“Inner View” Interview Series 004: Diamond Sharp
Diamond is another interesting woman of color who I came across on Twitter (@diamonde). I’ve seen her retweeted plenty of times on my timeline and I thought that it was long overdue to follow her. If you’re unfamiliar with Diamond, she’s a Chicago native and Wellesley College alumna, as well a hard-working artist. Not only is she an editor for The Black Youth Project and essay reader for The Offing, she’s been published in PANK, BLACKBERRY, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Wellesley Review, among many others.
1. A lot of your work is centered around POCs finding solace. Perhaps before you really delved into writing and activism, did you think about "solace" in a totally different way than you do now?
I didn't. I've been a serious writer since high school (thanks Young Chicago Authors!). I can't remember a time when writing didn't equal solace.
2. I know that this could be a dissertation topic would you mind explaining what racial melancholia is and how that might present itself to POCs? I think medically, racial melancholia is best described as racial battle fatigue. It's exactly what it's sounds like. I think it presents itself as depression and anxiety. Jenna Wortham has a good piece about it in the New York Times Magazine. 3. Would you describe your writing as a form of self-care, even if you may not come away with any clear answers towards the end of a session? This is an emphatic yes. My writing is a form of my self-care and without it, I doubt I'd be here. 4. So recently, you stepped into the role of an essay reader for The Offing. How has this new position shaped the way you look at art from its initial stage to the polished form? Being an essay reader has been a great experience. As a creative writer in my own right, it's to be on the other side of the process. It's made me a better editor and a better writer. 5. Being a WOC at a literary journal isn't easy, right? Do you believe that there needs to be safe spaces necessary for us and if so, how do we go about doing this? Being a Black woman at The Offing is extremely easy. The Offing is dedicated to being an intentional, and diverse space. That said, The Offing is unusual in that regard which is an unfortunate reality in the literary journal landscape. We always need safe spaces. If we're looking for safe spaces in terms of literary journals, I really think our best bet is starting them ourselves. There have been so many cases of out right fuckery in the poetry community this past year that starting our own shit is my best answer.
6. You minored in Africana Studies at Wellesley and then studied African history at the University of Cape Town. Had your ideas of blackness been shaped to be more nuanced because of these academic interactions? My minor and my time abroad definitely furthered my nuanced thoughts about Blackness, though the groundwork was laid before college. Going abroad really reinforced my ideas about their being a global Diaspora. I love Cecile Emeke's work because I think it's a good example of the Diaspora coming together through art. It's also why my eyes rolled out of my head after reading that incredibly ahistorical, nonsense piece by Zipporah Gene on Black Americans appropriating African culture. 7. Now onto more light-hearted things--what are some of the ways in which you unwind? They can be as frivolous and silly as possible. Lots of Netflix. Currently finishing A Different World. Scrolling through Tumblr. Talking to friends. Getting my nails done. Eating ice cream. 8. You have a forth-coming anthology coming out, yes? Would you mind telling me a little bit about it? I don't, actually. But maybe your question is a premonition. I am working on a poetry chapbook manuscript. That will be about Blackness, mental health, queerness, Chicago and myself. 9. Can we expect any novels or essay collections in the future? Yes. In addition to the poetry chapbook manuscript, I've begun culling my essays for a future project. It may be a few years, but an essay collection is something I'm interested in. I think I have at least one novel in me. I'm a poet, so there are a few poetry books in my future. A screen-play is on the way as well. 10. Lastly, if there's one thing about the complexity of mental health that you could share, what would it be? I was thinking recently about the major manic episode I had in February. It annoyed me to no end that all of my mentally well friends thought I was just upset because I was embarrassed about having an episode while in the company of a friend. Yes, it was unbelievably mortifying, but embarrassment is the least of my worries. That episode illuminated that my previous healthy self is no longer here. She's never coming back. That caused mourning by itself but there's more to it. I now have to be worried about having episodes in public, which can be extremely dangerous.
Can you imagine living in fear that something like that can happen to you at anytime and is in fact, guaranteed to happen again? What if the next time, I'm not with a friend? I worked very hard before that episode in February to avoid having episodes in front of people who are not my family members. I watched three years of work go down in flames in a matter of two days. I was outsmarted by my own brain. So yes, embarrassment is the least of my worries. I'm concerned about not giving in to this illness and becoming a recluse at best, or committing suicide at worst. I hospitalized myself in August due to that episode in February because I never fully recovered. I knew that I'd have to hospitalize myself eventually due to that episode but I held off as long as I could. That's the point I want to drive home. For others, bipolar episodes seem like a series of bad events that one can eventually overcome. For me, and others like me, they are completely encapsulating and have the ability to destroy us.
If you have a tip of an inspiring person like Diamond who should be interviewed for the “Inner View” series, please contact the staff: [email protected]
Photo credit: Reginald Eldridge Jr.