Kiese Laymon visited our campus Wednesday, April 13 as part of our English Department's Visiting Writer's Series, and if you are unfamiliar with who he is, let me drop some facts. Kiese is a Jackson, Mississippi native who attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College. He received his MFA from Indiana University. He is the associate professor of English at Vassar College, but currently, he is the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi for this year. He authored his fiction novel "Long Division" as well as his collection of essays "How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America." He is a talented and outspoken writer praised for his unflinching honesty.
Wednesday, I had the pleasure of introducing him before he read from his work. Although initially he had planned to read from his upcoming memoir "Heavy" which tells of his family's relationship with sexual violence and food, he decided to read his essay from which his book is titled, "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America." Before reading, he wanted to say that being at Millsaps felt like home, but hesitated because he didn't feel like he could call this place home. While attending Millsaps, Kiese was held at gunpoint, called the "N" word by frat boys and kicked out of school for taking and returning a book from the library without properly checking it out. As he was telling this story, it was evident that reading the events that took place over 20 years ago still weighed heavy on his heart. He said that writing and being honest helps heal you but it doesn't magically fix you; that pain is still there. This idea of inescapable pain is present throughout his work, but so are the notions of family, love, healthy choices and second chances.
In his second reading, he foregoes reading from his memoir "Heavy" to read his recent satirical piece about the passing of Mississippi house bill 1523. He writes from the point of view of the "uber Christian, male, white or black" person. In his article, he highlights the main issue with people who support HB 1523: they want to punish the bodies of those who are not Christian, male or white. In the Q&A, Kiese talked about how the law protects these people by allowing them to make healthy choices, by giving them second chances. He used the example of his students at Vassar. He said that they used way too many drugs, but down the street, the people who used less drugs but whose skin colors are darker—their lives were obliterated while the white college kids were allowed second chances, multiple chances to make healthy choices. Bills like HB 1523 allow the people who are positions of power to abuse the system to protect themselves while harming everyone else. Kiese's way of dealing with the chaos that is the Mississippi government? Fighting and love. We have to fight our government. Stand up to these bullies, but we also have to love them because "we owe it to each other to love and insist on meaningful revision until the day we die."
