‘To Condemn Someone is to Condemn Yourself’

The writer Venita Blackburn often—and expertly—depicts alienation, specifically the day-to-day variety prompted by the disapproving, disqualifying glances of others. A professor at California State University, Fresno, and the founder and president of the Live, Write, Workshop, which offers free creative writing workshops to communities of color, Blackburn finds vitality in the very lives that we tend to ignore or dismiss—and invites us to be mindful of the glances, thoughts, and actions we carry out into the world. 

In what ways did growing up in Compton set the stage or influence your writing life? 

The Compton I grew up in wasn’t the one I think a lot of people think about from movies. Yes, there were gangs and poverty, but it’s mostly a working-class suburb with families living their lives. Yes, gun violence and police brutality touched my family, but I remember most the gender discrepancies and what I thought were unfair treatments of me because I wasn’t allowed to play outside like the boys. 

There was an air of danger presented to me about the outside world around me specifically because I was a girl. That was weird and unjust to me then and looking back probably reasonable. That pressure on girlhood definitely shaped my self-realization and choice of content as an artist. There’s also this new romanticizing of Compton because some extremely successful people have come out of the city when it has such a violent reputation. I’m all for it, ha! The world loves an underdog story. I do too. 

Who were some of your early influences—mentors, books, or otherwise that made an impact/impression? 

My mother was my biggest influencer for sure, cultivated a love of learning and self-education. I always mention the greats, Toni Morrison and James Baldwin as literary gurus for me, not just for the work they produced in fiction but also for their philosophy of the world and the profound grace in which they spoke and lived. Of course they were often the smartest people in the room. Because they were also Black, in a racially immature civilization, they were often met with astonishment at the audacity of their talent and their extraordinary awareness of it all. I call that a master class in how to just be. I also watch a lot of cartoons and I am not ashamed. There’s something limitless about the imagination in the realm of animation that I think encourages me to seek more unorthodox shapes in my stories and characters. The queerer the cartoon the better these days.   

Share a “deciding moment” when you chose writing as a career/option: the moment you knew there was no backing out?

I quit my retail management job when I was 21 and went to grad school for creative writing. The real world seemed like a total scam. I figured I could write, be poor and be happy rather than work a normal job, have money and be miserable. Weirdly enough money is not off limits to writers as I thought or was led to believe. I remember as an undergrad the administrators said that artists won’t make as much early but will catch up later. There’s some truth to that.

Can you share your process for selecting the short stories that grew into Black Jesus and Other Superheroes?  

I did have a certain thematic idea for the collection surrounding special abilities/disabilities/perspectives that are extraordinary in an ordinary world and not necessarily very helpful in a practical sense. I’m fascinated with people that are burdened by superpowers rather than freed by them. 

Can you share the inspiration for the title story, Black Jesus? What was a challenge you faced when writing it, if any?  

That one is around ten years old now. I’m not sure exactly what I was thinking, but I do know it fits my brand of questioning all instructions given even if they are supposedly divine. I grew up as a Southern Baptist in mostly Black communities, so religious iconography that featured racially appropriate material was common and intriguing. 

What story from the collection are you most proud of and why?

Brim is special because I got to write a little outside of myself, a male perspective, a disabled person. I am an advocate for writing the other if you’re careful and honor that, utilizing experiences you know well as an entry point.  

In “Smoothies” from How to Wrestle a Girl: Stories you slow time down. It was like reading through a microscope, super close… then a telescope, wide and expansive… 

Yes! That was the plan and that is my favorite kind of flash fiction, the kind that can go very small and very big, cover whole lifetimes or generations or the range of our entire species. That’s the magic to me. I believe we are intrinsically connected in this reality on a molecular level and another level, call it the soul, call it consciousness, call it pheromones. Whether chemical or spiritual, “Smoothies” is about the blend of us (pun intended) and how we are each other and to condemn someone is to condemn yourself. 

If you could change places for a day with any one of your characters, who would it be, and why?  

Those people are wrecks! I cannot dream of exchanging my life for theirs even though so much of my life is a direct reflection of them. That’s a fun question though. Gosh, there is a character called Toni in the story, “Brim,” that is smoking hot, queer and owns a successful tattoo parlor. She’s cool enough to walk around in for a while. I’m currently writing some speculative work. There’s a kind of time traveling dark entity with a great sense of humor in some of my current, unpublished work that I might trade places with. I love agents of chaos because they are so different from how I live my own life with a careful eye on order.

Are there any tips you can share about writing, things that have helped you? 

Write for yourself first. Write to be understood next.

I want to let the work exist and illuminate the various recesses of our civilization and psyches. After that, I try to make sure my points are clear. Everyone is a potential audience member. I don’t exclude, but I don’t cater to anyone although I love my queers!

One thing you want to leave readers with? Words to live by? 

Write like it will save your life. ▩