Speaker 1: My League Books has all the knowledge you want. My
Speaker 1: League Bus has all.
Speaker 2: The knowledge you need.
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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's Bookshow, bringing a world together
Speaker 1: with books, culture and community.
Speaker 2: Hot.
Speaker 1: My name is Malik, your host of Malik's Bookshelf. You
Speaker 1: know I love my intro. You know I'm introducing Malik.
Speaker 1: I'm introducing you what I do. That's right. I'm coming
Speaker 1: to you with a podcast full of interviews, full of
Speaker 1: book reviews, full of community information, because that's what I do. Well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. Last week, I had took
Speaker 1: a break. You know, I had a lot going on,
Speaker 1: but I took a break, vacation little morning because of
Speaker 1: my mom passed away and I had to get mind right,
Speaker 1: get my spirit right. But I'm back, And that was
Speaker 1: the last episode last week. So if you haven't heard it,
Speaker 1: go back. It's called I'm Back, Bigger and Better. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be trying to upgrade my equipment, upgrade a
Speaker 1: lot of different things regarding the podcast. But in a meantime,
Speaker 1: let's keep tuning in every week to Malik's bookshelf because
Speaker 1: you don't know what to expect because I put a
Speaker 1: lot of thought in this, but I also like it
Speaker 1: to be spontaneous, so when I'm interviewing, it's more on gantic.
Speaker 1: I never know who's going to walk into Malik's books,
Speaker 1: and when they do, I interview them on the spot.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned every week for something new and refreshing.
Speaker 1: So this week I have an interview with Christopher Marlin.
Speaker 1: He compiled and edited the Sunday News cartoon. It's a
Speaker 1: female led syndicated cartoon character that was called Friday Foster
Speaker 1: back in the seventies, so he can pile edited and
Speaker 1: put it together and called it Friday Foster. It's a
Speaker 1: great coffee table book, but it's a history of a
Speaker 1: female cartoon character that was syndicated and went all over
Speaker 1: this nation in major newspapers on Sunday. So I interviewed him.
Speaker 1: So I'm featuring out on this episode as well as
Speaker 1: a featured author at Malik Books, Anita Gail Jones, who
Speaker 1: wrote the book The Beat Seed, so that's highlighted on
Speaker 1: this episode as well. It's a wonderful book. It takes
Speaker 1: you on a journey. It's a magic goal and it's generational,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna leave the interview before instead of me
Speaker 1: talking about it. Also on this episode, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: doing a book review on Flipping Box Cards. That's the
Speaker 1: new book out now by Century entertain whom we are
Speaker 1: gonna be hosting at Milk Books on Saturday, September thirty
Speaker 1: at three pm. Now you got a RS repeat, so
Speaker 1: you gotta go to maliebooks dot Com to RS repeat.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna do a book review on Flipping Box
Speaker 1: Cards by Cedric the Entertainer. Also on this episode, I'm
Speaker 1: doing another book review called You Will Own Nothing by
Speaker 1: Carol Ruth, So I'm gonna talk about that. She's a
Speaker 1: New York Times bestseller. I'm gonna talk about that, But
Speaker 1: I just love that You Will Own Nothing Your War
Speaker 1: with a New Financial World Order and how to Fight
Speaker 1: Back by Carol Roth. So I'm gonna do a book
Speaker 1: review on that. Also, I got a few community events
Speaker 1: schedule at Malik Books that I want to share, But
Speaker 1: before I do that, I need to inform my audience
Speaker 1: at Malie's Bookshelf that he has been invited on a
Speaker 1: panel discussion town at the LA Convention Center they having
Speaker 1: a big business expo. So gold Daddy has invited me
Speaker 1: Malik Muhammad to speak on at the business show on
Speaker 1: a panel about gold Daddy and some of his their
Speaker 1: business brands. And we have been selected as one of
Speaker 1: the brands on gold Daddy, that's our website hosts to
Speaker 1: speak on this panel along with other businesses at the
Speaker 1: LA Convention. September twentyth is when we're going to be there.
Speaker 1: At one o'clock, our panel comes up at the Business show,
Speaker 1: So come on out and beat Malite Boats after LA.
Speaker 1: This you from me, I ain't never been invited to
Speaker 1: something of this level, and you know this is a
Speaker 1: big convention for two days. I believe it's on the
Speaker 1: nineteenth and the twentyth you know they take it over
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Conventions, So come on out. I'm excited
Speaker 1: about that to be part of this panel discussion. Also
Speaker 1: events at Malite Books. On the same night, September twenty
Speaker 1: at seven pm at Melite Books were bringing in doctor
Speaker 1: Gail Jones wrote a book called From the Pit to
Speaker 1: the Palace. So her book is about domestic overcoming domestic
Speaker 1: viole and trauma and overcoming all of that. So hey
Speaker 1: come on out and you can hear her personally talk
Speaker 1: about that and her book. Okay, and then also another
Speaker 1: book signing schedule for September twenty four by Sam Ransom.
Speaker 1: He's going to be signing his new book called Day
Speaker 1: and Deep. Now he's a minister and he's a spiritual
Speaker 1: so hey, you know, I always say, hey, the best
Speaker 1: in you is in you, but you gotta dig deep.
Speaker 1: So come on out. We're gonna hosting him on September
Speaker 1: twenty four at that's a Sunday at three o'clock at
Speaker 1: Malite Books. So come on out spend some time with us.
Speaker 1: I love to meet some you know people listen to
Speaker 1: the Malik's Bookshelf bringing a world together with books, culture
Speaker 1: and community. So stay tuned for the episode. Christopher Marlon
Speaker 1: tell us about Friday Foster.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you asked leak.
Speaker 4: So the cultural significance of the book is that Friday
Speaker 4: Foster was the first nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip with
Speaker 4: a black female lead character. When I say nationally syndicated,
Speaker 4: it was syndicated by Chicago Tribune from nineteen seventy to
Speaker 4: seventy four, and they did about twenty five papers coast
Speaker 4: to coast.
Speaker 3: They even did the La Times, Chicago.
Speaker 4: Tribune, Houston Chronicle, New York it was the New York News.
Speaker 4: So that was a big deal nineteen seventy to have
Speaker 4: a comic strip with a black female lead. And it
Speaker 4: inspired a lot of different spin offs. There's a movie
Speaker 4: if you're a Pam Grill fan. There was a movie
Speaker 4: with Pam Greer came out in nineteen seventy five, blaxploitation flick,
Speaker 4: very entertaining if you like blaxploitation. They actually did a
Speaker 4: comic book, a one off, actual comic book, just the
Speaker 4: one from Dell. I think the comic book came out
Speaker 4: in nineteen seven, and she even had her own. They
Speaker 4: did a doll line. There's a guy who makes custom
Speaker 4: dolls in New York City and I think he did
Speaker 4: the doll line in like two thousand and.
Speaker 3: Eight actually, so not too long ago.
Speaker 4: And the dolls you can't even find them now, but
Speaker 4: if you do, you buy them on an applemarket and
Speaker 4: you go and run, you know, run at least a
Speaker 4: grand one thousand dollars for a Friday bost.
Speaker 3: The dollar if you can find one.
Speaker 4: So again for a black paper comic strip to have
Speaker 4: that kind of effect and spin off is very very rare.
Speaker 4: Very few black comic strips have gotten their own book,
Speaker 4: and this is one of the very very few. Like
Speaker 4: OUTI the Bloom Dogs. So I'm the editor. I came
Speaker 4: up with the idea for the book. I'm just a
Speaker 4: huge fan of the strip. I actually started collecting the
Speaker 4: original newsprint maybe like seven eight years ago, fell in
Speaker 4: love with the artwork and the stories, and I was like, Man,
Speaker 4: can I get this thing done into a book. Did
Speaker 4: a bunch of research, found a publisher, found the rights owner.
Speaker 4: Took maybe about two years to get it done, and
Speaker 4: we actually it came out a little over a year
Speaker 4: and a half ago. Even got it's been nominated twice
Speaker 4: for two many awards at Baltimore Comic Con. We got
Speaker 4: a nomination last year, didn't win, and we also got
Speaker 4: an Eisland nomination, And for those who don't know, the
Speaker 4: Eisner Awards are at San Diego Comic Con and that's
Speaker 4: basically the Oscars of the comic book world and the
Speaker 4: comic store world. So we got an Eisland nomination, didn't win,
Speaker 4: but for my first book, I mean that was still
Speaker 4: a win. Stet nominated and then we got nominated for
Speaker 4: at a Baltimore Comic Con.
Speaker 3: So it's been a great experience.
Speaker 4: Now I really appreciate the time and you carry in
Speaker 4: the book too.
Speaker 1: Have you done some book signings at some of.
Speaker 3: The no book signings at the cons?
Speaker 4: But I just didn't event in Denver literally two weeks ago,
Speaker 4: I was at Denver. There's a museum called History of
Speaker 4: Colorado and they had an event called Black Explanation where
Speaker 4: they were talking about blaxploitation movies and they had a
Speaker 4: screening of Friday Foster the movie, and I came out
Speaker 4: and talked about the book and we did some signings
Speaker 4: of the book literally two.
Speaker 3: Weeks ago in Denver.
Speaker 4: It was a great event, you know, my first time
Speaker 4: in Denver as an adult, but awesome experience.
Speaker 5: That's wonderful, wonderfulks any upcoming plans. I mean, Comic's been
Speaker 5: around a long time and showed their other comics out
Speaker 5: there that maybe you could put the other a collection
Speaker 5: and put it in the book.
Speaker 1: I mean, are you you collected Friday Foster?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Did you collect? Have you collected other types of strips?
Speaker 3: It's funny you asked is one more that I'm looking
Speaker 3: at doing right now.
Speaker 4: There's another black comic strip that ran from like nineteen
Speaker 4: sixty eight to about seventy five. It's called Datesline Danger,
Speaker 4: and the whole premise of that was basically, there were
Speaker 4: two spies. It was a black spy and a white spy,
Speaker 4: and they would go around, you know, for them these
Speaker 4: plots to you know, overtake the government. And the funny
Speaker 4: part is the strip, the newspaper comic strip was inspired
Speaker 4: by the TV show Eye Spot. So you might remember
Speaker 4: I Spot back in the day, which was Bill Cosby,
Speaker 4: I think Robert Cole, So it's kind of a take
Speaker 4: on I Spot again. But it was kind of groundbreaking
Speaker 4: that that was one of the first comic strips with
Speaker 4: a black male lead character. You know, it's a black
Speaker 4: guy and white guy again. Sixty eight nationally syndicated comic strip.
Speaker 4: And that's what I'm looking at doing next.
Speaker 1: Wonderful one.
Speaker 5: Well, Christopher, thank you for taking the time to share
Speaker 5: your journey here with Friday Foster and this is wonderful.
Speaker 4: We got to hear autograph at Malik Books right now.
Speaker 3: Signing up again.
Speaker 4: I thank you Malik, I thank you April Man and
Speaker 4: I love supporting black business and I thank you guys
Speaker 4: a million, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. My book review for this episode is about
Speaker 1: a book that an iconic comedian and actor, a game
Speaker 1: shaped host has a Hollywood star. That's right, the original
Speaker 1: Kings of comedy Centric the entertainer has written an aspiring
Speaker 1: book called Flipping Box Call. Now that's his debut book,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you, it's about a character named
Speaker 1: Baby whom takes you on a world wind of swag,
Speaker 1: of height, of hustle, of gambling, of street smarts, of
Speaker 1: debonair dapper and he's a funny character. But he's a man,
Speaker 1: male character, and it's not a lot of books written
Speaker 1: about men. So Cedric used his imagination to elevate the
Speaker 1: life of his grandfather. So he took some of the
Speaker 1: true stories and then he used his imagination and woved
Speaker 1: in a novel, a fiction book based upon his grandfather,
Speaker 1: Floyd Baby Boyce. And he brings his new debut book
Speaker 1: to an audience that he never tapped in before because
Speaker 1: we know him in the arena as a comedian and
Speaker 1: actor and the TV saidcom and all of that. But
Speaker 1: now he's now plugged in into being an author. And
Speaker 1: so this book Flipping box.
Speaker 6: Cards, he's celebrating Floyd Baby Boyce, his grandfather, and he
Speaker 6: used his imagination to explode the character to write this
Speaker 6: creative book.
Speaker 1: So hey, the person who can tell you the best
Speaker 1: about the book is the Cedric or to read the book.
Speaker 1: So I'm just hyping up this book because we got
Speaker 1: him doing a book signing. He's coming to Malik's September thirtieth.
Speaker 1: He's going to be doing a book signing at three
Speaker 1: pm that Saturday, September thirtieth. And I had to do
Speaker 1: a book review because this is an excited it's a
Speaker 1: cozy book, it's a flipping novel and is written by
Speaker 1: Cedric the entertainer. So you know he's gonna bring his wit,
Speaker 1: his style, his funniness, his laughter, and his swag because
Speaker 1: Cedric is an entertainer. So if you like Sandrick on stage,
Speaker 1: where you're gonna like his writing in a book. So
Speaker 1: you got to pick up a copy where all books
Speaker 1: are sold, particularly Elite books dot Com.
Speaker 7: Well, I guess we're gonna get started with conversation if
Speaker 7: we have Anita Gail Jones here, she's the author of
Speaker 7: their amazing book The pc.
Speaker 8: As the pleasure of being a part of her trailer.
Speaker 7: You got to spend some time with her to learn
Speaker 7: so much about the amazing creative mind that she has.
Speaker 7: I think it's just amazing, and uh, she deserves all
Speaker 7: the flowers that she's beginning. If you wanna, you can
Speaker 7: have a few words to say before we get into
Speaker 7: the conversation.
Speaker 8: Wojump right on in.
Speaker 9: I'd just like to start by thanking Malie books together
Speaker 9: and think and you counting her being in a conversation
Speaker 9: with me this it's really wonderful.
Speaker 2: I also wanna start by being mindful.
Speaker 9: I want to be mindful of oppressed and disfranchised people's
Speaker 9: and stolen lands.
Speaker 2: All over the world.
Speaker 9: And I am also mindful of those places where their
Speaker 9: struggles and their triumphs and joys intermingling with those Black Americans.
Speaker 8: That's not like to do the stuff beautiful. That's beautiful,
Speaker 8: and I I feel that in the pizzing, which kind
Speaker 8: of leads me to my first question for you, what
Speaker 8: was that.
Speaker 7: Moment of inspiration that led you to creating a PC?
Speaker 9: It was a question actually a question I had for
Speaker 9: my father, mister Silas Jones.
Speaker 2: He was born in Almony, chr. When he was born
Speaker 2: in Putney, Georgia.
Speaker 9: Which is a little smaller than Almny, Georgia, in nineteen
Speaker 9: twenty one. So you know, a black man born in
Speaker 9: the Deep South in nineteen twenty one saw some stuff
Speaker 9: and was a part of a part of his life.
Speaker 9: So I wanted to know how did he and other
Speaker 9: black men of his generation, that's what's known as the
Speaker 9: Greatest Generation, although because of the color of their skin,
Speaker 9: they were not able to realize the promises made to
Speaker 9: that generation. So how did they manage to leaders leaders
Speaker 9: in their homes, their churches, their communities, on their jobs
Speaker 9: when the government, by way of actually laws and policies,
Speaker 9: treated them less than me.
Speaker 2: So that was a question in my mind.
Speaker 9: When I started the book, and the journey of writing
Speaker 9: the book is my answer is an answer to that question. However,
Speaker 9: when I started, right after I put the question out there,
Speaker 9: I read James Baldwin's.
Speaker 2: Book No Name in the Streets.
Speaker 9: It's nineteen seventy two, I think, and you can always
Speaker 9: count involved when you He's got the answer to the
Speaker 9: question you didn't even know you were asking, so he said,
Speaker 9: and I put it in the front of the book.
Speaker 9: He said, that The gist of what he said is
Speaker 9: that the only way you can describe what was happening
Speaker 9: with black men in the South during that time, the fifties, forties, sixties,
Speaker 9: is that they were heroes, and there were heroes more
Speaker 9: in small ways than large ones, and more.
Speaker 2: In private than apartment. So I said, thank you Ball
Speaker 2: for that answer, and.
Speaker 9: I I folded that that idea into what I was
Speaker 9: already thinking and feeling and knowing about the black.
Speaker 2: Men who raised me, and that was the inspiration.
Speaker 8: Awesome.
Speaker 7: Okay, that kind of leads me to my next question, uh,
Speaker 7: which is something that I noticed.
Speaker 8: And you even mentioned it too.
Speaker 7: As a female author, what was that process like writing
Speaker 7: from a all male perspective? I know in the book
Speaker 7: there are uh a couple of points of view when
Speaker 7: all of them are uh men within.
Speaker 8: The dudes's family. What was that process like for you?
Speaker 2: It was not a problem at all. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was a challenge or.
Speaker 9: Problem because these men are so much a part of me.
Speaker 9: I hear their voices in my hand anyway, because.
Speaker 2: They helped ahmaise me. My father, My father was the
Speaker 2: last of twenty one children.
Speaker 9: His father had his first wife passed away and he
Speaker 9: married my grandmother.
Speaker 2: First wife had thirteen kids.
Speaker 9: The second wife, my grandmother had seven, and my dad
Speaker 9: was the last of those.
Speaker 2: So he was known as the baby uncle cause he
Speaker 2: had all these nieces and nephews that were older than he.
Speaker 2: So I had a lot.
Speaker 9: There were a lot of people in my family, and
Speaker 9: composites of their spirit and their personalities is what I
Speaker 9: used to construct the characters.
Speaker 2: So I was always listening to the voices.
Speaker 9: Of of my people, and they were in my head,
Speaker 9: and so I I felt like I was taking notes
Speaker 9: and just taking dictation really and listening to them. And
Speaker 9: that's their voices are so crisp and clear that and
Speaker 9: I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2: I think it's the real gift of the process. And
Speaker 2: that's how I did it.
Speaker 9: I just paid attention to how they were sounding and
Speaker 9: what how how they made me feel as a child
Speaker 9: growing up, because I felt very, very held and and
Speaker 9: protected from the racist stuff that was going on all around.
Speaker 9: And so that's what I did. I just kind of
Speaker 9: I listened to the voices of my people.
Speaker 3: I loved that.
Speaker 7: I love that it sounds like it was a combination
Speaker 7: of like your experience coupled with like your observation and uh,
Speaker 7: empathy for those around you.
Speaker 8: I think that's really beautiful. Like I said before, you
Speaker 8: could feel that within the book itself.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so if that's a good A good word for
Speaker 9: empathy and you have to have that as as when
Speaker 9: you're writing what I do with these I think having
Speaker 9: I know I haven't really thought of it that way,
Speaker 9: but having empathy for the character, even the ones that.
Speaker 2: Are not not your favorite.
Speaker 9: But in order to walk them out of their shoes,
Speaker 9: you have to have some dipathy for that character.
Speaker 10: So think it's something it's something that we learned and
Speaker 10: acting right where we have to step outside of ourselves
Speaker 10: and even if we don't like align with a person,
Speaker 10: we have to try our best to walk into their shoes.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and it sounds like that's exactly what you did
Speaker 8: in this book.
Speaker 2: I tried to do.
Speaker 8: We'll say there is a specific character that I did
Speaker 8: not align with at all. Okay, sure you know exactly
Speaker 8: who I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm not gonna assume I know.
Speaker 8: No, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: No, same same?
Speaker 9: What is.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Serious?
Speaker 9: You know he endears himself to you, though, I will
Speaker 9: say he's he's strugg but I've heard from a lot
Speaker 9: of people that they were just really rooting for him. Yeah,
Speaker 9: because he was trying. He was trying very hard and
Speaker 9: messing up, of course. But what's the story without trouble exactly?
Speaker 7: Okay, Well, speaking of characters, if you had a character
Speaker 7: within the book that you most align with, who would
Speaker 7: that be and why?
Speaker 8: Is that something that we can talk about.
Speaker 2: As long as the characters don't mind.
Speaker 8: It's Olga?
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, it's Olga for me is.
Speaker 9: The character that I I just love her.
Speaker 2: She and she took on such a person out they
Speaker 2: all did once.
Speaker 9: Once you get to a certain point with the writing,
Speaker 9: at least, this is the experience I had, they start
Speaker 9: to talk to you.
Speaker 2: The characters start to talk to you, and I actually
Speaker 2: interview our characters.
Speaker 9: Now you know, I'm just talking to myself, but you
Speaker 9: know that's it works for me. Olda because she was
Speaker 9: so grounded and such a central force in the family
Speaker 9: and ended up being at in the book. And I've
Speaker 9: been getting a course from friends who've been reading and
Speaker 9: they say they really like her because she's the the
Speaker 9: rock and the glue.
Speaker 2: And wholes family together.
Speaker 9: And of course she has all those sayings that she
Speaker 9: likes to say all the time, like that too, so old.
Speaker 2: It would be my choice.
Speaker 7: I think Oga's my favorite time. She reminds me of
Speaker 7: my aunt and you teld much so too. When I
Speaker 7: was when I was reading the book, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 7: this is Auntie Oga.
Speaker 8: I kept following her even though that wasn't her name
Speaker 8: in the book.
Speaker 3: But yeah, she's all right.
Speaker 8: I love her too, that's good. But yeah, So, like
Speaker 8: I said, I got the opportunity.
Speaker 7: To uh work with Anita on uh the trailer, and
Speaker 7: during that time got a chance to see just how
Speaker 7: phenomenally creative this woman is UH oral traditional storyteller being
Speaker 7: uh a visual artist. Amazing creative. How did that impact
Speaker 7: your writing of the book.
Speaker 9: There is relentless cross pollination going on between those three
Speaker 9: artists that I am, the oral tradition, the visual artists,
Speaker 9: and the writer. It's hard to separate really because they're
Speaker 9: constantly in conversation with each other. And the work ends
Speaker 9: up anything because I visualize the scenes as if they're movies,
Speaker 9: the scenes in the book. And then whenever i'm stopped, well,
Speaker 9: even when i'm not stock, even when I'm just working.
Speaker 8: On a section.
Speaker 9: I will read it out loud, I'll read it n
Speaker 9: T I'll record myself reading it or telling it, cause
Speaker 9: there's a difference between reading and telling, and then listen
Speaker 9: to it.
Speaker 2: And find where I need to change things. So I
Speaker 2: feel very gratefully.
Speaker 9: To have these three meetings and these three ways of
Speaker 9: expression that can help each other, and that I can
Speaker 9: end up do me a long time because I as
Speaker 9: a child, I had all these interests, and as I
Speaker 9: grew older and people were deciding what they want to
Speaker 9: be when they grow up, I was just kind of, well,
Speaker 9: I have a lot of interests, and how can I
Speaker 9: endpoint just one thing?
Speaker 2: How does anybody do that?
Speaker 9: And we have lots of interest So for a long
Speaker 9: time I looked at it as a.
Speaker 2: Detriment that I didn't have one solid, you know, passion
Speaker 2: that I could follow. And now this book has.
Speaker 9: Given me the opportunity to just combine all those things,
Speaker 9: and I I'm so grateful really to have the opportunity
Speaker 9: to do that and to help them have things be
Speaker 9: effect seemingly be effective.
Speaker 2: I'm not assuming that everything's effective, but yeah, and I
Speaker 2: have a uh an installation of our installation.
Speaker 9: It goes along with the book. It's called Sunday Dinner
Speaker 9: Easter Sunday Dinner at Florida's House, And it's literally a
Speaker 9: table set for dinner, and on each there's six places
Speaker 9: at the table, and on each plate.
Speaker 2: There's a snippet of dialog from that scene.
Speaker 9: So I did this for an installation at Headlin Center
Speaker 9: for the Arts where I was there was an affiliate,
Speaker 9: and I didn't have much room.
Speaker 2: I can only do three places, and it's a little
Speaker 2: skinny table.
Speaker 9: But now I've taken it and expanded it to a
Speaker 9: s u a sixth place table setting, and I've done
Speaker 9: fused glass plates, so the conversations are on fuse glass plates.
Speaker 9: In the other iteration, it was uh, some dollar store
Speaker 9: plates and some sharps, and so then that called good
Speaker 9: being able to take it to.
Speaker 2: The next level. So it's just it's a lot of
Speaker 2: fun to to look at.
Speaker 9: All these other ways of expressing the same ideas and
Speaker 9: people were It seemed to resonate with folks to be
Speaker 9: able to walk into a scene from the book.
Speaker 7: In my reading of the book, I, which is very
Speaker 7: different from me I, I I loved how you almost
Speaker 7: like layered the wording and and the stories where you
Speaker 7: were jumping from perspective to spective, perspective to perspective as
Speaker 7: well as.
Speaker 8: Across time timelines. That was a very different shift for me.
Speaker 7: Because uh, I had to lie in the beginning, I.
Speaker 8: Wasn't quite sure where it was going.
Speaker 7: But in the very end it came around full circle
Speaker 7: in such a beautiful way, and it was something that
Speaker 7: I noticed and I wanted I had to ask you
Speaker 7: about that. Was that intentional to to add these different
Speaker 7: layers of UH time and character and unravel it in
Speaker 7: such a way.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely intentional.
Speaker 9: And I would take each storyline, each each the four
Speaker 9: characters you set their own storylines, their own arts, each
Speaker 9: timeline had at that, and so a lot of the
Speaker 9: editing and the rewriting is really about dismantling everything and
Speaker 9: making sure each timeline, each storyline is consistent within each
Speaker 9: character and those places where they intersect aren't consistent and
Speaker 9: makes sense.
Speaker 2: So doing that was very helpful and.
Speaker 9: Scary, you know, going there and just kind of take
Speaker 9: everything apart and then put it back together. But it's
Speaker 9: a wonderful feeling when you see it like a big puzzle,
Speaker 9: when you see it starting to work and come together
Speaker 9: in a way.
Speaker 2: And this is where I really do believe that the characters.
Speaker 9: Start to talk, and the story itself and the peach
Speaker 9: monkey in the story start to inform you. If you're
Speaker 9: listening and if you stay with the work, you can't
Speaker 9: be taking.
Speaker 2: These long, long breaks.
Speaker 9: You got to stay close to the work so that
Speaker 9: you can you can hear what they're saying and what
Speaker 9: the story is telling you to do. And I saw
Speaker 9: an arc from the beginning to the end, from the
Speaker 9: present day which is twenty twelve, and the arc of
Speaker 9: the seventeen hundreds with Malique Malique.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just love Erican. This a story.
Speaker 9: So we have Bodie in the current day and then
Speaker 9: we have Malique in the ancestral story. And I saw
Speaker 9: an absolute arc between those two characters. And as I
Speaker 9: was writing, because of the wall of history and what
Speaker 9: I call.
Speaker 2: It, as black folks, we can only go so far
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 9: Of times in our own history, and even with DNA
Speaker 9: and all the rest, it was a part of a
Speaker 9: plan that we not be able.
Speaker 2: To trace our ancestry. So for me, it was absolutely.
Speaker 9: Exciting to invent this story for the Dukes that because
Speaker 9: what are you doing when you write a story. You're
Speaker 9: asking the question what if, and so what if this
Speaker 9: is what happened in northern Senegal and the result is
Speaker 9: what's happening in southwest Georgia in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: So I was very much in touch with that.
Speaker 9: Arc, and as I wrote, I really wanted to be
Speaker 9: able to tell the.
Speaker 2: Current day folks. I know where people are.
Speaker 9: I mean I wrote them, so yeah, I know, I
Speaker 9: know where you come from. I know where this tradition started,
Speaker 9: and I wish I could tell you, but I can't.
Speaker 9: So that was my wish. Also for the reader. I'm
Speaker 9: hoping that when people read the book, they will say, oh, man,
Speaker 9: you guys don't know. I know everything. I know where
Speaker 9: this tradition started. I know who my league was and
Speaker 9: who his family was and what they did, but there's
Speaker 9: that wall wall of history that doesn't allow it.
Speaker 7: So that is exactly what I experienced, particularly with assignment.
Speaker 7: I wanted to scream through through the pages, especially because
Speaker 7: I was in the trailer, so I'm like, this is
Speaker 7: I don't wanna give too much, but I'm like, please please.
Speaker 7: But I experienced that so that your intention definitely like
Speaker 7: came through in a beautiful way, and that ties into
Speaker 7: my final question with you saying that that is what
Speaker 7: you want the reader to experience. Last question would be
Speaker 7: outside of that, what else would you want the reader
Speaker 7: to take away from the book? An overarching point that
Speaker 7: you'd like for the reader to experience or take away.
Speaker 9: I truly believe that fiction, the novel in particular, because.
Speaker 2: We're able to to go into.
Speaker 9: The head of characters, know what motivates them, to know
Speaker 9: how they think about movies, that those are beautiful opportunities
Speaker 9: for change. And I'm just imagining someone the polar opposite
Speaker 9: of Fletcher Duke's, who was probably my brother in law,
Speaker 9: who loves the book. He wasn't expecting to, and he
Speaker 9: absolutely fell in love with the characters and said he
Speaker 9: wanted to meet them. And there's no greater compliment to
Speaker 9: some writing to have someone say that. So in those moments,
Speaker 9: those beautiful fictional moments where something cracks open and you
Speaker 9: get to know what makes a character tit can help
Speaker 9: you then understand that character and people like that character,
Speaker 9: and you can change in that moment. I completely believe
Speaker 9: that that It's not like.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be this earth shattering thing necessarily.
Speaker 9: But you talked about empathy. That's what happens in those moments,
Speaker 9: and you can say, wow, I have never thought of that.
Speaker 9: I've never met and you may never sit down across
Speaker 9: the table from that person in real life, but here
Speaker 9: you've met them in this novel and they are real
Speaker 9: enough for you to empathize with and for you to say, Wow,
Speaker 9: I'm gonna open my heart and open my mind just a.
Speaker 2: Little bit more, and things can change, things get shipped.
Speaker 2: I really believe that.
Speaker 8: Okay, beautiful, beautiful, I have a question for you. Sure
Speaker 8: that's up.
Speaker 1: So you were number one.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen you since the trailer, since we shot
Speaker 2: the trailer.
Speaker 9: To almost a year over a year ago, a year
Speaker 9: and everybody you need to go to my website and
Speaker 9: Nita gil Jones dot com and watched the trailer. Please
Speaker 9: do that because it's a beautiful expression of the seed
Speaker 9: of the book. And we have two people here today.
Speaker 8: That were in the trailer.
Speaker 9: I wanted to know, what was it that made you
Speaker 9: want to do the trailer, to take the job. What
Speaker 9: was it that interested you enough to come spend the
Speaker 9: day with us.
Speaker 2: On the beach.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So Taylor, the casting director reached out and said, Hey,
Speaker 7: I have this.
Speaker 8: Phenomenal project that we're working on.
Speaker 7: In the same ways that I kind of guessed you
Speaker 7: up and I like spoke about you. That's how he
Speaker 7: presented the opportunity to me. I have this wonderfully creative woman,
Speaker 7: my friend Anita, who you know, she needs some help.
Speaker 8: With her trailer. It's a great project.
Speaker 7: He spoke a little bit about the book, and I
Speaker 7: think the synopsis of the story is what drew me
Speaker 7: in because that is something that I'm passionate about. I
Speaker 7: believe he framed it more about legacy and leaving behind legacy,
Speaker 7: and that's something because I didn't necessarily have that.
Speaker 8: That's something that I wished to do, and hearing.
Speaker 7: That decided like something in me, I don't know which
Speaker 7: was I'm like, I followed my gud followed my heart.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, something in me was like, you gotta
Speaker 8: do it. It's an opportunity you have to make happen.
Speaker 8: And we did and I had a great time.
Speaker 7: I met a lot of great people, including yourself, a
Speaker 7: lot of great memories. I always think about the beach
Speaker 7: that was one of the most beautiful beaches I have
Speaker 7: ever been to.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was a great opportunity so I thank you
Speaker 8: for that. Thank you for peg.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was meant to be.
Speaker 9: We had a wonderful casting crew that day and amazing
Speaker 9: weather because that beach can be blowing and cold, and
Speaker 9: that day was just perfect. And I love the fact
Speaker 9: that we had a multicultural, bipop group of folks that it.
Speaker 2: Just went very smoothly, the whole thing. So thank you
Speaker 2: for being a part of it.
Speaker 1: I told you I was going to have two book reviews,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing just that because I'm going to do
Speaker 1: this book review on this young lady who wrote it
Speaker 1: a New York Times bestseller. Her name is Carol Roth.
Speaker 1: All Right, she's an entrepreneur, an investment banker. We might
Speaker 1: not know her in our arena, in our circles. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about Black America, but she's wrote a few books
Speaker 1: that I think we can benefit by. In this particular
Speaker 1: one that Carol Roth came out with, it's called You
Speaker 1: Will Own Nothing, Your War with a Financial World Order
Speaker 1: and how we can fight by. So that's what I
Speaker 1: like about it. Listen, we living in the world that's
Speaker 1: growing and changing, and there are things that, hey, we
Speaker 1: just need to be aware of, whether you're black, white, Asian, hispanic.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you right now, you need to know what's
Speaker 1: going on. We are on a precipice of a new
Speaker 1: financial world order, one where fortunes would change and the
Speaker 1: financial stakes would shift. The global lease see this coming,
Speaker 1: and our jockey to come out on top, and the
Speaker 1: process will leave you on it nothing. Kerl Rofth states
Speaker 1: that personal wealth and the freedom and independence that goes
Speaker 1: along with it comes from ownership. So when Kerl Roth
Speaker 1: first hand heard at the world economic form and organization
Speaker 1: littered with the global elites was predicting the end of
Speaker 1: private property ownership in less than a decade, she thought
Speaker 1: it was a conspiracy theory. Then she did her research
Speaker 1: and boom, she came out with this book, You will
Speaker 1: Own Nothing. So looking here this book, Roth reveals how
Speaker 1: world governments, GLOBALUS organization, Big Tech, Wall Street, and other
Speaker 1: powerful elites are proactively trying to control every finite resource
Speaker 1: and determined who has access us to such resources. This
Speaker 1: book is an essential god to stopping the elite agenda
Speaker 1: and taking charge to preserve your and your family's freedom
Speaker 1: and wealth. Now, I don't want to sound like a
Speaker 1: conspiracy although I do believe conspiracy. I do believe that
Speaker 1: there are people that's beyond our imagination and wealth, pulling
Speaker 1: strings and controlling a lot of what happens in society
Speaker 1: and governments. So, hey, I just think that you should
Speaker 1: read this. You would own nothing because it's written of
Speaker 1: in the Bible, is written of in the Koran, is
Speaker 1: written of. This type of changing the world. The new
Speaker 1: world order is predicted in these books. So the rich
Speaker 1: get richer and the poor get poor. So statistics have
Speaker 1: shown that the gap continues, the wine between the rich
Speaker 1: and the poor. Hey, I think this is a timely
Speaker 1: book and I think it's a book that you should
Speaker 1: pick up. We got it at Elie Books and show
Speaker 1: wherever books are, but get your copy at melikbooks dot com.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Malik's bookshelf, where topics on the
Speaker 1: shelf are books, culture, and community. Be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: and leave me a review. Check out my instagram at
Speaker 1: Malik Books. See you next time.