Chris Duffy

When I brought this up to my friend, the poet and educator Sarah Kay, she said,

So today we are hanging out with Hanif Abdurraqib and learning about why he loves his hometown so much.

Hanif Abdurraqib wears many hats, but I know him first as a poet and a writer, a cultural critic who writes about music in a way that makes you just want to listen to albums all day long.

An essayist whose books about grief and joy and basketball make you ugly cry in public.

Every time I think I'm going to dodge it and then he gets me again, I am tearing up.

Hanif spends a lot of time on the road, but he always returns to the place where he is from, the east side of Columbus, Ohio.

And that is not just a place that Hanif loves.

It is clearly a place that loves Hanif right back.

So I sat down with Hanif in one of his favorite spots in town, a vinyl record shop called Spoonful Records, to find out why.

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of when the world is really overwhelming and there's so much going on, how one of the ways that we can ground ourselves is to be in a specific place, to be in a community and with people we care about, taking care of them and having them take care of us.

The idea of offering yourself up to people freely and eagerly, that really stuck with me.

You know, as kids, we're told not to talk to strangers, but to Hanif, no one in this town was a stranger, even if he had never met them before.

Bye, thank you again.

Thank you.

After Spoonful Records, Hanif took me and Sarah to see some of his other favorite Columbus spots.

Do you have like a go-to when a friend comes to Columbus of like what do you show them?

Now, those of you who are familiar with Hanif will already know that he absolutely loves sneakers.

Of course, a trip to his hometown wouldn't be complete without a visit to his favorite sneaker shop, Heat Archive.

Just like Spoonful Records, everyone knew him here.

What's the most Columbus sneaker you have in the store?