Training Up Champions with Julian Randall

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Julian Randall author of the essay collection The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi and Black TV Nerd Shit. Julian, who is also the author of the Cave Canem poetry prize winning collection, Refuse, got their start as a slam poet. In making the transition from the stage to the page they say talking to themselves instead of an audience was difficult. 

In our conversation, Julian discusses how they use pop culture as a tool to evoke collective memory while also mining their own remembrances and ancestry that led them to actively chose to live.. when at times… all they wanted to do was die.