![]() ![]() SANDERS: In fact, Jones begins this memoir with a poem about his mother dancing to a Prince song. GILSON: Every sentence, every word, every paragraph is so painstakingly pored over. Gilson says this memoir stands out because Saeed Jones wrote it like a poet. He reviewed "How We Fight For Our Lives" for Lambda Literary. Gilson teaches writing and cultural studies at Missouri State University. ![]() Every celebrity writes a memoir every politician writes a memoir. I think those people will never fully understand how much work literally everyone else does to imagine ourselves into existence.ĭ GILSON: We're living in a time where there's a glut of memoirs on the market. JONES: Our culture is dominated by and obsessed with straight, rich, cisgender people. The way he tells that life story, it's really Jones telling us how hard it is for a lot of people to tell their own stories. He's black, he's gay, and he was raised Buddhist in Texas. This is the focus of Jones' new memoir, "How We Fight For Our Lives." Saeed Jones has lived the life in which he is often othered. SANDERS: This is Saeed Jones - constantly observing the way he moves through spaces not made for him, spaces full of people who don't look like him, and then drawing observations that are universal about what it means to be fully human, wherever you are. JONES: That's what I'm meant be looking at. JONES: Anything that is about the intersection of, basically, sex, race and power, I'm there. SANDERS: Jones says there's some deeper stuff there, besides the fun. SANDERS: Jones says he loved it all, even though it took him out of his comfort zone. JONES: And that was already - I think that was an hour into the experience. SANDERS: 8:54 a.m., and I'm drinking a vodka Red Bull. I mean, it's, like, 8 o'clock in the morning. JONES: I hate that here it's very early in the morning. But when Saeed Jones moved to Columbus, Ohio, this year, he fell in love with it all at an Ohio State tailgate party. The nuts and bolts of the sport don't fascinate him. SAEED JONES: I'm wearing an OSU shirt right now, by the way (laughter). SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: Saeed Jones is an unlikely fan of Ohio State football. And just a note to listeners here, you'll hear Jones use what has long been considered a derogatory term for gay men. NPR's Sam Sanders recently interviewed Jones. Those words come from poets say Saeed Jones' new memoir, "How We Fight For Our Lives." The book details his struggles as a young black gay man coming of age. ![]() People don't just happen we sacrifice former versions of ourselves. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |