Socially Acceptable: BOOKER T. MATTISON

PROLOGUE

Hey Hey Hey! The Socialite Design is expanding! Our newest feature, “Socially Acceptable”, spotlights some of the world’s most talented artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, professionals, and humanitarians. The inaugural installment of “Socially Acceptable” is somewhat of a hybrid creation – blog post-magazine article-novel-screenplay.  It’s the first time that something like this has ever been attempted in the history of blogs…we think.   Though it is a hybrid, it’s not intended to be green, improve the environment, preserve petro, or anything of the sort. However, the producer(s) of this hybrid believe that after reading it you will be smarter and more conscious. There is no guarantee how much more because everyone matriculates and absorbs information at a different pace. This hybrid blog post-magazine article-novel-screenplay is pretty epic because the protagonist has a lot of profound ish to say (and none of them are swear words…we swear).

Unlike lauded Hollywood movies, e.g. The Blind Side or The Pursuit of Happyness,  it’s not based on a true story, it IS a true story. If your lunch break is over before you’re able to reach the end, DVR it (yes we realize that you can’t DVR the written word, but just go with it).

Without further adieu…

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – PRESENT DAY

INT: TRACEE LORAN’S APARTMENT – DAY

NARRATOR

It’s a warm summer-like day in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. TRACEE LORAN, a funny, opinionated and often very nostalgic dame sits in her quaint brownstone apartment awaiting the arrival of her latest interviewee, BOOKER T. MATTISON, who’s just released his second novel SNITCH.  Prior to their meeting, Tracee inhaled Snitch in 2 days flat!

“Please,” Tracee pleaded to the book fairies, “let me love this novel. I don’t wanna lie to this man!”

With an intriguing and thought-provoking plot, textured characters, and intricate relationships that are fluidly woven like a South African wicker basket, Tracee did indeed ♥ Snitch! In fact, she believes Booker T.’s suspenseful tale of crime, loyalty, and psychological warfare is a hit!

The actress slash writer slash journalist slash producer (okay we get it, she wears many hats!)  is excited about the meeting; she’s become a pro at this for it is the third “turned” author she’s interviewed in four months.  There was Isaiah Washington, actor turned author; Cheryl Wills, news anchor turned author; and now Booker T. Mattison, filmmaker turned author.

“Hmm,” thought Tracee, “perhaps I’ll find the courage to ‘turn’ one day.”

Booker T. finally arrives.  With his clean-shaven head, (Thanks to Avery Brooks aka Hawk, Booker T. and brothers around the globe can flaunt that look with aplomb), long lean stature, and commanding voice, his is not a presence that’s easily ignored.  The “turned” author speaks with the wisdom and clarity of a man who’s lived a few lives.  He admits that, despite his parents’ best efforts, he was wildin’ out a little back in the day.  But that was at least three life times ago.  Booker T. has since righted all wrongs and chosen a more righteous path.  He’s accomplished many things including receiving a MFA from NYU’s  prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, which boasts a long list of famous auteurs like Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Ang Lee; meeting and marrying the love of his life, Angela Godfrey; and becoming a proud father of four.

Booker T. is dogmatic, unabashedly Black, unapologetically God fearing, talented and multi-hyphenated.

Tracee welcomes Booker T. into her vibrantly decorated pad and offers him a cool, refreshing glass of water.  Parched, he gladly accepts and rapidly empties the glass.  Wasting no time, Tracee cuts to the chase and asks the same burning question that you’re asking yourself right now.

TRACEE LORAN

There is an obvious assumption that you were named after Booker T. Washington.  Were you?

BOOKER T.

No, I was actually named after my father’s best friend, who was killed in a car accident a few months before I was born.  So they called him B.T. which was short for Booker T.

Hmmm. Determined to find a connection to the great Booker T. Washington, she presses further.

TRACEE LORAN

Was he named Booker T. after the Booker T.

BOOKER T.

 He was born in 1947, so I’m sure he was.

“Ah ha”, Tracee thought, “I knew it!” Satisfied with his response she proceeds…

TRACEE LORAN

You’re a filmmaker first, so talk about the transition from film-making to becoming a novelist.

BOOKER T.

Well, I never had any intention to be a novelist, but…I was working on an original screenplay and Malcolm Lee [Director –Undercover Brother, Best Man] and his producing partner Charles Castaldi were attached to produce.  So we were working on that and I’m thinking we were getting close to having the script ready and we could then pitch.  They were down in Louisiana making Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and then after that Soul Men. They were making a movie. They weren’t thinking about getting back to me to give me notes. So I had this space where I executed the last set of notes that they’d given me and waiting for the next step.

Then it was at that point that Adrienne Ingrum [Literary Agent, Publisher] who wasn’t my literary agent at that time, she was just someone who was familiar with me as a writer having seen some of my films and then she hired me to be a contributing writer on two books. One of her publishing industry contacts asked her if she could find a teenage novel with a black male protagonist that wasn’t about sex and violence and drugs and all of the other writers she represented were women so she asked me if I could do it.

In a fake uppity Negro voice, Booker says…

So I’m mister high art, I have an MFA; I don’t write about teenagers, you know what I’m saying?

Booker returns to his regular deep African American voice…

But because I had this space…With her question, she sent me a non-fiction book proposal that we had developed at least a decade ago about Christian hip hop which we were never able to sell.  So she said, “Can you turn this into a novel?”  And I’m thinking, “How in the world can you write a novel about Christian hip hop?” Then I started thinking about what in the world I could write. And in that book proposal one of the people who I had interviewed was Frankie Cutlass [Hip Hop Artist, Producer – “Puerto Rico,”  “The Cypher Part 3”] and Frankie had shared with me his testimony and some of the things that he’d gone through coming up in the game of hip hop like beef with Fat Joe. Going through that proposal and reading his particular story kinda set in motion this idea of someone trying to make it in the hip hop game and all the pitfalls that they experienced. And I, myself, was once pursuing a career as a rapper and a producer for many years. So I married my own experiences to this whole twists and turns of trying to make it in the hip hop game and that’s how I came up with UNSIGNED HYPE, which was my first book.

There was all this enthusiasm about the manuscript when Adrienne began to send it out to editors and Baker Publishing Group signed me to two-book deal. So that meant a second book had to come. But I recognize now as an author and a filmmaker that it is the best and the only way to go. Because as you well know when you sell a screenplay you’re selling away the story, copyright and all. Whereas with a novel I own the copyright and Adrienne was able to negotiate where I own the film & TV rights as well. So now the deals that I’m working on with Unsigned Hype and Snitch are in various stages of development, I’m a part of the process because I own the copyright and film & TV rights.

TRACEE LORAN

Ownership!  Oprah always talks about that.

Naturally, Tracee says this as if O personally tells her that.

BOOKER T.

Right.  So they [film-making & writing] are intrinsically linked at this point. But I wasn’t aware of that until after the fact.

TRACEE LORAN

What would you say is the correlation between novels and films?

BOOKER T.

That’s a good question.  For me it hearkens back to when I first started film school.  Because I wasn’t versed in how to write a screenplay I would write my short films as short stories first and then pull the screenplays from it because prose is what I’d always written. Over the years you learn how to write a screenplay but its nothing you’re native to; it’s kinda counter-intuitive.  So what the novel allows me to do is fully flesh out the characters without the limitations of the mechanics of a screenplay in the sense that I could do interior monologues; I could be fantastically descriptive about characters and places and jump back & forth in time and tenses and it doesn’t matter. So it allows me to fully develop the characters before I then pull out the screenplay which is you know “if you can’t see it or you can’t hear it, you can’t write it” in a screenplay.

To me they go hand in hand but they are different art forms.  It is indeed a challenge to adapt and that’s one of the things I’m facing now with Stephanie Allain Bray [Producer – Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, We The Peoples] who is attached to produce a film adaptation of both Snitch and Unsigned Hype. Her comments from the first draft for both scripts were, “You know you’re too close to it. You have to set the book aside and write a movie that works.  Yes, it’s these characters. Yes, it’s this world, but set the book aside and write a movie.” That’s kinda disconcerting but you know I’ll figure out a way to make it work.

Booker T. laughs in a “I think I will figure it out, No, I KNOW I will figure it out, right?” kinda way. Tracee laughs in that, “Better you than me” kinda way.

TRACEE LORAN

It seems like you were doing prose before even though you’re a filmmaker so is there now a preference?

BOOKER T.

I see them as going hand in hand because I write books to make them into movies.  Writing them as a book just provides an additional revenue stream.  The ultimate goal is to realize these stories that God gives me on the big screen or the small screen or the smartphone (laughs) or whatever the case may be.

TRACEE LORAN

What’s the most challenging aspect of writing a novel?

BOOKER T.

Whew! Wow! In the case of Unsigned Hype or Snitch, I didn’t outline either one.

TRACEE LORAN

Wow…

BOOKER T.

So sitting down to write and really not knowing where you’re going. And with Unsigned Hype, I wrote that in six weeks and that was totally God. That was divine intervention. Who writes a novel in six weeks?

TRACEE LORAN

(Incredulously) For the first time.

BOOKER T.

Are you kidding? But Snitch took me 2 ½ years.

Tracee lets out a sigh in her head and thinks to herself, “Ok, so he is human. Whew!”

BOOKER T. (con’t)

So all of the horror stories that you hear of novelists talking about how hard it is, [at first] I was like “Come on it’s not that hard. “ Not that I was saying that it was easy, but I’m like “Come on!”  But with Snitch I had to sit down and write. And you know you’re wrestling with plot points and characterization, trying to figure stuff out.  There were times when I didn’t know where I would go.  I’d kinda write myself into a corner, which is great because then you have to be really creative to write yourself out. But that’s what makes it so rich and exciting. But when you’re in that corner you don’t how to get out. So that would probably be the most difficult thing.

TRACEE LORAN

Unsigned Hype was three years ago, right?

BOOKER T.

Unsigned Hype came out in 2009, but we sold the manuscript in 2008.

TRACEE LORAN

So you basically started Snitch right after Unsigned Hype?

BOOKER T.

An interesting story about Snitch is my contract was for Unsigned Hype and an unknown second novel. I pitched them one idea and they said “No.” But I’m glad I didn’t do that story.  And the second idea…I sent [to Adrienne] and she was like, “Hmm, I’m not feeling it.”  And what is now the beginning of Snitch was a part of this longer piece that she was not feeling.  So time goes on… My publisher wasn’t giving me any pressure. But Adrienne was just doing what agents do, “Alright look, it’s time. We need to start thinking about [the next novel].”

So I was like, “Man what am I going to do?”  I had no ideas. I started reading through old stuff. So I’m reading through this thing that she had already rejected. And when I get to the part that is now the beginning [of Snitch] I’m like “Wait a minute, this kinda good.”  And it was only about six pages; I was stuck on six pages. So I sent them to Stacey [Stacey Holman, Director/Producer-Dressed Like Kings, Freedom Riders], because you know you get your writing friends who are courageous enough to be objective. So Stacey said, “Yeah I think this is good.” But I was still stuck at six pages for a very long time.  So yeah it was in 2008, but I put it down for a while. And when I picked it back up, it may have been early 2009 now at that point.  Yeah.  But you are right I did start it almost immediately after Unsigned Hype.

TRACEE LORAN

Ok, so tell me what Snitch is about.

DUH! Of course Tracee knows what Snitch is about. But she wants to hear it straight from the “turned” author’s mouth.

BOOKER T.

SNITCH is a story about an overnight bus driver who witnesses a crime on his route and the moral dilemma he faces as he wrestles with, “Do I keep silent to keep my job or do I talk to save myself and my family?”  It’s a very polarizing issue, the issue of witness intimidation and snitching.  There seems to be two extremes:  “Yes, I’m gonna snitch, I’m gonna snitch!”  or “No, no, no, no; don’t snitch!”  What I wanted to do was personalize the issue and show just how complex and difficult a position you can be placed in if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It ultimately poses the question, “What role do we have as citizens to our community, to ourselves, to our families? Do you just keep your mouth shut and mind your own business? Do you talk if it’s going to endanger your family?”  So hopefully the book forces the reader to grapple with those issues and hopefully come up with a reasonable answer.

TRACEE LORAN

You’re really dealing with three things here when you become an unintentional witness. You’re dealing with the streets. You’re dealing with the police. And then you’re dealing with your own moral code.

BOOKER T.

Uh huh.  It is and even if you consider the Blue Wall of Silence for example, where there have been a couple of well-publicized cases of police officers that breached that blue wall and actually testified against fellow officers. And the backlash was incredible. It was departmental, it was institutional. One officer…the cops busted in his house and assaulted him. Another officer was committed to a mental institution and another one was relieved of duty.  Even though Snitch is set within an urban environment it is an issue that is as old as humanity itself.

TRACEE LORAN

Let’s talk about loyalty–

BOOKER T.

Aw. Man loyalty.

TRACEE LORAN

–to somebody that you know. You know they committed said crime. And, where does your loyalty lie and where is your moral code?

BOOKER T.

It could even be on the job. You know that your co-worker is not breaking in with a gun, but they are taking packs of paper of paper home or packs of pencils. Or you know that your friend is cheating on their taxes. So you know it’s always different things and what role do we play in seeing the law being broken and someone not abiding by the rules. At what point do you say, “I’m going to say something?” because if we look at the disintegration of community a lot of it has to do with the fact that we live in such a self-centered space. It’s like “If it doesn’t affect me I’m not gonna say anything.”  But ultimately it does affect you.

Hey, don’t be scurred; Booker T. can’t possibly know about your cousin’s husband’s sister’s two chil’un that you told Uncle Sam were yours.

TRACEE LORAN

The thing that most impressed me about Snitch was the masterful weaving of characters. I was really, really impressed!  That is something that is one of the most difficult things to do.  Without disclosing much, how did you it? How complicated was it?

BOOKER T.

Honestly, Tracee. I’ll be God honest, I really don’t know and neither did I set out to do that because when I was stuck on those six pages…from the beginning to where Andre looked out the window and its like “I guess I don’t know.” That’s like four characters. And there is the intersection where you bring the antagonist and the protagonist together, but all of those other characters didn’t exist in my mind. Neither did this complex storyline; I really had no clue. And my personal belief system is that I’m a Christian, so I give God credit for creative gifts that He gives me. So if I sat here and took credit for it as if I’m some master writer and keen storyteller, then I would just be lying to you.  I really had no intention of doing that. I’m glad I did…

Booker T. laughs in that sly, “I got away with one” kinda way.

BOOKER T. (con’t)

…and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

TRACEE LORAN

I laugh because I watch some reality TV and the thing that annoys me are the contrived friendships and connections that the “characters” have.  So while I was reading Snitch I kept saying, “Oh my gosh reality TV show producers would envy this.”   And they would. You watch those shows and it’s like suddenly such and so knows such and so and they just happen to run into each other at such and so place.  And it seems so fake. There’s no way that those people know each other.

For reasons she has yet to determine Tracee watches quite a bit of reality TV with much chagrin and a whole lotta of SMH. (If you aren’t well-versed in text lingo, take a crash course here.)

TRACEE LORAN (con’t)

But your characters really came together and I never questioned the relationships. I never questioned person “A” to person “B” or “B” to “C” and when person “D” was introduced I wasn’t like, “Aw come on, really?!”  I never thought that.

BOOKER T.

That’s good. That’s good.

TRACEE LORAN

I was really impressed with that, and I was also impressed with the poetry, with the lyrical aspect of it. I think it’s a very lyrical book.  And obviously now, knowing that you were once an MC, you can see it…

Booker T. gets a little hyped as he reflects on his days as a microphone fiend.

BOOKER T.

I was an MC back in the day!!!

Concert over. Back to present day.

BOOKER T. (con’t)

And then that transition from being an MC to a spoken word poet, and even in Unsigned Hype which is set in the hip hop milieu the rappers and the rhymes they spit were either raps that I wrote  or spoken word poems that I wrote, so that’s also a way for me to still utilize my poetry.  And there were some original poems that I wrote for this, but much of the poetry that I wrote for Snitch and Unsigned Hype I had written a long time ago.  And when I do my book events, I’ll actually do a traditional reading , but sometimes I’ll have actors act out parts of the scene but I’ll also perform poetry from the book as spoken word just to make it more than an author reading a book which could be boring.

TRACEE LORAN

Very boring!

They share a laugh because they both know that most readings are so boring they can cure insomnia.

TRACEE LORAN

How much of you do you put into your characters?

BOOKER T.

I would have to say every character that I’ve ever written embodies some aspect of who I am.  It’s often said, and I know you’re heard this, that you write what you know.  I’m not convinced that I only write what I know, but I am convinced that whatever it is I write there is a piece of me in it even if its your mini shop keeper, there is still an aspect of me in that character because I realize and understand humanity through my own eyes. So I would say that every character embodies a piece of me now.

TRACEE LORAN

I noticed there weren’t any curse words; some people would say it’s unrealistic because it’s the ‘hood. I noticed it, but it wasn’t jarring. I just thought, “I wonder how this would be perceived by someone who is from the streets and would they notice it?”

BOOKER T.

Unsigned Hype is similar.  Rather than being set in Jersey, it’s in New York. And it’s still in that same type of urban environment and same thing – no curse words.  The book has been read in juvenile detention facilities, prisons, jails, public schools in the worst neighborhoods and not once has anyone ever said, “Yo son, why they ain’t say no curse words?”  And I was very intentional in not having curse words in the book.  But here’s how I address that.  When I’m writing dialog the character will say it, and if it comes into my head with a curse word I’ll write it, but then I go back and figure out a way to communicate the same exact thing with the same intensity, same emotion and the same authenticity without the curse word. Because think about it, even people who curse like sailors don’t curse all the time. And even in instances where you may curse let’s say if we got into an argument right now and we were ready to kill each other maybe one time you may curse at me and maybe one time you may not. You may just tell me to get out.

So that’s what I try to do is kinda get into that moment into really satisfying the emotional wants and desires of the reader at that time. And in doing that then you don’t have to say anything.  Just think of how much we communicate and its non-verbal.  And you’re an actor, so you know that can be more powerful than lines.  So I utilize all of those different things because I personally don’t think it’s necessary to have a book with profanity in it or a movie with profanity in it. Some of the greatest books and movies that are part of the cannon have no profanity.  And we watch these movies and we talk about them in film school and in English classes, it doesn’t even cross our minds.  Now we have grounded our stories in such realism, it’s become hyper real. It’s almost like HD, over illuminating blemishes. And I think that’s what we’ve done with some of the language choices that we use now.

TRACEE LORAN

I agree and I thought it was great. “This is in the ‘hood and it’s urban and I have not read one curse word.” It was refreshing.  How do you feel you’ve grown because of your writing as a novelist, how do you feel like you’ve grown as a director?

BOOKER T.

Immensely. And it’s a combination of things. It’s being a novelist and now also being a full-time professor of film [Booker T. is a professor at Regent University in Virginia Beach], teaching film, screenwriting, directing and directing actors, it’s all of those things together that have sharpened my vision, it’s forced my process to be more specific and its enabled me to understand what is necessary to develop fully realized organic characters that resonate with an audience. And I’m not convinced that would have happened had I not written novels and had I not had to teach full time. Because you can’t stand in front of graduate students for three hours and B.S. [surely he meant Bologna Sandwich] them especially when they’re sharp. It’s just not going to happen so I had to be on my game.  The two together I think is preparation for Snitch and Unsigned Hype being hopefully even more effective on the screen than in book form. Though we know that rarely happens, but hopefully I can be the first one to do that.

TRACEE LORAN

Do you have a third novel?

BOOKER T.

I do have a couple of ideas but I want to make a movie before I write another book. I’m getting so deep into the literature realm because all of the press I get now is all about novelist, novelist. They say author and filmmaker, but if all people are seeing are books, it’s kinda like “Ok, I get it you know your film was on Showtime in like 2001, dude [Showtime aired Booker T.’s film The Gilded Six Bits, which is based on Zora Neal Hurston’s novel of the same name]. That was a while ago.  Your last video [“Not A Slave” by JR] was in 2007.” So I wanna make a movie first before I write another novel.

TRACEE LORAN

This is from Stacey who borrowed the quote.

BOOKER T.

She read my book?

TRACEE LORAN

Not yet.

BOOKER T.

How she gon’ ask a question?

They share a laugh…at Stacey’s expense.  She won’t mind.  

TRACEE LORAN (con’t.)

There are entertainers, there are actors and there are artists.  An entertainer will do just about anything, an actor will do most things, and an artist will only do things he or she feels will advance civilization.  Which one are you?

BOOKER T.

I consider myself an artist even though it took me a while to embrace that mantel, because it seemed a bit lofty and pretentious.  But when I write stories my goal is to create characters that deal with issues, themes and principles that add to the human condition rather than take away.  I’m an entertainer as well because I really cloak positive messages in commercially written viable vehicles because people aren’t really interested in a sermon.  They are not interested in you being didactic and over the top, if they want a lecture they’ll go to a classroom, that’s not why you read or watch a movie.  So I consider myself both, but I am an entertainer with artistic [sensibilities].  Hopefully my stories when you close the book or the lights come up in the theater you feel like you know something about humanity that you didn’t know before with the capacity for human beings to engage God in a way or realize that He in fact interacts with humanity and human affairs.

TRACEE LORAN

And not just some separate entity.

BOOKER T.

Or the other extreme is that there is not a single notion of transcendence in the story at all. Human beings, we are the masters of our own fate, and we control our own destinies, we exercise dominion over each other.  That’s not very realistic because most people have some belief in God.  I know there can be a million different gods.  But most people think that there is something else beyond the material realm; so the fact that we have so many stories that don’t even acknowledge that to me renders them unbelievable.  But most people don’t say that.  They say that “The triumph of the human spirit is what I want to see on TV and in the movies and in books.”

TRACEE LORAN

You have very strong beliefs, faith.  Are you ever concerned that your beliefs will be so overwhelming or overpowering in the story?  How do you quell that?

BOOKER T.

It’s a delicate balancing act.  John Grisham who is also Christian and a very successful writer; he’s not considered a Christian writer. I don’t consider myself a Christian writer. He said that, “As far as messages go, you only can go but so far and there is no definite line or percentage, but then when you cross that line you alienate the audience and you can never get them back.”  So it is something that I’m mindful of, but if you think about every artist, even every entertainer is communicating their world view through the lives of the characters.  It only seems to become a problem or an issue if someone is mentioning God.  So even the person who says he believes in new age doctrine or even atheism they can be as over the top as they want with their message and no one seems to be troubled by it. To me it’s  about the story, it’s about the characters and my world view does come  through. It’s not about I want to get this agenda across and form characters that will help me do that, because then I think you are not being honest and fair with the characters. They’re real people to me. These are real lives that I’m dealing with. I don’t know the answers , I don’t know what’s going to happen 5 minutes from now…For me being God with these stories, if I write in such a way that’s unrealistic and unbelievable it’s going to alienate people no matter what their belief system is.

TRACEE LORAN

Do you think everybody has an agenda when they are writing?

BOOKER T.

I do. I absolutely do.  It may not be malicious. It may not be overt, but even if you’re conscious of what your agenda is you create for a reason. We create art for public consumption for a particular purpose. The whole idea of theme is rooted in world view. The whole idea of theme is rooted in agenda. The specifics of what you want to communicate to your audience so they have a take away. No one creates art and you don’t want the audience to have a take away, so that to me is intrinsically linked to the agenda the creator meaning the artist who creates the particular story has.

TRACEE LORAN

When you get to heaven what will you say to God?

Booker takes a pregnant pause and then says…

BOOKER T.

Whew! W-H-E-W, exclamation point. That’s what I would say!  

Tracee and the “turned” author share one more laugh…and then she kicks him out because he’s late for his SNITCH reading.  No cuss words ever parted their lips.

FIN

EPILOGUE

SNITCH and UNSIGNED HYPE are available for public consumption. Purchase them here.  To learn more about Booker T. Mattison please visit his website.   Now doncha feel smarter and more conscious?