The Story of My "READ THIS" Interview with Alice Maria James

How a Chance Meeting in Harlem, NY Led to an Engaging Conversation about L.I.F.E. and Books

I first met Read This Host Alice Maria James at the September 7, 2024 Harlem Book Fair. There I was, standing on the plaza of the historic Adam Clayton Powell Building, outside the canopy that I had erected to cover my vendor booth table, when she approached with microphone in hand to ask me questions about my books. I had done these kind of spontaneous interviews countless times before, but this one felt different. Even then, I sensed that Alice took great pride in being able to introduce emerging Black authors like me to larger audiences.

I answered all of Alice’s questions, giving her brief overviews of each of the books I had on display. The encouraging words she offered in response to my fictional storylines and poetic themes evoked toothy smiles from me. She made me feel as if my words matter, and to an independent artist like me, that’s pure gold.

Months had passed since this encounter, where I had the privilege of walking along sidewalks frequented by Harlem Renaissance authors and/or poets like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, to name only a few. I continued to work from my Northern Virginia home, putting the finishing touches on my unproduced screenplay RECONSTRUCTION: Power Cell, and adding more chapters to my young adult novel Junior Achiever. I submitted poems to literary magazines like the Mid-Atlantic Review. And I continued to sign onto my weekly Let’s Write Something Sundays/Black Writers Collective Zoom call with Black writers from as far away as Georgia, Virginia and California. I even joined the Northern Virginia Writers Club and the Poetry Society of Virginia so I could have more in-person contacts with more racially diverse groups of creative writers.

Only when I took a break from all this activity did I come across a LinkedIn email from Alice. In the email, she invited me to be a guest on her Read This program. I accepted, of course, and the rest is history. I will leave it to you to click on the video above to see what we talked about.

SUPPORT MY EFFORTS BY PURCHASING ONE OR MORE OF MY TITLES THROUGH MY J. A. Faulkerson Books website.

But as you watch the video above, it is my hope you will begin to understand the motivation behind my writing.

For those who don’t know, I write to educate, entertain and enlighten. And while I am constantly endeavoring to strengthen my creative voice, I often find myself focusing on themes that pay homage to my Black ancestors – enslaved and oppressed Black Africans and Black Americans, the Black Civil Rights leaders of the 1950s and ‘60s. They are the reason I penned the poetry collection March of the Compassionate Neighbor, for they are the ones who were led by the unconditional love and neighborly compassion in their hearts. Unfortunately, remnants of their legacy are needed now because we live in an era of deep racial retrenchment that hasn’t been seen since 1877, when the first period of Reconstruction ended following the presidency of Andrew Johnson.

But my heart also bleeds for other men, more specifically the ones who have been blessed to be fathers. Back in 2015, I wrote a book titled Real Men Raise CHAMPIONS: Unleashing Your Inner COACH, to let fathers and father figures know they are thermostats that set the temperature not thermometers that measure it. Their mission is to cultivate stronger connections with their children, so these same children grow up to become great nurturers, great learners, great workers and great leaders that lead independently fearless and empowered lives.

But as I endeavor to heed my own parents’ spoken and unspoken lessons on how to lead an independently fearless and empowered life, I also recognize that we fathers and father figures should not have to cultivate our father-child relationships in isolation. I firmly believe fathering males relating well with their own children represents a wonderful opportunity for them to join forces and extend their service to the other children in their communities. By “huddling up” on a regular basis, they can draw up plays that can be executed to improve outcomes for all God’s children.

As many of you know, I’m traveling to Atlanta in late July to attend Black Writers Weekend. While there, I will participate in the annual pitch fest.

I’m going all in, y’all, pitching my unproduced screenplay RECONSTRUCTION: Power Cell. Because the screenplay’s plot speaks to the times we’re living in, I hope the attending film studio representatives view the story as a revolutionary statement to the powers that be. I also hope my Black American and Black African contemporaries view my Black characters pursuit and display of Black excellence as the playbook for reconstructing Black labor today for the jobs of tomorrow.

But enough about me.

Let’s get back to Alice, give her the flowers she so rightly deserves.

I encourage you to visit her sites - Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Apple Podcasts, Facebook and LinkedIn.

She’s the real deal, y’all, manning a Read This empire that I hope will one day be uttered in the same breath as Oprah’s Book Club and Troy Johnson’s African-American Literature Book Club (AALBC).

Thank you, Alice, for affording me this opportunity to think out loud.

More significantly, thank you for being such a gracious host.