LIFE LESSONS
Author and social commentator Robert Jones Jr
New York native Robert Jones Jr’s debut novel, The Prophets, is a tale of forbidden love between two enslaved young men on a plantation in America’s Deep South. “The Prophets is my attempt to reinscribe into the cultural and historical narrative a figure that has been demeaned, ignored, or erased: the black queer figure,” says the author. “It also feels like testimony because I often felt as though my hand was guided and my thoughts inhabited by the ancestors for whom I am writing.” Listing James Baldwin as an inspiration – “sometimes when I’m writing, I’ll read a line back to myself in Baldwin’s mid-Atlantic accent” – Robert is the creator of online social justice community, Son of Baldwin. The Prophets is released 5 January.
My favourite place to write is on the New York City transit system. Something about the motion of the trains and buses… being surrounded by the diversity of people, inspires creativity.
MY MOST-PLAYED SONG IS CONTROL BY JANET JACKSON — A LOT OF FUN TO DANCE TO, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU KNOW THE CHOREOGRAPHY BY HEART LIKE I DO!
My favourite quote is:
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat” — James Baldwin.
We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression, and denial of my humanity and right to exist.
If I could give my younger self a piece of advice, it would be: “Spend more time with your grandmother. You will only have a total of seven years with her, so make the most of it.”
My first crush was Michael Evans, a character on Good Times, a US television show from the 1970s.
IF I COULD PICK THE BRAIN OF A WRITER, IT WOULD BE WALLACE THURMAN, AUTHOR OF THE BLACKER THE BERRY. I WOULD ASK ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR HIM TO BE WRITING AS A BLACK, QUEER MAN DURING A TIME WHEN IT WAS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE EITHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS, MUCH LESS BOTH OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME.
My most treasured possession is the research on my family’s history that my grandmother left to me, replete with a family tree tracing our roots back to western Africa, photographs, and the tradition of naming first-born sons Robert.
My favourite word is pusillanimity. I heard a character on The Crown say it… I immediately had to look it up and when I discovered its meaning, I thought, “What a beautiful insult.”
I HOPE READERS WILL BE INSPIRED TO INTERFERE WITH AND EVENTUALLY DISMANTLE THE SOCIETAL STRUCTURES THAT ARE DESIGNED TO CRUSH THE HUMAN SPIRIT AND
AFFORD A SMALL NUMBER OF AVARICIOUS PEOPLE LUXURY AT THE BENEFIT OF THE MANY.
With all the discouragement the world contains, I feel blessed to witness when people who the world had no intention of allowing to dream, make their dreams come true.
IT WASN’T UNTIL MY FATHER INTRODUCED ME TO COMIC BOOKS AT THE AGE OF FOUR OR FIVE THAT I CONSIDERED
THE IDEA OF BEING ABLE TO ACTUALLY WRITE… I JUST STARTED RE-TELLING/REWRITING THE COMIC BOOK TALES, WONDER WOMAN SPECIFICALLY, WITH ME IN THEM.
I knew I was queer at age three. And I suspect my family knew, too – and tried to do everything they could to prevent that reality from coming to pass. They were rough with me in order to make me more “manly”, instructing me on how I should walk and talk, what games I should and shouldn’t play, what friends I should and shouldn’t have, which family members I should or shouldn’t hang around, what emotions I should or shouldn’t express.
Rather than coming out, I invited in, but even my invitation was all over the place. When I was 16, I told some of my friends. At 22, I told some of my family. Reactions were likewise all over the place, from acceptance to hostility.