I try to create characters people want to sit with, even if nothing is happening.
— Jason Reynolds
I try to be an active griever. I feel like we lean on time because of the trope 'Time heals all wounds.' And there is truth to that, but I don't think that it's absolute. I think that to grieve and to deal and cope, you have to be actively processing the information. Have your moments, be broken, and allow yourself to fully express pain.
I was eight years old when I got the talk about what to do if a police officer stops me. I was 15 when I was face-down on the curb for the first time.
I just want young people to read my books and feel cared for, feel safe, feel like there's someone else in the world who understands - or at least acknowledges - your existence.
Gratitude is one of the greatest gifts we can give. And it's not a gift we often give to children. We expect it of them, but we don't necessarily give it back.
It's naive of adults to believe that young people aren't aware of what is going on in the world. The best thing we can do is confront that to help them navigate it. We can help them say, 'These things are happening. What does that mean for your life?'
It wasn't that the teachers were bad. From what I can remember, they were pretty good. It was about the selection of books. It was about not seeing my young life reflected back to me: my family dynamics, the noise and complexities of my neighborhood, the things I loved, like ice cream trucks and Kool-Aid.
I would go to the store, I would buy cassette tapes, and I would read the liner notes and sort of subconsciously creating the connections between the rappers that I was reading and the poets that they were teaching us in school.
Queen Latifah was writing poetry. Maybe Latifah's 'Ladies First' and Angelou's 'Phenomenal Woman' are the same thing, a generation apart.
I am a consummate metaphor addict.
I read tons of books, listen to music non-stop, watch as many movies as possible, catch a play when I can, art shows, concerts, bar talks - I just try to engage in art, which to me is everywhere, as often as I can because narrative lives in it all.
I wanted to be a poet. I fell in love with poetry around eight years old, but not through literature. Instead, it came through hip-hop lyrics and my obsession with reading liner notes. Queen Latifah's 'Black Reign' is the album that stands out the most.
I wanted to be Langston Hughes.
The people who know me do not ask me about the next book or how it's going. They ask, 'Jason, are you sleeping?' because they know my brain will not shut down.
Having a superpower has nothing to do with the ability to fly or jump, or superhuman strength. The truest superpowers are the ones we all possess: willpower, integrity, and most importantly, courage.
My relationship to comics isn't nearly as strong as some people's. Ha! I mean, I grew up with a comic book fanatic. My older brother was, and still is, obsessed. And I was obsessed with the fact that he was obsessed, because I was obsessed with him. But not necessarily with comics themselves.
All the academy will tell you that the language that is familiar to you is not appropriate. and that's not to say that there shouldn't be a standard, but when I come to school with my friends' language, my grandmother's language, the language in my mouth - you're going to tell me that's improper?
Sometimes it's okay for careers to find you.
People always say time heals. Time doesn't necessarily heal anything. It allows you to manage things. There are occasions where you feel the pain as if it just happened, but you know that it's a fleeting moment.
If a kid is reading a book about someone who looks like them but doesn't talk like them, we stunt their growth by dissing them.
Rappers are the white authors of our generation. They know me, my language, my codes, my family, my block.
We all want to believe in the magic of someone knowing what we're thinking.
I'm writing all the books I wish I had when I was a kid.
I have a hard time with people who say they write for children but they don't really like children. I love children. I love talking with them.
Poetry has the ability to create entire moments with just a few choice words. The spacing and line breaks create rhythm, a helpful musicality, a natural flow. The separate stanzas aid in perpetuating a kind of incremental reading, one small chunk at a time.
'To Kill a Mockingbird' wasn't about me.
I know the feeling of confusion and betrayal. I know the feeling of fearing for my life.
I write about six to seven hours a day, five days a week, unless I'm traveling.
Rap music was and is, for me, everything.
Boston is pretty infamous for race relations.
I have a chip on my shoulder I pet every morning, a constant feeling like I have something to prove. Hearing that the canon can't be diversified, there's no room for more brown faces - that fueled my fire.
I believe that every character is a setting, a world with moving parts, and on the other hand, every setting is, in fact, a character - a living breathing thing with personality and backstory. The way stories come to life, at least for me, is when these elements commune in relationship to one another.
I love, loved, loved 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Rappers were my storytellers.
Grief is like mending a knee. You can mend the knee and make it function, but the knee never actually heals.
The truth of the matter is that chess is not the game of life because life does not ever happen the way you strategize and plan.
The stories of kids who grew up in communities like mine weren't being written about in many books for kids.
We've always been told to pretend as if we're not afraid.
The idea of the mask in any scenario has always fascinated me. Not only does it protect identity, it also allows one to hide.
Rap music was a savior to me.
I grew up around a whole bunch of girls, and one thing I realized is what they had on their plate was very different than what I had on mine. The things girls are made to be responsible for is a heavy burden - take care of your younger siblings, do good in school, have some extracurriculars. The pressure is intense.
I've been told what I can't do my whole life.
When I was a kid, I couldn't see life outside ramen noodles and Kool-Aid.
The truths are universal: Every kid knows fear. Every kid knows family and friendship. Loss, love, laughter. Everything else is just detail.
I read 'The Young Landlords' and felt almost a chemical change. What I realized while reading that book was that I could write in my voice, use my tongue, my language, my style, and write a story.
Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.
There are so many things I want to do, so many things I have to say.
Hip-hop saved me. It gave me permission to use language in a certain way. It validated my community and my friends. It gave our slang a certain elegance.
The feeling of self-discovery, for me, is perennial.
One thing I wish I'd been told in school is that my language is valid.
