Did a smooth interview for The Blk Noise website. Spoke on writing, anime, Chicago, influence(s) and music. P.S: I swear a lot, lol.
I grew up experiencing Saturday morning cartoons and shit like that. That shit never left me. I started writing because my older brother use to play videos and he would play RPGs. I couldn’t play because I couldn’t understand the controls, kids don’t have great hand-eye coordination. So I would watch him play and they would have these huge narratives, but they didn’t have voice actors. So my brother would do the voices of the different characters. That eventually got me into fiction writing, going from RPG games, watching cartoons and anime, and being like I want to write my own narratives.
With anime and comic books in general, just that whole experience of discovering a whole new world, that gave me a different outlet to see the world in. I use to tell my students to stand in your truth; it is easier to be who you are. If you like nerd shit, be raw at what you do, so nobody can say shit. Just as much as I listened to hip hop and jazz music, I watched a lot of cartoons as well. It is cool to be vocal about being a black nerd, but also saying that I will rap circles around you.
