About
Writing
I was asked by my good friend, Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, if I would consider writing a short essay, and could this essay be about something relating to the black body, for a book she was going to be editing.
I pointed out the two inherent problems with the request (the 2nd one being that I’d never written an essay!) After assuring me that she, as the editor, would not allow me to embarrass myself and that she would keep me pointed in the right direction, I agreed to try. But what could I write it about?
Meri reminded me that I’d worked with so many black singers in my career, and have gushed about the experience so often, why not just write some of it down? So…off I went on this new journey.
Well, I found that my obsessions about lyric writing were soon paling in comparison to the way I kept dicking around with this assignment. I’d go back to it day after day and labor over a moment in a sentence, is that appropriate? is this funny or not? and vs. but…
I just couldn’t let anything go. I realized that when writing a song, you had an accomplice in the fate of the result. But naked like this, without instrumentation, this was a different story for me.
I finally sent my draft out and received her first set of edit notes (which she later revealed to be far fewer than she’d sent to others) I soon found out that narcissism has no genre, as I watched my progression go from “no, really, I am not the right guy for the task” to “you want me to change WHAT??? I can’t change that…that’s brilliant!!”
Turns out Meri’s ideas were spot-on and I took the majority of them to heart. If I’d been able to peek into the future and see the end result of the book, I would have made more than a few adjustments to my story…and take some of her suggestions about ’staying on point’ even further.
Anyway, the book was published this past October…four years after that initial request.
It’s available in stores, through Amazon, etc. It’s simply called, “The Black Body,” published by Seven Stories Press, in NY, and I’m very honored to be a part of it. There are some amazing contributions to this collection, and I highly recommend reading them all. And a less-than-humble suggestion?….begin with the story on page 199 and then you can start from the beginning!
