Any time you attend a historically black college, you’re going to read Du Bois. If you’re in a political science class, history, or literature class, if you’re a social work major, you’re going to read Dubois. So, I first encountered him when I was a teenager. I was a precocious teenager. I read a lot. One of the things that I noticed, was that he really loved Southern black people. Ailey Pearl Garfield, named after Alvin Ailey and her great [grandmother] Pearl, is the protagonist of the novel. As we move through the novel, Dr. Du Bois, his words are at the beginning of each section. His words inform the reader what’s going to happen. Ailey Pearl finds this abiding love. So, that is one of the reasons that I called it The Love Songs.
Throughout the book you made references to many historically black locations and colleges. Was that intentional?
There are first readers who were really adamant that I take out the long section about Ailey attending a historically black college. I was insistent that we have that because that is not an aspect of black communities that we know, we’ve seen a bit of it with Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man because he was at Tuskegee.
Is the art and literary world known or received by the Black community?
The artists’ world is not really known to a lot of black people, you know. Actually, the literary side is very difficult, but I think they’re very proud of me. You know, I am a full professor. I’m the first black full professor in the history of the English department at my university.
