My Book Tour | Part 1
For a good amount of October, I’ve been on book tour for my debut book, When They Tell You To Be Good. This has meant hopping on planes from Ohio to NYC to San Fransico and LA. Lots of early morning flights, naps in hotel rooms, aimless walks around downtown areas, and scrambling to link up with friends in cities I’ve been dropped into. To say the least, my life of traveling and adventuring so far has prepared me for this, but at the same time, everything is new.
Let’s do a little book tour breakdown:
COLUMBUS, OH
It was groovy spending time with friends I’ve made over the last four years while living in Columbus. On the day of my launch, I woke up in my hotel, and hung out with a dear writer friend and college friend. We got pastries for breakfast and they helped me pick what I’d read from my book at my launch event. For dinner, we ate at Commune Restaurant, which was terrific, then stopped at Rumors Bar for drinks before heading to Two Dollar Radio Headquarters. For an hour, I talked to Hanif Adburraqib about the power of memory, what it means to be an organizer/writer, and what drove me to this book.
Hands down one of the best experiences of the entire tour were signing copies of my book from a line of about two dozen people waiting. IT filled my little heart.
NEW YORK CITY, NY
I got to be in conversation with Jamal Joseph, a former Black Panther and current professor/activist about my book. This event was wild because I’ve admired Jamal Joseph’s work since I was in high school when I read his biography about his godson, Tupac Shakur, and then loved Joseph’s memoir, Panther Baby, which charts his journey as a part of the Panther 21.
This weekend was right in lower Manhattan, so I got to walk around before and eat some good food. My conversation with Jamal was so humbling because I feel the amount of reverence that he had for my book and personal life.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
My San Fran event was at Hammer Museum right by a beautiful photo exhibition by black photographers. I sat down with James Cagney to talk about how I infused my politics into my work. This conversation was a lot more emotional in terms of the questions we explored (like when Cagney asked me, “What is love to you?” and I replied, “Love, to me, is about knowing something with willingness and clarity.”)
I did a short little Q&A after and went out with some friends after.
LOS ANGELES, CA
In LA, I had probably the strangest, but funnest event of my book tour so far, Literary Death Match. I found out about the event when they reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be a part of it. The name of the game is that two writers share their work in each round. There are two rounds and all of the writers are judged on variety of areas (literary merit, vibe, etc). By the end, I WON and went home with a medal, which is hanging up on my wall now.
I got to sip wine and eat sandwiches in the back room, then share one of my favorite parts of my book