And my mom and I never actually talked about that man, that photograph or what we learned about each other that day ever again - ever. And I'm like, wait, what? Huh? And then she just quickly said AIDS and walked out of the room. And then she just kind of went on and then quickly just threw off that, you know, and later he found out that he was sick and killed himself. They were close when they were college students. And she just eventually kind of admitted that, you know, that was a friend of hers. She held her cards close to her chest when it came to life stories. And so I asked my mom about it when she got home from work that day and she - my mom was a bit terse. There's bisexuality, a lot of fluidity, a lot of back and forth with all of the characters.īut also I found a Polaroid photograph of my mom and this man, this young man, that I didn't know that was dated Jackson, Miss., 1982. And, you know, there are interracial relationships. It's invoking jazz, and it feels like jazz as I'm reading it. And I pick up her copy of "Another Country," and I'm immediately pulled in by the language, the setting in Harlem. And by the time I am 12, as you see in the opening chapter of my memoir, I start gravitating towards those books because they're in the middle of our living room. And among them were, you know, copies of books by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, James Baldwin. She went to, you know, a state school there for a few semesters, but she kept her books. So tell us a little bit about both, which will lead into the reading. One was the content of the book, and the other was the photo in the book.
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You'd been reading James Baldwin's "Another Country," which had two significances for you. So before you do the reading, I just want to set it up a little bit. Let's start in the library, not just because you're a writer, but because the library is where you first went to get answers to your questions about homosexuality.
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He's the former LGBT editor and culture editor of BuzzFeed. His collection of poems, "Prelude To Bruise," was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and received a PEN Award and a Stonewall Book Award. Saeed Jones' memoir won the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction. He had also gotten a scholarship to NYU, but it didn't cover all the tuition, and he and his single mother couldn't afford to pay the remainder. He went to the University of Western Kentucky on a debating scholarship. When he got to college, he came out and found other gay young men who were out. The book includes descriptions of his early experiences hooking up with men and sometimes putting himself in risky situations. Maureen also describes the memoir as raw and eloquent. But our book critic Maureen Corrigan says Jones' voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest literary genres inside out and upside down. My guest, Saeed Jones, has written a new memoir called "How We Fight For Our Lives." It's about growing up black, gay and closeted in Texas in the '90s when he thought gay meant AIDS, meant death. *** 2 stars for it was okay and for writing effort, although the word asked was misspelt 2x.This is FRESH AIR. Just like he says he doesnt like to go out with girlie gay men. I believe that the award title is more disparaging than not having a black winner the previous year.Īlso, he mentioned that "how it his movies were perceived and what the viewer put onto it didn't worry him." Then, whey does he give a crap about not having a black winner in an Gay Porn Awards night. The category was "Best Ethnic Performer." The following year after that incident, he mentioned that a new category was made and he won in that award. In the chapter Naked Racism, he was mad that no Black Porn Actor won in their Awards night and angrily said that he wouldnt stand for it.
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In certain paragraphs, he says something but in a later paragraph he contradicts himselfĮg. In the chapter Naked Racism, he was mad that no Black Porn Actor won in their Awards night and angrily said that h Reading the first five chapters was great and I made my up my mind that this might be a 5-star book.īut after that, the next chapters were just filled with too much angst and a bit of self-aggrandizement.Īlso, there was a number of inconsistencies about how he feels about certain things. In certain paragraphs, he says something but in a later paragraph he contradicts himself eg. Also, there was a number of inconsistencies about how he feels about certain things. But after that, the next chapters were just filled with too much angst and a bit of self-aggrandizement. Reading the first five chapters was great and I made my up my mind that this might be a 5-star book.