At the 2016 National Council of Teachers of English annual convention in Atlanta, GA I had the supreme pleasure of preparing and conducting a short interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Beautiful Struggle and Between the World and Me, for the convention. Before being asked to conduct the interview I knew little of Coates’s work, but I accepted the opporutnity because I felt I could learn a great deal from the experience. In hind’s sight, I certainly didn’t know all that this experience would mean to me when I said, “Sure. This sounds like fun.”
In late September I received a call from Susan Houser, the In-coming President of NCTE. Susan and I are close friends. We have served together at NCTE for about three years, and we talked a lot about her convention in the lead up to the Atlanta meeting.
“I have a question for you,” she began. “How would you like to interview Ta-Nehisi Coates as part of one of the general sessions?”
I accepted. We talked a little about procedure, and then we ended the call.
I found a copy of Between the World and Me and began to read. For those not familiar with the book, it is a memoir written in the form of a letter to Coates’s 16-year-old son. The book covers a wide landscape of the human experience from a very specific point of view–that of a black man living in the Mid-Atlantic United States.
As I read through the book I would jot questions down. Some very specific, and some quite general on politics, race, and education. I thought carefully about how to frame each question for what I hope would turn into longer conversations not only on the stage, but in the larger convention. I hoped people would leave thinking more purposefully about their place in this world, examining their own experience and considering the voices and considerations of others.
It is easy, at first, to see the differences that exist between you and any other person. In the case of Coates and me, we couldn’t be more unalike at first glance. We grew up in different parts of the country under very different circumstances. We attended college in two very different areas of the country and at very different times. These differences are easy to see within the first few chapters of the text. But as I continued to read the differences began to fade to the background. Rather, the things we have in common emerge and become the primary focus of the book.
This is how the interview ultimately took shape as well. On stage we talked about his book and its success. We talked about process and what the book means to so many people who have read it, including me. One point that I was happy to dwell on for a moment or two was that in his letter to his son he is able to capture the unbelievable sense of fear and absolute optimism a father has for his children as they grow and begin to make a mark in the world. And, almost as quickly as it started, it was over.
We only had 30 minutes, but it felt like 30 seconds. The biggest takeaway that I think I will carry from this entire experience is that an open mind is likely the best characteristic to carry with you in your search for a more enriched life. Before this opporutnity presented istelf, I didn’t know about Coates beyond one or two of his essays he had written for online magazines. And, I don’t believe that I would have picked up Between the World and Me if NCTE hadn’t been asked me to prepare questions for the interview. But I am certainly better for it as a result. Reading Coates’s book and talking with him in person has challenged me to think about my own experiences and relationships in an effort to better understand the impact I can make in my own community.