniable connection to rural Southern black folk and their ways.
Learn more about the book
HERE.
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For all intents and purposes, you are an academic, having received a Ph.D. in African American Studies and being a tenured associate professor. What inspired the move from academics to fiction to write your debut novel,
They Tell Me of a Home?
First, let me make clear that there has been no such move on my part from academia to fiction writing. I stand squarely in both places. Indeed, as a Black College professor, I want my students to understand that an excellent scholar is one who writes in many genres. This, actually, has been the tradition of black writers since Dubois, Hurston, and Baldwin, all of whom wrote both fiction and non-fiction brilliantly. However, what I did recognize as an academic was that my creative sensibilities were under-utilized. I had stories to tell, and I believed that telling them could heal the world, especially my people, much more effectively than rigid, boring scholarly discourse.
The writing of your novel is so exact and on point. How many revisions did you go through before arriving at the published version?
Wow. This novel grew from infancy to adulthood over a span of several years. During that time, there were at least four or five different drafts, and then different sections of the novel had more drafts than others. I knew the novel was complete, however, when my elder read it and said, "It's ready. Let it go." So that's what I did.
What themes will readers find in
They Tell Me of a Home?
In this novel, readers will encounter the themes of father-son relationships, black self-hatred, black communal healing, black secrecy, African American religious experiences, sexuality variations in the black community, intelligence vs. common sense, and the power of one's spiritual mission to clarify one's life's purpose.
I believe They Tell Me of a Home is definitely a novel that could be read in an academic setting. As an academic, what's one question that you think would result in the most discussion/debate regarding your novel?
I'm not sure. I think the conversation between T.L. and Nzuri is going to elicit intense debate in academic circles, as will the placement of homosexual characters in a rural context. The latter will cause controversy because many believe erroneously that gay people tend to be cosmopolitan. Of course many are, but an equal number is not. And in the black community, rural people take comfort in believing that there are never more than one or two gay citizens in an entire town. So certainly I wanted to trouble these perceptions. Yet, interestingly enough, many might wonder why the mother is such a troubling figure, especially since in the black community, mothers are usually seen as divine. My only response would be "not all of them."
I read a comment of yours in which you state, "The truth, nonetheless, is that every author's first novel is usually his own story. It must be. In order to create, one has no choice but to cleanse his heart and his head from memories, experiences, and traumas which cloud his consciousness." I SO agree with that statement. I also would agree that "writing is best driven by pain because it won't allow people to forget." Having stated these things, if the first novel is the "purging" of a writer's pain, what is left for the future works? Is it the residue of pain, the ideas and themes that still mean something to the writer, or something else, or a culmination of many things?
Once a writer has purged his own heart by telling--indeed, reliving--his own story, he then becomes an ambassador for the remainder of the human race. His job now is to tell every story he sees or hears or imagines in hopes of setting the world free. That's the point of writing--to let everyone speak and sing and weep and heal together until every soul is appreciated and every life deemed sacred.
Why do you write?
I write because I hurt. I hurt because I feel. I feel because I've chosen not to deny the presence of a loving God within me. I write, then, because, like God, I want to create a world where everyone is celebrated. And the best way to be like God is to write. For in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
What authors have inspired you as a writer?
Every author I've ever read. Yet a few have shaped my literary consciousness in profound ways: James Baldwin, Henry James, Toni Morrison, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Richard Wright, J. California Cooper, Eudora
Welty, and Sutton Griggs.
Your bio states that you "aim to provide an example to young African Americans of the importance of self-knowledge and communal commitment. "How are you going about doing that?"
First, I think that a scholar or a writer must also be a community activist. I am an elder (along with 12 others) in a rites of passage organization in Atlanta known as Ndugu-Nzinga. I am committed to the young people's transformation, on every level, and, regardless of what good fortune comes my way, I intend to walk with them for the rest of my life. They help me write, they nurture me, they teach me, they share their stories with me, and consequently I am fortified with the energy necessary to write. This communal reciprocity allows my gift to bloom and teaches young people that one's gift is groomed within the context of others. That has always been the survival of black people. And, by writing about African American themes and issues, young people--black and white--learn the beautiful and terrible history of black existence in America--a history every soul should know.
What tips or advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I would tell aspiring writers two things: (1) read serious, literary fiction. The variety of writing techniques and vocabularic mastery evidenced in literary fiction teach novice writers the skills necessary to create high-quality literature. Magazines like The New Yorker, Harper's Weekly, and The Atlantic publish the type of literature which, when studied, prepares a young writer to co-exist with the best writers of the day. To be sure, a good writer is an avid reader. (2) Stay intimately connected to grassroots folks. They are the keepers of everyday vernacular and their stories are often filled with intrigue from which we middle class writers are simply removed. The beauty and magical rhythm of grassroots vernacular teaches an observant writer words and phrases that add spice to an otherwise dull style.
What projects are you working on now? Any conferences or book signings in the near future?
I have a second novel I've now completed. It's title The Sacred Place, and it's a fictionalized account of the murder of Emmett Till. The novel was excruciatingly difficult to write because of the emotions it evoked, but I feel really good about it. It's already been accepted for publication, and, now, I'm in the middle of a third novel, which I'm currently calling Perfect Peace. |
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