00:01and yeah it's another character so it just gives me more space more father to
00:07you know enrich my own books by describing the city in there and just giving people a taste of
00:13it absolutely absolutely there's no way of faking new orleans we can't ai new orleans it's new orleans
00:22is is its own thing how about you rodisha i love the people i love the way we talk yes
00:29and
00:29that's what i really love and i think that that's something um with my my stories they're
00:38strong on dialogue and i let my characters talk and that's what i really love the stories i like
00:45the way um it's somebody you may not even know and they say hey baby yes yes yes i think
00:53we have a few
00:53more minutes um and i wanted to ask you all a a question about craft and writing you know so
01:02many
01:03people dream of being a writer um we all are writers here different genres uh so i'm poetry um you're
01:12fiction right and fiction um although people are trying to get me to cross jump the fence and go
01:20into fiction i just have too many many stories um so i'm gonna stick with poetry but what are what
01:26is one lesson one takeaway that you can leave with people as a writer that that you wish maybe you
01:33would have known earlier and that you feel can be useful to our audience here today you want me to
01:40go
01:40first uh sure just a quick you know just quick advice for for us um it's for someone who's aspiring
01:54to
01:54write um i think that i knew very young that i was a writer i had a calling and after
02:03this calling
02:04i immediately wrote my first book and what i ran into was i wrote this and no one in my
02:11family knew
02:12what to do with it so i kind of tabled the idea and peggy the story with peggy lavizo and
02:18pecan candy
02:19and huckabucks it grows from that first story and i was like not until i understand this entire process
02:25and me working at essence was part of understanding the communication operation because what happens in
02:32my journey is i decide i'm not going with an agent to go to a publisher i'm gonna build my
02:42own
02:42publishing house and now in light of everything that's come out with the record industry
02:49we're from the center of slavery here in new orleans i'm not selling off my literary work
02:56yeah and that's what's feeding my family and you know it's nourishing on so many levels to the
03:04readers um building a publishing house and i work today with younger students and you know the and i
03:13don't think it's ever too late but i'm seeing just like myself other kids who have this calling and
03:19this gift read read read and write oh yes yes great writers are great readers uh for me yeah kind
03:28of
03:28in that same vein um to me there's a difference between a storyteller and a writer i realized that
03:36i was a storyteller but i had to learn how to write so studying your craft studying the actual craft
03:43of
03:44writing is something i encourage anyone to do um because it is very different a lot of people can
03:50tell a story but it does not it's not as cohesive it's not you know it needs to be pithy
03:56and
03:58there's just good writing and that's the thing that can be taught to me the storytelling can't
04:04necessarily be taught that has to be in you but you can learn how to be a good writer if
04:09you study your
04:09craft so that's what i always encourage writers to do great um are there any questions in the audience
04:17anybody have a question
04:25i'm gonna see if i can squeeze in one more question huh can i
04:32as we're sitting here we're talking about um both craft imagination
04:39um let's talk a little bit about what it means to be a black woman writer some of the challenges
04:45that you have picked like maybe one thing that you feel like has been a challenge
04:49as a black woman writer in your in your journey
04:55um i can tell you as an author starting here in my city
05:02not necessarily being received at first by i'm gonna say white press um white media
05:15even say white bookstores for that matter and in going the independent route that's where my
05:23relationship with um community book center begins with vera warren because without her
05:30i don't have my first book dealer yeah and then from my appearances locally and it's growing and then it
05:37created where now the other ones are knocking saying people are asking for this book can we carry it
05:44and so without that starting point yeah i don't know if it would have made it to the level that
05:51it did make it so we're getting ready to wrap up but what i'm hearing you say is community is
05:57very
05:57important as a writer you got to have community support and the community will give you chances
06:03sometimes when the other folks don't and then eventually they come on to um support you and catch on
06:09real quickly farrah can you just say a little bit about your your journey as a black woman writer
06:14just one struggle and then we're going to wrap up and i want you all to let everybody know how
06:18they
06:19can contact you all it's it's kind of that same thing the gatekeepers uh especially traditional
06:25publishing um everyone had their i don't want to call it token but it kind of was you know everyone
06:31had their black author so it was hard to break through and i really think when independent
06:36publishing became uh as popular and easier and not as cost prohibitive uh you know these days
06:44they black readers showed publishing that there was an audience because there was no longer that
06:51gatekeeper deciding which black authors got published everyone got published and people the readers came
06:59because the you know the books were there for them so so everybody remember community and also remember
07:07this bet on yourself okay bet on yourself people will eventually come you know you stay working in the
07:14gym and eventually you're gonna win right so with that um farrah can you just let everybody know your
07:22social handles and how to contact you yeah i'm farrah sean everywhere i'm on too many social media
07:29platforms so you can find me anywhere and yeah my website but yeah social media i'll be on instagram
07:37with this probably before i leave okay so rodisha i'm same here i'm at rodisha jackson facebook um instagram
07:49i'm kelly harris tabiri i'm a poet i am i am khd underscore on instagram and you can google me
07:57and
07:57find me i want to thank first essence festival give them a round of applause for having us and giving
08:03space for local local local writers to have some space inside of essence fest we would be remiss if we
08:11thank you and thank and shout out miss vera warren williams and community book center for all of the
08:18years and all of the support that i think everybody here has gotten support from mama vera and so i
08:26want
08:26you all to follow them follow us right tomorrow same time there will be another panel of local writers and
08:35on sunday there will be a panel of local writers tomorrow addie kitchens is coming her book is
08:40dominion i'm trying to think of everybody yeah sunday sunny patterson will be here you know she's
08:45gonna she's gonna bless this thing up real fast for us so please support the local writers thank you
08:52essence thank you uh to the book festival and we're going to be signing books over right there
08:58where mama vera is so if you want to get your book signed or if you would like to get
09:02a picture with
09:03the authors please do so thank you have a great essence fest
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