Dwight Johnson or D Black if ya nasty, is a poet I met in Leimert Park maybe fifteen years ago. Wow. He is one of the smoothest poets I know. I used to listen to him at The World Stage and his voice always sounded like it was the soundtrack to some Foxy Brown flic. Since the conversations on this blog are with folks I love and folks who have shaped me into being poet, woman, friend, being, then D had to be a part of it.
J* When your mind is somewhat blank and you're just chillin', what comes up first?
D* I think about when I was living on Vernon and Denker in L.A. where my mom passed away. That house.
J* She passed away at the house?
D* No. See Mom was a barber and after work her and her friends would come to my house and they raised money for the rent gambling. My dad wasn't into that. He would break the party up. He told everybody to leave.
I remember we were in the closet looking for her red shoes. Her and my dad were arguing and she said she would be back. Me and my brother were holding on to her 'cause we didn't want her to leave. We told her not to go. She said she would be back.
She went to the club and had drinks. She had an aneurysm at the club. They rushed her to a hospital but they wouldn't take her because she was black. By the time she got to the second hospital, she was dead.
My mom looked like Lena Horne. With her hair and her skin.
My father drove up as we were waiting for Granny to take us to church. He told us that she was dead. I was five.
J* How did that shape your life with women?
D* Well, we went to stay with Granny and we had aunts there so we were around a lot of women. But still there were some trust issues I had. I still thought my mom was gonna come back. At the funeral home I saw her and I just thought she was too pretty to be dead. I touched her face and it was cold but on her temples it was still warm. I was young and I would sit on the couch looking for her.
A part of me felt like she abandoned us because we asked her not to go. Yeah, I had some trust issues.
I never liked clubs for one. I was in clubs 'cause that's where I hustled but I never did like 'em. To this day I don't. I much rather a coffeehouse or a bookstore or something like that. I remember if I was with a woman and she was up in the clubs then that was a real problem. It took me a while to see it but really I felt like if they were in the clubs then they were gonna die.
J* Is that what got you taking care of children?
D* I always loved children. I'm a lot like my dad. I fought not to be but I am. My dad is such a mentor and hero in my life. He took care of the whole neighborhood. He cooked and everyone was at our house.
I went to Normandie Elementary and my tightest friend was named Steven and he was in a foster home. I really didn't grasp that. But one time I went to his house and there was an oriental kid and a Mexican kid and I was like, "who is that?" and he said those were his brothers. His foster brothers. Then he explained that he was living in a foster home.
I found out later that a lot of my friends were orphans and foster children. Growing up I always got close to kids who didn't have parents. There was a kid next door to me whose mom had passed when he was only five too. I didn't even know it till later but I found out and we got really close. I remember saying, "My mom is dead and his is too."
---D Black is the owner and founder of a company called Pops On Point, a company assisting parents and children with custody issues. He is the proud father of two beautiful and intelligent children, Koran and Bubba also a foster father who now has twin six years old boys who, during our conversation were enjoying playing a videogame. D yelled into the other room, "Where are we getting ready to go?" And the boys responded cheerfully, "The World Stage!!"
J* What did you get your degree in?
D* I got my AA in general education and childcare development.
J* So you never stopped.
D* Nope.
J* When and why poetry?
D* Even when I was nickel slick and had a perm and had my slick friends, I still had my nerdy friends. I used to go to the library and hide out. I had a lot of nerd friends that I protected. I'm always protecting somebody. It was my nerd friend Andre who showed me poetry and I would read poetry books.
I never thoguht I would start writing poetry. When I got married and my wife and I would get into it, I would write about her. I wrote a lot of pimp stuff like Donald Goings and Iceburg Slim. (He recited The Fall by Iceburg Slim.)I also used to do plays at Trade Tech. as Iceburg Slim.
I started reading at The World Stage. Before that I was reading at 5th Street Dicks and AK was at the door and we would talk. He used to tell me to come over to The Stage. One day I met Jenoyne at a bookstore and she told me that she and her husband were running a poetry spot at The Stage and that I should come by. Then I started coming. AK slipped my name in the hat without me even knowing and I got on stage and read. I got a damn that night.
---A "damn" at The World Stage is when a poet reads a poem and the audience is so moved that collectively they say "one, two, three, DAMN!"
J* You got a damn your first night?
D* Yep.
J* Damn.
D* Life is a big damn.
---We laughed.
D* I'm opening The Stage tonight so I gotta get goin'. Love you.
J* Love you too.
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