Interview with Charlie Braxton
by Black Dog Bone
I knew you as a person who wrote for magazines. It’s only lately that I found out you also write poetry. I read some of your poetry, and I was amazed. Were you writing poetry at first, or did it come later?
Thank you very much. I appreciate that. To answer your question I actually started out trying to write song lyrics when I was a youngster, believe it or not. My cousin Jesse Isaac (RIP) was a musician in a local funk band, called Black Cotton Inc. set some of my lyrics to music, but his band never used them. I guess they weren’t that good. (Laughs) So I started out writing song lyrics, then later on, I switched to writing poetry when I realized that song lyrics weren’t nothing but poetry.
Do you write fiction or short stories?
No. I tried my hand at short stories when I was in college, but that was for a fiction writing class. I didn’t think that I was any good at it, even though I passed the class with an A. I do write plays and screenplays, though. So far, I have written two plays, Artis Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Bluesman, the latter of which has been published in an anthology of Mississippi playwrights. I have co-written two film scripts. The first one was written with a local rapper, Tony B. It’s called Slicker. It’s a comedy about two friends who decide to steal cars from rich folks. The second one is a stoner film that I co-wrote with Fiend (AKA International Jones) from No Limit. I hope to get them shot one day. I also write creative non-fiction essays.
How did you get into writing poetry and all that?
I was always good with words and English. I used to love writing essays, book reports, and term papers the same way I love listening to music. Growing up poor and Black in a rural town in Mississippi, the very idea of being a writer seemed like a pipe dream. Most of the writers they taught us about in school were a bunch of dead white males. Even though I liked some of their stuff, I still couldn’t relate to it. It did not reflect my reality at all, but I loved to read, and that was all I had for a long time, until my mama brought home a bunch of old books that the local library had thrown out. One of those books was an anthology of Harlem Renaissance and post-Harlem Renaissance writers called Dark Symphony. The book had poetry by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Margaret Walker Alexander, and Le Roi Jones (Amiri Baraka). Later, while I was in college, I discovered poets from Africa and the Caribbean. Reading those black poets’ work was a revelation to me. They taught me that I didn’t have to write like Shakespeare or even write about the things he wrote about. I am not from England. I’m an African American from Mississippi. Reading those black poets taught me that I could write about the things in my life-things that mattered to me and my people.
Do you read a lot?
Yes, I read a lot. I read books, magazines, newspapers, and several blogs every day. Most of what I read is non-fiction, including books on history, sociology, and politics. I’m a bit of a news junkie.
Who are some of your favorite writers?
Man, there are so many great writers that I like. I’ll name a few. I like Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Wole Soyinka, Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, Haki R. Madhubuti, Kalamu ya Salaam, John Henrik Clarke, Ishmael Reed. And I like some of the younger Mississippi writers too, Kiese Laymon, Jasmyn Ward, Angie Thomas. They’re making waves in the literary world.
Who are some of your favorite poets?
Amiri Baraka, Jerry Ward, Askia Muhammad Toure, Margaret Walker Alexander, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lourde, William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Ferllingetti, e.e. cummings, Bob Kaufman, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Aime Cesaire, and Keorapetse Kgositsile
You also write a lot of Haiku. Who are some of your favorite haiku poets?
You know, I have read a few Japanese haiku poets in college. They were cool, but the Haiku poets that I really like are the African American poets who are pushing the boundaries of the genre. Poets like Richard Wright, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Lenard D. Moore, and Sonia Sanchez.
What inspires you to write?
Ah man, life. I mean, it really could be anything from a song, a conversation with a friend; it could be something I saw on the news or a random thought in my head. It really depends.
How do you get your poetry out? Is it through the internet? Do you put out books?
In the immortal words of Malcolm X, “By any means necessary.” (Laughs). No, really, I publish poetry through a variety of means. I have poems published on the internet, in literary magazines, and journals. I have been published in a number of anthologies. And yes, I do publish books. So far, I have published three books. They are Ascension from the Ashes on Blackwood Press, Cinders Rekindled, and Embers Among the Ashes: Poems in a Haiku Manner, both on Jawara Press. You can get them on Lulu.com or Amazon.
You write for a lot of hip hop magazines. What got you into hip hop?
I am a music head, period. I listen to a variety of music all the time. I first heard hip hop back in 1979. My college roommate was from New York, and he had a few tapes of old school hip hop acts like Busy Bee, the Cold Crush Brothers, and a few others. As a poet, I could relate to the rhyme scheme big time. As a serious music head, I could relate to them rapping over breakbeats because that’s what some of the great blues musicians like Lightening Hopkins and B.B. King did on the breakdown of their songs at times. Also, a lot of soul and funk singers like Millie Jackson, Joe Simon, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, James Brown, and Barry White did too. Plus, being a student of African history, I could see how hop hop culture was rooted in the cultures of West and Central Africa. So loving the music was a no-brainer to me.
Are you originally from Jackson, Mississippi?
No, I am originally from a small town south of Jackson called McComb, but I have lived in Jackson off and on throughout my life. I lived in Jackson from age three to seven and went back to McComb. After graduating high school, I went to Jackson State University and majored in Mass Communication. After college, I started my career as a journalist. That was in the summer of 83. In 84 or so, I moved to Hattiesburg and started working at local newspaper for a few years. Then I started a monthly newspaper called the Hattiesburg Informer. I ran it for five years. But the paper went under. That’s when I started freelancing as a music journalist in the 90s and, eventually moved back to Jackson. I’ve been here every since.
Was there a lot of hip hop going on in Jackson?
Yes, believe it or not, Jackson has deep roots in hip hop, stretching all the way back to the early 80s with DJ Heavy Herb and the track Heavy Herb’s Rap. In the late 80s you had Traction Records, which put out a lot of electro-funk records similar to what Lonzo and Dr. Dre were doing with World Class Wreckin’ Crew. The biggest record to come out of that era was an album called Conceited by Kyper, who was originally from Baton Rouge. In the 90s, that scene died, and a vibrant underground scene emerged. You had groups like Valley of the Dry Bones, Mississippi Mafia, Wyldlife Society, the Renegades, Us from Dirrt, Poetic Climax, Stewpot Stowaways, Crooked Lettaz, Wood Street Playas, and Boo the Boss Playa. The 2000s saw a bunch of local rappers branch out and become regional and even national stars. I’m talking about rappers like David Banner, Kamakaze, Reese & Bigelow, Boo, Jack D, Smoke D, Donnie Cross, Hellborn, Children of the Cornbread, the Queen Boys, Tony B, and X-it Only. Today, you got cats like Meezy, Dolla Black, Hollywood Luck, Coke Bumaye, Lil C, Dear Silas, Skipp Koon, Roosta Cool, 5th Child, 7even Thirty, Akeem Ali, and Lil Lonnie (RIP).
Who were some of the rappers you like from Jackson?
I like a lot of the older rappers from Jackson, but right now, I’m mostly digging the newer rappers like Akeem Ali, Dollar Black, 7even Thirty, Fifth Child, Dear Silas, and Coke Bumaye, because it’s really their turn.
Who are some of your favorite rappers?
Again, I tend to lean toward the O.G.s in the game, like Public Enemy, the Coup, the Geto Boys, Rakim, Paris, Outkast, the Goodie Mob, Hot Boys, Tim Smooth, UGK, Ball & MJG, and my boy Fiend. But I also like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Rapsody, and Lil Simz from the UK.
What are you up to now are you doing a lot of writing these days?
I just finished a new book of poetry called And the Earth Cried Blood. I am trying to finish a collection of essays on music and politics. I’ve got some ideas for some more film scripts that I hope to write. Occasionally, I do a little freelance work, if the job is something I really want to do.
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