On November 11th 2015, author/activist Sister Souljah released her new book A Moment Of Silence: Midnight III. Recently I spoke with her about her books and if the highly publicized unjust killings and police brutality taking place in our communities influenced her latest book, one that is centered around police injustice.
Read more of my chat with the Bronx native below.
BAW: Tell me about the history and impact of your work.
Sister Souljah: I have 6 books. I’ve sold millions of copies. A couple of my books are read in public high schools, a couple of my books are accepted as official high school credit for summer readings and certified by the Board of Education in New York and also in California and a few other places. Of course every writer, every published author is looking to have their work have an impact.”
Are you in both public and private schools?
“Well I’m in a lot of universities around the country. Some of the universities are private, some are public but my books are used on a university level. Some of these books are recommended by their professors. The books are the leading African-American works of literature. So if a university wants to be current they have to have Sister Souljah books as a part of their curriculum.”
Tell me about your new book A Moment Of Silence: Midnight III.
The series grew out of The Coldest Winter Ever, which was my first novel. My second novel was Midnight: A Gangster Love Story. So this was my third novel in the Midnight series. All of the books actually come from The Coldest Winter Ever, all of the characters originate in The Coldest Winter Ever. This book tells a story of the most high-pressure, high period of the character Midnight. The point at which this very organized, very faithful man is living a very wonderful life, living in Brooklyn in the projects with his family and handling business.
It’s the point at which one moment of rage throws him into a very dark place. And for the dark place it’s prison, drug dealers, dirty police, justice, injustice, inmates, you know. Which is a coming of age story—a coming of age series. And this is the point at which the character experiences what 25% of the African-American male population in real life experiences every single day. Whether that’s court supervision, parole, incarceration, arrests, abuse by the police, false accusations, all the things that are actually happening today. This character is encountering those things at this point in his fictional life at this point in the series.
Did the recent public recognition of our unjust justice system influence this book?
Sister Souljah Talks ‘A Moment Of Silence’ – The Third Book In ‘Midnight’ Series was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
