A Band Called Nigger Lover?

Who names their band Nigger Lover? My good friend, Donny, that's who! If you knew Donny you'd understand he means that he loves black folks, many of us whom use the word "nigger" liberally as in "my nigga!" I don't, but then I'm 57 and Donny is at least 25 years younger than me. See, Donny used to be an actor in my brother James' troupe, now called Flow Theater. Donny is used to having frank and open discussions about things like race, sexuality, and gender equality. He defies Attorney Genral Holder's pronoucement that we are cowards when it comes to talking about race, but he is one of the few who does. I applaud Donny's selection of a band name, not because I like the name (I'm actually neutral on the "n" word because it won't go away even if I get upset about it!), but becauce it's provocative and will get him a lot of free advertising.

I really did the same thing myself when I chose the title of a novel I wanted to write some day. That was twenty plus years ago when I was a fulltime teacher and a parttime dramatist who knew I'd never have time to write a novel until I retired. Well, I retired from fulltime employment last year (as well as a partttime job as a newspaper reporter) and I wrote that novel that I decided 'back in the day' to name "They Just Be Killing White Folks." Actually, the full name is "They Just Be Killing White Folks (A Vampire Tale of Bloodlust, Terror, and Horror)." I chose that title for the same reason Donny chose the name of his band: it gets people's attention. A blurb describing the book explains the name:

"A black farmer takes his sons on an adventure to see a silent horror film showing at the new theater on Halloween night in 1930, in central Texas. There were nearly 500 black people lynched in Texas that year, so a movie about a vampire hardly seemed frightening except to the youngest son, Lijah, who consoles himself with his father's assurance that in the silent film, 'they just be killing white folks.'"

Twenty years of thinking about the book and I wrote it in four days. That's how I spent New Year's. Not exactly a celebratory event, but the completion of a goal that I'd set so long ago. While eschewing the usual New Year's festivities this year, I remembered a New Year's weekend fourteen years ago when the only objective was to party. I went to New York to a party for large women and their admirers and there I met Brad. We were together from the time I got in line wearing my black velvet, sequined jacket and mini skirt until "the last dance" of the last party that weekend. Brad is from New York, but he lives in Texas now.

My novel is set in Texas in the rural community where I grew up and that provides its setting. Many of the characters are based on members of my family at the ages they were in 1930, including my great-grandfather who I never knew; my father, who I barely knew; and my grandparents, who were the most important people in my life as a child; and my mother, who was born in 1930. My mother just turned 79 this year and she has been telling me stories about the family and her life in central Texas. I've made a concerted effort to record those stories. One of them is in the novel and is one of the unrecorded lynchings that took place in central Texas. I also recount one recorded lynching and two that were created as part of the novel's plot.

If you're a fan of the Vampire Lestat and "Twilight" books, you probably won't like my vampire. He's not a romantic hero. He's a vicious serial killer who provides a vessel for an evil demon. By the way, my great-grandfather and my father were both Baptist preachers - I attended the church my great-grandfather founded when I was a child and it is mentioned in the novel - so, there is a spiritual "experience" in the novel. My great-grandmother was half Cherokee, so I also included a Cherokee ritual as part of the novel, as well. In addition to providing historical accounts of actual lynchings (a goal of mine since the "noose" incident in Jena, Louisiana), spiritual and Native mysticism, and characters based on my own family tree, the novel is first and foremost a horror novel.

I have loved horror novels since I first read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and convinced my siblings that I was a vampire when I was a young teen. Later, I read the hardcover versions of every Stephen King novel until the earl 1980s, later turning to Anne Rice for my horror fix. I love being frightened out of my wits and do a pretty good job of doing the same thing to others. I don't know how scary my novel is, but it does tell a horrifying story. I have been writing stories of all kinds for over thirty years, starting with those I wrote for the stage, thean moving on to writing stories for local weekly newspapers in Toledo, Ohio. I've also written volumes of poetry.

Speaking of titles that get attention, try these: one of my poetry books is titled "I Never Met a Staple I Could Stomach and Other Fat Poems"; some of my play titles are "Fat Ladies Ain't All in the Circus" and "A Marvel, A Miracle, America" - both musicals with original music by me - "I Ain't Cha' Mama" (also the tile of a song I wrote), and "Casting Stones," which is a dark comedy about a wannabe female serial killer who's set her sights on black Baptist preachers who cheat on their wives (I was working out some Daddy issues!) and which I may enter in the Reader's Theatre competition of the National Black Theatre Festival this year.

Anyway, there are titles that spark controversy while getting attention, but often aren't nearly as controversial as the titles imply. I know that's true of my novel and I'm sure it's true of my friend Donny's band. It's a cliche, but you really can't judge a book by it's cover. Speaking of which, I wanted to put this vampire on the cover of my book (which I self-published on Lulu.com using a pen name), but I couldn't download it for some reason - didn't have any trouble downloading it here. Anyway, I chose an appropriately gothic looking cover. If you do decide to check out the book, don't be disappointed in the "author photo" on the back cover. It's not a head shot. It's a candid shot by my brother James who captured me doing what I seem to alwasys be doing this days since I became semi-retirmed: typing on my computer.



Author tags: nigger lover, vampires, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Vampire Lestat, Twilight, lynchings, nooses, Jena Louisiana, central Texas