Only One Mic Podcast
Carl Jerard, Brooklyn Dre, and JRob welcome you to The Only One Mic Podcast. We are joined each week by authors, activists, advocates, community leaders, and professionals from several walks of life who would like to offer their experience, expertise, or commentary on the various topics you will be interested in learning.
Only One Mic Podcast
Life, Legacy & The Richness Of Black Literature with Catyra Polland, founder of National Black Authors Day
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the importance of Black literature with Catyra Polland, the visionary founder of National Black Authors Day. Together, we'll explore the profound impact that Black literature has on our culture and the enduring legacy it leaves behind. We'll also delve into the challenging issues of ignorance and stereotypes that persist in the publishing industry, and how these factors affect the authenticity and visibility of diverse voices. In addition, we'll discuss whether genre or racial categorization better serve Black authors in bookstores, and share our personal experiences with these challenges. The episode will conclude with an emphasis on the power of authenticity in writing, the importance of identifying a target market, and an open invitation to authors to share their stories.
Click the link below to learn more about Catyra Polland Love4Words and National Black Authors Day.
https://www.love4words.com
https://www.rochesterfirst.com/community/community-events/we-are-being-authentic-2nd-annual-national-black-authors-day/
https://www.amazon.com/Professionalism-Whats-That-CaTyra-Polland/dp/B09LGNP8FZ
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2:Give me a moment with your friend. I've never been up to my thoughts before. Welcome to the Only One Mic Podcast called J-Rob Brooklyn Trey. J-rob is off, but we're joined by a very, very special guest, returning guest, three-time returning guest, miss Katara. Hold it how you doing.
Speaker 1:I'm doing well. Thank you for having me All right. No Greatest greatest Anytime.
Speaker 2:So listen y'all. For those of you who just getting up to speed on the show, Katara has been on here in previous episodes. She is the founder and CEO of Love for Words. She's also a published author herself. She also is a is a speaker. She's also a book coach, a writing coach, and she also is the founder of Black Authors Day Give it up. So, as we all know, and some of you who may not know Black Office Day is on May the 4th. Yes, May the 4th. So you know. She initially came on and told us how she got it started. You can go back and listen to that episode about the importance of it, and now I said let's come on back, because right now it's about to come up May the 4th, and we want to make sure that the people are aware of this and keep it in the forefront.
Speaker 2:So Tyra get us up to speed on what's going on with you. How's everything?
Speaker 1:Everything is going well, Of course, still editing and working with authors, helping them to get ready to publish and make sure their manuscripts look and sound good. I'm actually working on my next book.
Speaker 2:Legacy Okay, give it up, everybody Give it up. About time Give it up.
Speaker 1:My next book, Legacy Beyond Offspring, and in the book I'm outlining different ways that you can leave a legacy even if you don't have kids. So at this point in my life I'm child free. But obviously there are other ways that I can leave a legacy. So I talk about founding National Black Authors Day. I talk about founding the Literacy, Love, Scholarship and some of the other ways that people who don't have kids can still leave a legacy, because there's still a stigma specifically for women who don't have children by a certain age. So I just wanted to have a resource for them to know that it's okay either if you choose not to have kids, or maybe you can't have children, so there are other things that you can do to leave your legacy outside of um becoming a parent well, now that you, you know and this threw me through a loop because I didn't know you was working on that but now that we're here, can you just probably hit us with one thing that you can give the audience.
Speaker 2:not the whole book, because I know you're still, you know plane, but what can you give us, you know, for the audience here?
Speaker 1:Yes, so there's some I'm actually addressing some myths associated with those who choose not to have children. So I'm just talking about like myth, I give a myth and then I talk about like a myth buster. So like one of the myths is that if you don't have children, then you'll feel like you have a void in your life. But then the myth buster is like I don't have children, but I have nieces, I have a godson, I have a goddaughter, or I'm a teacher, so I have these children that I'm teaching. So just because you don't have kids doesn't mean you necessarily have a void in your life. There are other things that you can do to, you know, give back or help other people besides having your own kids.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm going to throw one at you, and I don't know if it's in the book or not, you know. But what about that myth to say people who don't want kids are selfish or selfish?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one's also in there. I kind of take some of the myth busters are more lighthearted, but sometimes people just there are some people who just know they don't want to be a parent. So it's best that way, so you wouldn't want somebody to be resentful Like I know I don't want to be a mom but I had this kid. Now I got to raise the kid and unfortunately that happens a lot of times. People you know have unplanned pregnancies and then they take out their resentment on the child, either neglecting them or abusing them. So you know that's. I think it's better for somebody to not have kids if they know they're not ready to do that or that they don't want to, then to just have the kid because society is telling you that you should have kids.
Speaker 2:So sometimes they destroy your legacy too and I mean I know we're gonna jump into black office day in a while but. I got now that you open up this can here. There's so many questions running through my head about this one. All right, what about that?
Speaker 1:I just didn't find the right person yet, and it might take a long time yeah, I mean, I think that's fair um, it's very important, just like when you marry somebody who you have children with. So I don't think I I wouldn't take that lightly and I don't see that as an excuse. I think that's valid um, and it may take a long time, which is fine. So I support anybody who feels like they haven't found the person, the other person, the other parent. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because you can't undo that. So exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take your time, take your time.
Speaker 2:You know that screening process needs to take a very, very, very long time. It might take years.
Speaker 3:We before you think about it we always talk about, uh, marriage material man. You're right, man, some people ain't parent. Material man, exactly yeah no yeah, some horrible parents out there.
Speaker 1:It's very much yeah, that's a whole episode. Yeah, I did a focus group of some child free adults and one of the participants was saying that when she thought about motherhood she was terrified. So what's the point of venturing down that if that's the feeling you're getting just thinking about it? So why would you subject yourself to that? So again, it really has to do with who you are as a person and knowing what you want to do, what you don't want to do and what you're capable of.
Speaker 2:How did you just come up with that particular topic to discuss? I mean, that's something to build a book around. I mean, that's, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean as a child free woman. You know there's a lot of messaging. You know, like I said, a lot of messaging that there's something wrong with you as a woman If you don't become a mother, you're selfish, or something's wrong with you or you're going to regret it if you never have kids. And I know that there are other people in my network who also don't have kids who hear those same things. So I wanted to create a resource just for people to be reassured that they have the right to make a decision about their life, whether they want to have kids or not. But I also didn't want to forget about the people who can't have kids. We just assume that because they don't have kids, they don't want them.
Speaker 1:There are lots of families who you know are doing IVF and trying to, you know, have children and you know they have reproductive concerns and you know it took them 20 years before they have kids, or you know they had to adopt, et cetera. So I just didn't feel like we were getting a fair, we were being fairly perceived by society as being child-free. So I wanted to create a book that gave us not gave us power we have power but gave us like a resource to look at, to say, okay, well, maybe I, you know, maybe I do want to start a national author's day, or maybe I do want to start a national holiday, or maybe I want to do an annual event, so I have other ways to leave my legacy, so I wanted to be a part of, you know, giving people options, you know, outside of being parents.
Speaker 3:You know, there's some women that say like I don't want children and stuff like that. And then you have those other people say like oh Jesus, you know what I mean, like talking for the moment, or something.
Speaker 1:I don't really have a response to that. You can ignore those people and again, you can make your own decisions. So, even if they don't agree with it, that's okay. That, and again, you can make your own decisions. So even if they don't agree with it, that's okay. That's part of life, one of the things I say, like if there's somebody who doesn't like me or what I stand for, my values, I just say you know, you're not the first person, you won't be the last. So I got a life. So it's like you can't please everybody.
Speaker 2:So let's go ahead and wrap about this national black office so um, I gotcha, I gotcha so let's go ahead and wrap about this. Uh, national black office day, alright yes, so you are a black author, as you just stated, and you know. Kudos to you again. Now go ahead and explain to the people who don't know what black office day is, because we got a lot of things that's going to flood that day and it's going to kind of overshadow, or try to overshadow, what your movement is. So go ahead and explain it to the people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So National Black Authors Day is a day to celebrate and acknowledge our contributions to you know, literature and the literacy world. We know that there are many literary giants who are now our ancestors. We know that we have current literary giants, black authors, who are continuing to produce masterpieces, and we know that we have the responsibility to help build up the future Black authors or at least I have the responsibility. I'll take that to heart for me. So I really wanted to create a day to you know, acknowledge what we have done, because, as you two already know, and I'm sure some of our listeners, our work is often Our work is. Often it's either ignored or underval, um, the shine or the recognition that it should. So I want to be a part of having a day, of course, more than a day, but specifically May 4th is the day to do that, um. So when I founded it, I did research to see if it existed and I I did find out that National Authors Day already exists I think it's in November, but I wanted a more specific day and I wanted it to be National Black Authors Day. So I envisioned that, of course, it would just get bigger and bigger every year and that I would love to be able to travel across the country to the different places that are having those celebrations. So last year I did a celebration here in Rochester, which is my native town. This year I'm doing another celebration here, but as it grows, I know that other places will be hosting. Well, last year, other places already did start hosting events. So there were people who hosted their book signing that day. They had their book launch that day. They opened their bookstore on that day. Those are their book launch that day. They opened their bookstore on that day. Those are some of the things that they're doing this year as well. So, like I know, there's a celebration in South Africa celebrating National Black Authors Day. So it's gaining ground quickly, which is what I expected.
Speaker 1:So I'm just glad that people are participating, and not just with live events, but people were using the National Black Authors Day hashtag. They were going live reading an excerpt from a book by a Black author or going live reading their own books. There were people who were, you know, posting pictures of their favorite Black author or posting an excerpt from the book of their favorite Black author, et cetera. So the great thing about it is there's really no limit to how you can celebrate. So you might want to maybe just write a journal entry about what the day means to you, so it doesn't even have to be a public celebration. Or maybe you just go to the library and check out a new book by a Black author you never read. So I just love that. There's versatility in that and you can choose how you want to celebrate. Actually, in Rochester there's an author doing her book signing that day on May 4th, so that's the perfect way for her to participate and then you know, or going to a Black-owned bookstore.
Speaker 1:So again, I just I'm excited to see the ripple across the country and really across the globe, just that we have this day to you know, recognize all that we've contributed and also recognize that we still have a lot of battles as Black, just as Black people, but as Black writers and authors.
Speaker 1:So, like there are a lot of Black authors whose books are being banned, there are a lot of well, yes, there are a lot of Black authors who've worked with white editors or non-Black editors who are rewriting their work or telling them they can't use ain't or they can't use Ebonics or AfricanAmerican vernacular English, that it has to be written in standard, professional white English.
Speaker 1:So, again, this day recognizes the things that we're still facing, but also that we are constantly overcoming. That is not, you know. We're not a people who lie down. We're not a people who are easily swayed and we fight for, you know, what we deserve. It is a shame that we have to fight so hard. That is certainly not fair and that's certainly not acceptable. But the point is, you know, because of how great we are, we have the power to do that. I would hope that that fight gets easier. But you know, that's a whole nother conversation. The day is there for us to celebrate and be happy and be merry, because the one thing they can't take from us is our joy. So that's what it's about.
Speaker 3:He said books are being banned.
Speaker 1:Yes. So there are a large percentage of books, specifically if they are about race relations a lot of those that are about, like, lgbtq, ethnicity books, like, again, racism and race issues in America. A lot of those books, people can file a formal complaint to have the book banned. So that's happening across the country, where you know a white person might read this book and it's teaching us about the atrocities against African Americans, and they can fill out a form and they can complain and then they could have the book banned in that county or city that they live in. So that is something that is happening, you know, across the country, probably across the world, but we're in America, so I'll speak about the country.
Speaker 1:So there's just a lot of still pushback for our stories to be told. Lots of people are still uncomfortable with that truth. They don't want to take responsibility for how they're benefiting from the isms and the systems that we have. So that's one way that they I'm sure that they feel they can maintain their uh, comfort. So I don't have to. I don't want other people to read this because it makes me feel uncomfortable about how I'm benefiting. So I'm going to report this book and I'm going to get banned in this county or this library, et cetera. So that is happening very frequently.
Speaker 3:That's actually crazy, because it seems like now there's like this huge thing about trying to delete our history, you know, or us talking about our history, and what's crazy is that everybody else's history is constantly being pushed down our throats.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, like the Holocaust, and you know Jewish history and any other history that you can think of. I think we probably, as African Americans, we probably know more about other people's history than anybody else in this country. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, I can definitely tell and, truth be told, we know than anybody else in this country.
Speaker 1:You know it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can definitely, and truth be told, we don't know a lot about our own.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I didn't take an African-American class until I got to undergrad at the college level.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:It wasn't offered in any of the schools that I went to secondary schools. That was my first introduction to it and I just couldn't believe that until I was, I hadn't met your Evans and it just wasn't a part of the system. We were not taught about that. I took an AP history class. Now we do have the AP African-American history class, but I don't know how familiar you are with that controversy. But they had to rewrite the curriculum because I looked at it and probably felt uncomfortable, like we don't want you teaching people and probably felt uncomfortable Like you know, we don't want you teaching people this. So that's just another, you know, attempt to erase, forget, whitewash our history. So I definitely agree with you, andre, that there are so many attacks happening on so many fronts, which is exhausting.
Speaker 2:Well, the beauty about how you know we all came up in our generation is that we always knew that school wasn't going to provide you with all the information that you needed. You know, and so we will have a lot of people you know push this particular you know I don't want to say push, but introduce you to you know certain points in Black history and stuff like that to have you go ahead and do your research on it, and this is stuff we were doing kind of off book. He wasn't doing this in school and this was like in high school and whatnot, like they would have some information available to you.
Speaker 3:But you know what? I think we were blessed because we grew up in New York, so in New York City, you know, this stuff was pumped to us whether it was on the street you got it on the street or you got it in, you know somewhere in the classroom by those teachers that were, you know, down enough to give you some information.
Speaker 3:And you know, it's kind of funny because I was telling him before I was speaking to us, sitting down here and not just calmly having the conversation, and I said, well, elhadj Malik Shabazz, and she didn't know who Malcolm X was and she's a grown woman, you know, she got a master's degree and everything like that, and I'm like we started talking about that and she was like, well, you grew up in New York, we didn't learn that in our school system. So you know, it's kind of sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also that the history is selective. So we learn about MLK. I don't know too many schools that really herald Malcolm X. So we get bits and pieces and we get who they choose. They want us to know about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it's always down to Martin and Rosa and Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 3:And then they want to give you the passive history about them. They want to give you about the revolutionary history because all of those people had some revolutionary sides to them.
Speaker 2:Rosa Parks was a Black Panther. A lot of people didn't know that. You know what I mean. Stuff like that. So you know, that's how that go. Now, with the event coming up and celebrations coming up, what are some? What are some black authors that you looking at, like that? You can see that some up and coming.
Speaker 1:Um, up and coming, so I'll I'll stick with my clients. So, um, I just recently finished editing a book. His name is Caleb Jakes. He's also here in Rochester. He attends a university at Rochester. He is a I don't know what year he's in, but this is his first book and he wrote a book about his experience and journey in battling obesity and how that was a spiritual journey for him. So, even though, you know, obesity is seen as something of the physical, he just talked about how you know that tied into his spirit and how he felt about himself and also talk about how he overcame it. So that was an excellent read. I've never, you know, experienced obesity or dealt with that, but I mean I could insert any other type of, you know, adversity I have had and get a lot from it. So I really enjoyed reading that. I think he's 18. So I'm all about, you know, the next generation of black authors. He's a great writer, I really enjoyed editing and he is in the final stages of publishing. So, caleb Jakes, I will highly recommend him.
Speaker 1:Another one of my recent clients is Lee Jackson and she wrote a fiction book and her book is about a young girl growing up in the Bronx. So she's, you know, talking about the trials and tribulations. You know her parents are kind of absent, not as involved as they should be, so a lot of things are falling on her shoulders. So, again, you know reading that I really enjoy editing nonfiction. I'm just cause, well, hers is fiction, partially fiction. It's loosely based on her, yeah, loosely based on her life. So I love just being able to read people's stories and see, um, I don't like to use the word resiliency because it's overuse in our community. It's a good thing, but I think, because it's used so often, it's just assumed that it doesn't matter what we experience, we will overcome it. So it's okay for us to continue to experience those battles. So that's why I don't like to use that word, but, for lack of a better word, her book just shows that she's overcoming a lot of things as a young woman. So her name is Lee Jackson. So those are two recent. I'll stick with those.
Speaker 1:Some of my favorites. They are my favorites too, but I'm going established. Uh, not new author favorites. I'm actually looking at my bookshelf. Uh, walter mosley. Um, I really like his work. Um, it's funny though, because I started reading walter dean myers in high school and I went to a bookshop looking for his books and I came across Walter Mosley's book. Are you guys familiar with Walter Dean Myers?
Speaker 2:Myers, are you familiar with him? I'm not familiar.
Speaker 3:I never heard of him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a YA author. I think he's from Harlem, so he's writing for you, so I came across. Are you familiar with Walter Mosley? Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:OK. So I came across his book and I thought it was Walter D Myers because I just wasn't paying attention. So I started reading the book and I'm like I thought he was a YA writer Because you're familiar with Walter Mosley. So I was like, oh, walter put the script. He's not writing for kids, no more. But then eventually I looked at the book and I was like, oh, this is a whole other Walter. So it was a funny way that I stumbled into Walter Mosley because I thought I was reading a different Walter. So those two Walters I really like. I do a lot of business reading too, like to help continue to grow my business. Um, actually, down here I'm looking at one of these books networking for freelance editors. It's not a black author, but this is one of the books I'm reading right now. So that was helpful. So, yeah, those are some of the books that I and authors that I like.
Speaker 2:What do you think? The digital, digital or physical?
Speaker 1:I prefer physical. Um, I recently started listening to audio books, so that's that's been. I like it because it's faster, so I could just sit and work and listen to the audio book. But I do still buy books and I definitely go to the library. So I prefer physical books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like you. I prefer physical, physical books. I'm of the mind like in a while we won't have a lot of physical media books, anything of that nature. So it's like you want to collect this stuff while you have it to be able to pass it down, because you know digital media can be manipulated in so many different ways. You know, I mean so, I just I think that way some time y'all still like records.
Speaker 3:Man, I'm one of them people. Now you know I got a whole bookshelf for books and stuff like that. But now I kind of like you know, I like the whole candle thing and just you know you can cop it. Whenever you want to cop it now I put it in the bookstore. I mean, maybe I'm being lazy now, but you know it's good to have a little library in your pocket. It's nothing wrong with that, you know what.
Speaker 3:I mean so certain things I might put on the candle, but it's like things that I know, like dealing with history or anything like that, or you know biographies or something I try to keep a physical copy yeah, definitely, maybe I should, maybe, maybe I should purchase the physical copy more, because I I heard a person I know that um told me that she wrote a book and she was saying that on amazon. Like so many words. She was saying like they don't really get the money that they should get off on amazon, or yeah, I think they have.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's still an option, but at one point you could select 70, 30 or I think it was 60, 40 I don't know what it is now. So they do take, you know, a percentage not quite half, but they take a percentage. So you don't see your full royalty. So I know a lot of authors to combat that. What they'll do is they'll sell their book on their website so you know they can print their own books, or you can put your book on Amazon, buy copies for $2 and 15 cents I think that went up, so it was probably like $3. So you can buy the copies at the low cost and then sell them through your website and get a greater profit.
Speaker 2:So it's like any vetting process with Amazon, or is it just like streaming, like any type of streaming service where you can just write something and just upload it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Anybody, you know. You know how to use a computer and you have a manuscript, you can do it. There are certain dimensions you have to have. So you either have to know how to do the formatting yourself or hire someone to do it for you. But as far as content, I don't think there's limitation to that. So if you write something, you publish it. You know you get your um. You get your um. It's in the I'm forgetting what it's called um you get the number associated with your book.
Speaker 2:You get your manuscript uploaded so yes, isb a number and copyright your book before you publish it. So yeah, um, it's a pretty, um streamlined process yeah, and I know you mentioned before, like a lot of these, you know, black authors who are writing positive things probably get pushed and for some reason my mind is going to the movie American Fiction.
Speaker 2:So like do you think like that's what it is. Is that you have to be ignorant to sell? Is that what they push to sell? Is that what they push? I see the Facebook. Is it like it's something that you have to be ignorant to sell in terms of you know the other media? You know what I mean. Like they pushed out a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of truth.
Speaker 2:You're excited about this one. Huh yeah, she was ready to say something.
Speaker 3:So you're excited about this question.
Speaker 1:Here in Rochester we have the Rochester Association of Black Journalists and they have a partnership with a local theater where they host films that are Black culture films, and I was a panelist offering what is that called? We basically talked about the movie after we watched it I'm sure it's a simple word, I can't think of it so we were asked to talk about it, give a review. It was myself and another publisher. So, yes, I'm excited about that and I actually wrote a blog post about it. So what I will say is I work with self-published authors and hybrid publishers. So I don't work with, like the big five publishing companies, but I'm sure that there's a lot of truth based in what was in the movie.
Speaker 1:What I will say on the self-publishing, hybrid side is, when you do it yourself, you don't have that publisher over your head telling you oh, you have to write garbage, you have to write this, that. So as a self-publisher, hybrid published author, you write what you want. That. So, as a self-publisher, hybrid published author, you write what you want. So you don't have those constraints and I do believe that's why so many authors not just Black authors, but authors in general go the self-publishing route because you don't have this major machine in your ear telling you this is what you have to write, this is how you have to write it, or you're not going to sell, or we're not going to to sign you, or we're going to drop you, et cetera, et cetera. So I would say the positive to that is we have options where we can, where we control our narrative and we don't have to worry about being pigeonholed or forced into a narrative just for money.
Speaker 2:Right, right. It seems like that's the route that a lot of people go and we've had a few authors on the show and everything and even in like the spaces of the Latino spaces they say a lot of, it is very like stereotypical in terms of that, you know. So it's just. It's just a rough road and you know, going to these bookstores and stuff this is what you see is being pushed more in terms of what is called African-american you know writers, but you know what the sad reality is.
Speaker 3:We have to come to the grips of it's what we like. Man, it's sad to say, man, you know not all of us.
Speaker 1:But yes, you're right. Yeah, I mean, it's not. It's not what, it's not what, it's not what I, it's not what I like, but I'm saying that you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like yeah, like perfect example, like even what we do right now.
Speaker 2:We can put something up that's educational in whatever case may be, and you'll never get any hits or any likes on the book if you put something up in this drake fighting somebody or some garbage like that, then you're gonna get a lot of hits and it's, it's sad and I even say, like we'll reach a certain people, people who run it, and they and they do let you know when they do hear it that they appreciate it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So it's like stuff like that. But I get what he's saying. It's just like you can talk about whatever's the flavor that we, if I said, if I said puffy on this thing, or if I said diddy, 30 times on here and put his picture up instead of yours, guess what? You know what I mean. So it's like that's how it works. That's just how it is.
Speaker 3:And I don't want to seem negative, but you know I'm just, you know, trying to state the fact and, like I said, you know there's a bunch of people like ourselves like I don't read, you know that garbage or anything like that. And, to be honest with you, I'm constantly reading something about finance or something about trying to better myself, so it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, One of the other interesting points in American fiction. Have you seen it, both of you, you know what.
Speaker 2:I've seen it, but I've seen several clips about it and I'm like I can't get my hands on this movie. For some reason I wasn't able to get to the theater to see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. One of the poignant points for me was Should I spoiler alert or you don't want?
Speaker 2:that Go ahead Go ahead.
Speaker 1:I was going to say there's a scene where he walks in the. He walks in the bookstore and he's looking for his book and it's in the black section. So he's pissed off. So he takes his book and he puts it in the. Was it sci fi that he was writing? He put it in the genre that the book was. So I was kind of grappling with like do Black authors want their books to go in the Black section or do they want them to go into the genre fit? So if I'm writing sci-fi, is it better for my book to be in the sci-fi section and perhaps risk it being seen because it's a sea of white authors in that genre? Or do I want to be stereotyped, so to speak? And but because it's easier to find, because it's already with the other black authors? So that was an interesting point that I've just been thinking about. Like I don't know. I mean, I've never traditionally published, so I don't know what my preference would be, would be yeah, but maybe it's just be.
Speaker 3:I know the answer to this one I got it man. Put it in the sci-fi section. Man, yeah, I was going to say the same thing.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you because A good black sci-fi writer. I mean, you got to discover that yourself. I was thinking the same thing.
Speaker 3:Because if you go to our section, all it is is guns and sex and drugs and whatever the case may be, and you might find some classics in there or something like that. But uh, that's about it, you know, and if you ain't looking for that I mean if you ain't looking for the classics, hopefully somebody white or somebody you know, looking in the other side I won't say white, but looking in the other side we'll find your book there, man. That's interesting and that type of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, that was a good point that I remember from the movie.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the same thing with, like Black directors, like you might watch a movie and didn't realize you know like Anton Foucault made this movie or made this show or something.
Speaker 1:But you're not going in saying well, I'm looking for it because it's you know, steven spielberg, I just want to see a good movie, you know. I mean yeah, yeah, so it happens without the black section, or or you can do both right, yeah, yeah, you can do both, that would be the maximum. Yeah, yeah yeah in both sections.
Speaker 2:That would help, I guess.
Speaker 3:So, if you want to, if you want to, you know, because when you go, I was gonna say when you go to the bookstore, do you I mean you guys, I'm asking do you go to the black section?
Speaker 1:I do, I do for me it's different because I don't like peruse books, so like I will hear about a book and I want this book. So it's not a matter of looking for a black author, I'm just looking for that particular book. I'm not like a book shopper walk around, see what I see. This is the book, this is the category, this is the genre. This is why I need it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get it and then I'm leaving Katara. I'm different. It depends on what I'm looking for. If I'm coming here to get a book about Malcolm X, that's what I'm going for. If I'm coming to get a book about this. That's what I'm going for. That's just me.
Speaker 3:It's sad to say, man, but when I go there looking for a white author I like Jodi Picard, I like a lot of her books. I go there sometimes and I'll just, you know, browse it and see what I, you know, there's something more like I'm reading through the summary and everything on the back. So you know, but, um, again, I, I don't really go to the black section. It's sad to say, but I don't, man, because again, when I go there, all I see is the same thing it's the two bs or I'll go to the um if I do go there I'm Barnes Noble, or I'll go to the.
Speaker 3:If I do go there, I'm like looking for the classics, or something that I, you know, like something that somebody told me, like yo you been should have read this, you know what I mean, so I'll get that.
Speaker 2:That's a good question right there, Kataya. What's one of those you been should have?
Speaker 1:I mean, most of the reading I do is my clients work Right, so I don't really have the. Every once in a while I'll break out a book for like non-work, so none really come to mind at this point.
Speaker 2:So if we think back in the day, something maybe historical or a story you should have read Like if you tell me something like you know what a biography of malcolm x maya angelou's uh singing and swinging, getting married like christmas all them yeah even donald goines and stuff like that, I mean, which is like trash books of the past.
Speaker 3:But you know, but I like donald goines man, so I'm sad to say I like that, but uh I mean?
Speaker 1:I mean, my answer would be all the books I read in my first af-American one on one class. I should have known those names at 18. And the saddest part about it is that was an elective. Wow. So I mean, if I didn't have the desire, I could have gone another 18 years.
Speaker 2:But you know what, sometimes that's the best, the best time when you had, when you hit. It is like you know, if you take a history course or something like that, then kind of I look at it as like the rabbit hole. You know what I mean. Like it's a good introduction, a good jumping on point, but then you continue to research with whatever interests you. You know what.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, so yeah, just learning about in depth the stories.
Speaker 3:of you know, like SNCC and I, mean oh yeah, yeah, I like stuff like that, yeah it's just.
Speaker 1:It just brings me a lot of heartache to know that that's not like a staple of our history and that I could have easily missed that. And how many people are my age who still don't know and will never know you?
Speaker 2:know, will never know yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. No, yeah, they're not damp in it, but sometimes reality doesn't feel good.
Speaker 2:No, it don't, it don't. And then sometimes you got to look back in the past to see where we going with this thing. You see the whole stuff that's happening with these students and everything it thing. You see the whole stuff that's happening with these students and everything. It's nothing but the 60s, you know I mean 60s all over again. So listen, if you, um, if you could give any tips right now to any up and coming writers who might be at the next national black office day, getting their books on and whatnot.
Speaker 2:What would you say?
Speaker 1:um, I would just say write what matters to you. Some people write a book for money, so they write about things that are trendy, or they write about things that are funny or the entertainment, but they're not connected to them as the author. So, whatever you're planning to write, I will highly encourage that is something of value to you, something that you connect with, is something that you're, like, passionate about, unless like. Unless your goal is like, maybe you want a ghostwriter and you just trying to, you know, get the bag. You don't really care about the content.
Speaker 2:Some people like that yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, most people. Yeah, yeah, most people.
Speaker 2:Most people yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know that's your goal and you know I wish you the best on that journey. But for the authors, who, you know, care about the content and want to produce quality work, it's all about authenticity. Authenticity and for yourself, but also the information that you're sharing, you have to tailor it to your audience. So sometimes, you know, authors come to me and you know one of the first questions I ask is who is your target market? And they say everyone. And we got to dial it back because if you write for everyone, you're not writing for anyone. So that's one of the big things that comes up when I'm working with clients, like they don't know who their target market is and they think that every single person walking the earth is going to pick up their book and buy it. So they don't have a realistic idea of you know who your target market is. So know that what you're writing is valid to you and know that what you're offering is valid to your readers.
Speaker 2:OK, all right, take that. Take that All right, before I let you go. Can you tell everybody if you know where the next Black Office day event will be held in rochester? As well as your handles, where they can reach you, where they can reach love for words and all?
Speaker 1:yes, of course. So I am hosting a national black office day event in my hometown of rochester, new york, on may 4th, 11 am to 2 pm. Um, it's going to be at the Avenue Black Box Theater, but please do host whatever event you feel suits you best, wherever you live. It is not limited. So, please, I encourage you to do whatever you feel is on your heart to celebrate the day on Saturday. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm the only Kataira Poland on there, so you'll find me easily. I'm also on Instagram under Kataira Poland. My website is the love it's love, the number four words dot com. All of my handles are on there. My email is on there, so feel free to get in touch with me that way. So yeah, and then my email is Poland at love, the number four words dot com.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm going to link everything down in the description and all that for you too.
Speaker 3:Okay, give us a quick rundown how the day is going to be. I mean, do you have anything planned, or like what. I mean, what do you have planned?
Speaker 1:yeah. So, um, there's, there's going to be, of course, authors there. They'll have their books able to connect. Um, there will also be vendors there who specialize in literacy. So we have an organization there that focuses on tutoring. We have another organization that focuses on doing research about the impact of literacy in the community. We have writers and books, writers and books.
Speaker 1:Inclusion, freedom, learning Scholar is a learning center here where they have a heavy emphasis on reading, and there are a few other vendors that are slipping my mind at the moment. Oh, we have a mobile bookstore based out of Buffalo, but she'll be coming with her books. So, again, all of the vendors have a literacy focus, have a literacy focus. So I just wanted people to know that there are resources if you need, you know, help with reading, writing literacy, digital literacy, adults and children, because we all know that. You know there are a lot of people who struggle with reading, don't know how to read, or functionally illiterate, et cetera. So I wanted to create that one space where they can get a lot of resources at once.
Speaker 1:And then we also have a Black librarian panel, so there's four Black librarians who will be on that panel talking about their careers, encouraging other people to consider becoming librarians. I mean, there's a lot we don't know about what they do and we all know that they're extremely important. So they will be there talking about their journeys, encouraging the kids and the adults there who maybe never considered librarianship. It's a viable career and it's very important and we need to keep our Black librarians, we need to keep that pipeline growing. So we'll have that panel. So it's mostly, you know, networking walking around the panel, the mayor will say some words, one of our authors will say some words and we'll just be enjoying each other's company. There's lunch and yeah. So that's what we have going on on Saturday All right, that's what's up.
Speaker 2:You feel everybody that's good. Everybody got a story in them somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so. One of the things I will say about that is you don't have to share the story. So a lot of people would prefer to just write in the journals, which is perfectly fine. So you might not want to publish a book, maybe you just want to write these feelings down, maybe it's therapeutic. So, for those of you who choose not to publish, that's fine as well. But writing is still beneficial to everyone, whether you share what you're writing or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I always say when we have conversations that I respect anybody who sits down and commits themselves to page like that, because it's hard it got to be hard to kind of unleash your imagination or unleash your personal side of you and all of that, your feelings and also, you know, much respect to anybody, that's it All right. So thanks once again. I'm like a sorry. Much respect to anybody that's here. You know what I mean. Yeah, all right. So thanks once again.
Speaker 3:I'm like a tarot. I don't want to hear anybody's story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what. You don't want to hear it. Some things might depress you. Yeah, I don't want to hear it, man.
Speaker 3:It gave us too much.
Speaker 2:That's the truth. That's the truth. So I'm pretty sure we will do this again on the next go around. Hey, how about this? The next time you come on, why don't you bring on one of your?
Speaker 1:office. Oh, definitely Yep, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:We'll do. Yeah, we'll do, yeah, you know. Sorry, I didn't think about this before, but could have brought somebody home. But you know, Lord willing, there'll be a next time, Right next time right.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, we thank you once again for your time everybody, so we're going to go ahead and sign off. Kataira always a pleasure. You might be the first person that's been on here about three times, so we appreciate that the Only One Mic Podcast is available on all platforms you stream your podcasts on. Also, check out our Only One Mic Podcast YouTube channel to catch up on past and current episodes, and please don't forget to rate the show and subscribe. Check us out on Instagram and Twitter at TheOnlyOneMikeP1, facebook and LinkedIn at TheOnlyOneMikePodcast, and you can email us at TheOnlyOneMike00 at gmailcom, or you can call us at 302-367-7219 to have your comments and questions played on the show.
Speaker 2:We thank you all again for your time. Katara, you in particular, thank you. Thank you for the audience, for making space, and we encourage you, please, to speak the truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even adult and ignorant, because they too have their story to tell. So until next time, I'm going to switch this up, katara each one, teach one if you can't find one, talk to the little ones and you'll see. They'll feel the missing piece to rise and shine. Peace everybody.