Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Young, Talented, and Broke..But Not For Long

Young, Gifted, and Broke ... (But not for long, the broke part that is)


By T. Semakula


(text in italics are compliments of Ms. Ariel Gore)


Ariel Gore hits the mark in her book titled How To Become A Famous Writer Before You Are Dead …You don't have time for rejection letter home improvement projects. You can't afford to sit Zazen while your cherished manuscript languishes in some nameless agent's slush pile. You got maybe a hundred years on this planet. Less if you smoke. And you want to be a lit star, man!

To be paid to write is like icing on a good knockout lemon punch cake. That's what most writers aspire to. We aspire to have money to pay our bills, to travel, to walk around New York City and not work around New York City. It's one thing when you work at McDonalds in Times Square, it's another when you are just piddling around after finishing off your novel and you just happen to have a taste for a nice Oreo Mc Flurry from the McDonalds that sits inside Times Square.

You'll need a bulletproof ego and a juicy humble core…I often think about the famous writer Zora Neale Hurston and how she used patrons to get her through her many creative pursuits. These patrons had taken an interest in her as a writer and researcher. She was able to secure an apartment here and there, a trip to Haiti to do some research on culture, and she traveled quite extensively. However Zora, who is considered one of the most brilliant and talented writers of our time, died alone in a small green house in Florida. Her unfinished and rejected manuscripts were burned along with a pile of her personal belongings in her front yard. The only thing that was left was a charred patch of grass and a woman whose bones were resting in an unmarked grave. It was apparent that the interest, that her patrons had in her, had evaporated. It took a decade and a half later after her death, for Alice Walker to pen the article in Ms. titled "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston."

When it comes to being paid for your art, some writers come from the good old school of hip hop- by any means necessary. Us folk, who were weaned on Tupac and Biggie Big, clung to the immortal words of Chuck D-Hip hop is the CNN for black folk. We formed our own networks, created our own means of communication, laid out our own cable wire via hip hop and street corner shout outs. Self –publishing, self promotion, making something out of nothing is the mantra that more writers are grabbing hold to.

Zora took the traditional route of sending out her work. She waited for folk to respond. She waited for folk to pay her in advance. She waited for folk to acknowledge her and keep her from obscurity. Sure, writers still take advantage of sending out their work blind with the SASE, but they are also learning how to promote and market their own work.

Most people would like to receive and smell the flowers that folk have brought for them while they are still alive. I am sure that Zora would have appreciated the much deserved respect and revenue that her creative ideas and pursuits have admonished. To be young, gifted, and broke is a punch in the face to any writer. It doesn't hold any ground as we enter the age of the internet, with advanced printing and media tools which are available to the emerging writer via their own personal computers and laptops. No more waiting for someone else to make it happen, sometimes you have to make it happen yourself!



Do You Need Buttafly To Show You The Money?


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