Black Boys Like Me: In Conversation with by Matthew R. Morris
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What is the significance of essay collections in nonfiction?
Essay collections are such an underrated format for nonfiction. When they're done right, each essay is self-contained and you can read them on their own, but all the essays come together to become this holistic thing, like a whole package. And what I love about this is that it can make complex topics so much more digestible because of the self-contained nature of the different sections. It's like a course being broken down into different lessons. Essay collections I can recommend are the Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. It's like a bunch of essays on how humans come together to change the world in a bunch of ways that we don't realize. And Anthropocene, by the way, is the name of the era that we're living in right now.
So you'd say the Earth is in the Anthropocene era because the defining factor of the Earth is us humans. I always thought that was really interesting, but really cool concept. Awesome essay collection. But another one I can recommend is Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wallkimmer. Wallkimmer is an indigenous scientist and professor of botany, and it's a beautifully written essay collection that connects indigenous wisdom to hard science. Very convincingly, I'll add. And there's one more that I'll recommend. It's called Black Boys Like Me by Matthew R. Morris. Morris is an educator in Toronto, public speaker, anti-racism activist. And in this debut book, it's an eight essay collection where he reflects on the many things that influenced him growing up from the perspective of being a black Canadian who grew up in Scarborough, Toronto.
There's talk of hip-hop, educational spaces, performance, perception. It's all well organized and thought out in a way that feels like he's been thinking about all these things for years, if not decades. It's just got that type of feel. And today, we're getting the chance to talk to him. This is Audiobook Cafe. I'm Jacob Szymanski. Black Boys Like Me is available on Libro FM, Audible, and Sela in Human Narrated Audio. It's about seven and a half hours long and narrated by the author. Here's a sample.
Although I hadn't seen Trey since I left college midway through my sophomore year, I knew he'd be cool with me spending the night. But even though we were boys, I felt bad for the predicament I would be putting his girl, Kiera, in if I just ended up passing out in their apartment. Despite how late it was, I didn't want to begin the new year waking up on my boy's couch in Brooklyn when I had a hotel room in Manhattan. That would be some young boy shit. I was a grown man.
That was a sample from Black Boys Like Me by Matthew R. Morris. The author is here. Matthew R. Morris, how's it going? Welcome to the show.
Jacob, thank you for having me. I'm so grateful.
I said in the intro that it feels like you've been thinking these things for years. No, that's just my impression. But is that what happened? Like, where did this book come from for you?
Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong. It's, you know, it's similar to... You know when musicians say their first album is kind of like the culmination leading up to their entire life up to that point? That's almost how I felt writing this book. I had experienced a few different things where I wasn't necessarily thinking about these things surfacely. They were kind of just bubbling underneath. And then in my early 20s, I... I went back to school and I went to Teachers College of Faculty of Education. And that's when I really started to look back and reflect. And when I started to reflect on some of my experiences, I was like, I really do want to write about some of these things because maybe not only for me, but so many other people that I grew up with, some of my family members, some of my friends were impeded by
These obstacles, schooling, policing, the court system, so many different things due to a bunch of factors, but mainly due to their race. And I thought it would be important to share some insight, to shed some light. on some of these experiences in a way in which it was accessible and digestible.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the significance of essay collections in nonfiction?
0:01–7:47
2
How does Matthew R. Morris describe his upbringing in Scarborough?
7:47–25:55
3
What themes are explored in 'Black Boys Like Me'?
25:55–32:36
4
How does identity influence character performance in different environments?
32:36–34:33
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Audiobook Café
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