Kiese Laymon graces CSB/SJU virtually

Author and essayist Kiese Laymon held a virtual reading and conversation this past Tuesday, Nov. 11.

A Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi, Laymon is the author of three works: essay collection “How to Kill Yourself and Others in America”, novel “Long Division” and bestselling memoir, “Heavy”.

Beginning the session by reading from his memoir “Heavy” which frequently uses the pronoun “you” to directly address his mother, Laymon reflects on his junior high years.

Caught between seventh and eighth grade and suddenly forced to go to a primarily white school after his former all-black school closed, Laymon returns to his first struggles that surfaced because of him and his classmates’ differences.

He recalls differences in slang, body language and what was said versus what was not. At a young age, Laymon was told he needed to tell his friend Jabari to bathe before school because he stunk—a characteristic that was disruptive at his new school, St. Richard’s, but not his old, Holy Family.

Though Laymon had grown up with white presence in media, literature and religion, he stressed that this was not always true the other way around. “That meant we knew white folk,” “That meant white folk did not know us.” he writes.

Following Laymon’s reading of the passage, he addressed a few questions from the audience regarding the immediacy of literature and the responsibility of writers.

When asked about his idea of literature, Laymon said he often personifies it, beginning at a young age when he literalized the phrase “body of literature” “[It is] a body I did not want to bore or burden,” he said. “I didn’t want to waste literature’s time.” In fact, wanting to make revisions to his first two books, Laymon bought them back from his publisher at 10 times the price he’d sold them for.

He desired not only for his works to be his own but also to edit his books in hopes of maintaining respect for the written word.

Furthermore, Laymon was asked about what he thought the responsibility of writers who incorporate black or minority characters should be.

He believes these characters’ purpose should be more than to simply entertain; creators should consider the ways in which certain things-such as white supremacy-have shaped our current reality. These characters are extremely important in the world of literature, for “there is no equity without diversity,” Laymon said.

“It’s really hard to be a human being with Americanisms in our back pocket.” Laymon said in an attempt to summarize his overarching ideas in writing.

He wants a platform to “talk about things that the nation has never given us a model to talk about” and reconnect to his loved ones in the process.

He strives to enlighten all audiences, and remind Black Youth of their individuality-which can best be described in a phrase his friend LaThon often employed: “that black abundance.”