Journal Entry--January 27, 2008

I want to give a big thank you to the members of Born Readers Book Club who held a book club meeting for up and coming author Yolanda Hooks Buick http://www.yolandahooksbuick.com/ and myself even though is was twenty-five degrees below zero outside. These wonderful ladies didn’t allow subzero temperatures to keep them from having a great time discussing the books they’d read. Thank you again, ladies of Born Readers Book Club.

PUT DOWN THE MIC AND GET OFF THE STAGE

Recently I attended a literary event and suffered an embarrassing moment. However, I learned some very valuable lessons. Lesson one. Make sure the planners of the occasion have a clear vision as to what my role is at their event. Lesson two, make sure that the organizer explains who the audience is and what the audience is looking for from its speakers. Lesson three, pay attention to the diversity of the audience.

I recently found myself standing before a crowd whom I assumed was looking forward to me reading a passage from one of my novels. As I began reading I quickly became aware that I wasn’t connecting with the attendees in a way that I was accustomed to. As I attempted to engage the crowd a little more, I soon realized the passage I’d selected t read didn’t exactly fit.

So before I further damaged my moment to shine on stage, I took the big elephant that was standing next to me, and graciously thanked everyone for their time and stepped down. As I sat at my seat and watched other the writer’s who followed me. I soon realized that I’d been invited to a poetry slam filled with very talented spoken word artists. Then it dawned on me. I hadn’t been told that the audience was looking for poets to speak about social and societal issues. As I listened to the performers I thought to myself, I haven’t been to an event like this since I was in college twenty years ago. During that time in my life I was shooting my mouth off about yuppies’, buppies’, Skeezers at the nightclub and selling-out to the man. That’s when I began paying attention to age of the crowd. The majority of them appeared to be in their early twenties. Needless to say I had a Homer Simpson moment.

That event marked the very first time that I’d been hopelessly off the mark with an audience. This especially rang true when one of the performers got on stage and said, "Let's give a round of applause for all of the permformers. Even that nasty M.F." I didn't think much of it until a young lady who was sitting next to me said, "You know he's talking about you, right?"