Maiysha sits down with the husband and wife duo that is taking over interior designing, Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason. The couple talks about their new book “AphroChic”, their time working with HGTV, telling Black stories through the Black home, being Black in a space that you don’t see many Black people in, the founding of decorative brand “AphroChic” and more.
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Maiysha Kai [00:00:07] Welcome to Writing Black. I’m your host, Maiysha Kai, and I am so, so, so excited for this week. I know I say it every week, but I can’t help it. You know, listen, I don’t always interview my friends, but sometimes I get a chance to, because what can I say? Like, my friends are dope and they do dope things. You know where that came from. Anyway, this week we’re doing something a little bit different, which is, you know, technically Writing Black is all about people who work with words. And these two guests are people who work with words. Yes, but they also work with visuals. And what I love about them is that they really tell the story of our lives, Black lives, because when we talk about how Black lives matter, it’s never just it shouldn’t ever just be about surviving. They really talk about how we live. And so I’m so excited to welcome to this show today, the founders of AphroChic, Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason. Hey, ya’ll.
Jeanine Hays [00:01:10] Hello. We’re so happy to be here.
Bryan Mason [00:01:12] It’s good to see you.
Maiysha Kai [00:01:14] Yeah, it’s so good to see you, too. Listen, I’m going full disclosure to our audience. Like these are really good friends of mine who I have followed for a very long time. I initially met Jeanine through her sister, Angela Hays, also an amazing interior designer if you live on the East Coast. But, you know, as as this being one of my passions of, you know, a personal passion of mine and also being the lifestyle editor of theGrio, I do feel like there is a conversation to be had with the two of you because AphroChic really started as a blog. And when you talk about the written word, this started as a blog and has exploded into so many facets. But like, let’s start at the beginning, let’s start at the beginning of AphroChic. Like, how did this start? How did this start to coalesce for you?
Bryan Mason [00:02:04] Oh, okay. Well, everything started way, way, way back in in 2007. So much different world, like very different aware. And now it was like a point where the blogosphere was just kind of blowing up and we were living in San Francisco and doing very different things. Jeanine was a policy attorney. I was a student. I was working on master’s degrees and, you know, hunting for a Ph.D. and didn’t think we were going to be doing any of this. And Janine was very much into design is kind of like her creative outlet from her job. I was very much not into design and so I was not doing a good job of having design conversations. So I suggested that we start a blog so that, you know, she would find better conversation partners and maybe I would learn a few things along the way and yeah, and it kind of went from there.
Maiysha Kai [00:03:00] Yeah. I mean, I do love that from the standpoint of like you guys are actually like, I can’t call you high school kind of collegiate sweethearts that you met on your college tours, correct?
Jeanine Hays [00:03:13] Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:03:14] Okay. So you’ve been together a long time.
Jeanine Hays [00:03:17] Yeah. Yeah, 26 years. Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:03:20] Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So, Jeanine, writing the blog and building an audience from there. Like, first of all, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of us a lot of what a lot of people who are even in the journalism space now started as bloggers. And I think obviously you were in the early curve of that. Like how did that develop for you? Like how? I mean, Bryan told us a bit of how it started, but like, how did it kind of evolve? How did you start to grow an audience?
Jeanine Hays [00:03:55] You know, honestly, it was very organic in a lot of ways. But I think that, you know, blogging for me was just about self-expression and just you know, I was looking at a lot of content at that time, early 2000’s, 2007 and looking at interior design blogs and really feeling like there was something missing. What was missing was I didn’t see anybody who looked like me. I knew there are plenty of Black folks who have great spaces, who are artists, who are designers, who are artisans in the home decor world. And I wasn’t seeing them. So it really just became wanting to write about them, wanting to introduce people to all the folks that I had known or people that, you know, Bryan and I were just discovering as we kind of got deeper into the home decor world. So a lot and a lot of ways it was a little bit selfish, I guess. And just, you know, one thing I wanted to see what was missing and being able to write about people now for 15 years that we’ve been doing it is one of the real joys that I get from what we do. I don’t just get to we don’t call like our house tours, even for our book or for any of the writing that we do, they’re not tours, they’re portraits. They’re a discussion about people’s lives, their small ethnography, and they help us tell a deeper story about the African American story, particularly through the lens of home.
Bryan Mason [00:05:25] And the home portrait idea was definitely one that came up as we were, it’s developed over time, kind of, you know, we’ve all we’ve been doing this and, you know, from blogging into other things we’ve been working on, you do write a lot of house tours. And then you start to realize, you know, we started looking at, well, what is this person’s I think the way we term it because what is their story of home? And that becomes a lot of what is is the book is about is not simply looking at people’s faces and saying, okay, here, you know, the number of great places that Black people live, it is by saying, you know, what was the real story that took them there? And that story is invariably includes more than the person who lives in that house.
HGTV’s Sneak Peek with AphroChic [00:06:05] So I’m excited for you guys to see the color and all these just magical palettes that you created in your home. Thanks for having us today. Thanks for coming. Yeah. So we’re actually at to start in your. living room downstairs in this gorgeous living room. And you guys are going to see here that we have this beautiful blue color palette that reminds me of the ocean. And when you go to the tropics and you’re in these areas that you’re just sort of super relaxed. Was that the inspiration for the colors that you have here in the living room. Besides it being my favorite color, the turquoise, I mean, I definitely wanted the house to feel like you were in the Caribbean.
Bryan Mason [00:06:41] It includes, you know, parents, grandparents, ancestors, movements and all of the world that took place around them as these things were taking shape. And so for us, we felt like talking about the word and storytelling and narrative is a vehicle. We’re learning to read spaces in a similar way. Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:07:02] Listen, I you know, so another full disclosure moment. I was blessed to be in this case, the Remix. This was your first book, Remix: Decorating with Culture, Objects and Soul. I may or may not recognize this woman, page 152 in my old apartment. And that is how we first came into each other’s lives. But, you know, and I, I was just saying to our producers, I was saying, you know, I had not spent enough time with the story that you told about me. About my space. I think at the time, you know, it’s like you’re so vain and you’re like, well, what does that look like? But you really told such, to your point, you really told such a comprehensive story about me, my life at the time as a full time musician, I’m a full time journalist who still does music. But, you know, it’s like I love I love that part. I love the fact that you have entwined, you know, in this case, two of my passions or three of my passions, really, which is, you know, esthetics, words and music. Right. Like you told a complete story of me. So thank you guys for that. I mean, this is your first book, but tell me about your second. You have a new book and I want.
Jeanine Hays [00:08:25] Actually.
Bryan Mason [00:08:28] Before you get into it, I’m going to get in trouble for this. But I do want to admit. I’m going to wait. Since we’re doing full disclosure today, your household was actually one of my favorites that we were for that book because it was it was this one where we again, we kind of knew you were getting. No more shooting with you was so much fun. You know, we were there with Patrick, who we love and unfortunately recently lost. Yeah. And you amazing visuals that you had there, but also the fact that the music played through the visuals of your space play through your story.
Maiysha Kai – Wanna Be [00:09:02] Just to get the love that I deserve. Because I am young enough to have a lot of learn. But I’m old enough to know better. I’ve had hard times but as far as I’m concerned. I come much too far to settle. So what will I be, when I grow up? Is it only me, who wants this much? Where is the love that feeds my soul?
Bryan Mason [00:09:22] And kind of being able to tell, you know, I’m trying to tell this story in a way that came across as well as it came through in your space, was the challenge of doing that and at the same time really becoming a fan of your music. And until you for a while like your music was on my phone with play. I would hit shuffle, it was invariably you. Back to back you.
Maiysha Kai [00:09:45] I am not even on shuffle on my own phone. I’m just not.
Bryan Mason [00:09:51] It was just it was a really it was it was one of those steps where it was a definite step towards the way that we’re telling stories now. And part of it was, it’s not an easy thing to do in the design book because the focus of a design book and the focus that people expect, both on the customer side and on the publisher side, is this is a book about pictures.
Maiysha Kai [00:10:14] Mm hmm.
Bryan Mason [00:10:15] And plus, even with Remix, we were going the words matter. You know, there’s. There’s a story that we have to tell here. There’s there’s there are things that you need to understand in order to understand this space and understand what we’re trying to say that aren’t going to come through just from looking at the pictures. A picture is a great picture. Amazing pictures made the book, but the words were so important. And for this book, where we’re kind of always trying to expand what we feel design is, or the way design is generally perceived and we find we’re also with every book trying to expand what a design book is and what it can be. And so with remakes, we pushed as far as we could and now with with this new book, AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home, we’ve pushed it even further.
Maiysha Kai [00:11:02] Yeah. I hope you are enjoying this conversation as much as I am. We’ll be back in a minute with more Writing Black.
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[00:11:41] Introducing Dear Culture with Panama Jackson on theGrio Black Podcast Network. When you’re friends for the shenanigans and stay for the edutainment as Panama debates culture war as Janet Jackson versus Michael. Blackfessions, Blackmendations and everything Black. Listen today on theGrio mobile app for all the Black culture conversations you don’t want to miss. Also available wherever great podcasts are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:12:09] Welcome back to Writing Black. Okay. So tell me about AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Home. Because I have to say, like, you know what you all have done in the space of the past, I guess now 15, it can’t be 15 years already, but in the space of this time period has been remarkable. And I think you have proven to not just your friends and followers, but to a mass marketing, which includes HGTV, includes all sources of, you know, Elle Decor, all sorts of really high end mainstream outlets that there is an audience for this content and that and not just a Black audience. You know, when I look at like some of your contemporaries, some of the people who, you know, laud you and who I know that you run with, I’m like, these are not Black adjacent people. They’re just folks who do great design and who appreciate great design. So in approaching this book, like how, what was different about it?
Jeanine Hays [00:13:18] Hmm. I have to hold the book up. I want people to see it.
Maiysha Kai [00:13:21] Please do. Yes, because I don’t have it yet. Listen, I want you to send it over. I don’t have it.
Jeanine Hays [00:13:28] I will make sure that you are on the list. I know the publisher is going to get super mad if I don’t at least make sure that this baby get’s a little bit of shine.
Maiysha Kai [00:13:36] Please, please, please, please. I do it every episode. I’m so glad you will.
Bryan Mason [00:13:41] So I’ll make sure that she’s back there.
Jeanine Hays [00:13:44] And this book was really a dream. And it was, you know, the idea came about I was reading an article. We had read an article because we like we like to read together. Like we’ll find an article and then I’ll be like, Hey, babe, I’ll read this to you later. He’ll read it to me later. And there was an article and I think it was around Juneteenth and it was about what happened after emancipation. And it talked about how, you know, African-Americans, you know, our ancestors were, you know, freed, you know, from from these plantations and how the plantation owners just would throw people out into the streets, you know, I mean, and they these people in like they were born into slavery, so. Well, they there was nowhere else to go to live. You know, you rent a place, there is nothing. And the and thousands upon thousands of our ancestors died during a period after slavery where people were without homes, they were homeless, they were left in the streets. They had disease.
Jeanine Hays [00:14:56] There was one story in particular where this woman said that people would just walk by the dead bodies. And that really just stayed with me. Like I was just thinking about it. And I was like, how could that have happened? Like, how could someone just walk by these bodies? But then I started to think about what was the story of home for our ancestors. Like I was like, you know, the idea that you were born into slavery and then emancipation happens and you’re just, you know, no one cares. There’s no society that cares about you. And then we have to build community, home and safe spaces. And that’s where the idea of this book came from. It was like, this is a story that hasn’t been told about our journey to creating home for ourselves in a country that, you know, that that is our home.
Maiysha Kai [00:15:52] That wasn’t designed for us to succeed. Right?
Jeanine Hays [00:15:54] That wasn’t designed for us in any way and this story just becomes this amazing story of resilience, of perseverance, of and there is a historical journey that goes on. And so we wanted to talk about the beauty of Black homes. We wanted to talk about the history of individual families and their own experiences.
Maiysha Kai [00:16:16] We’ll be back in a minute with more Writing Black.
[00:16:19] theGrio Black Podcast Network is here, and it’s everything you’ve been waiting for news, talk, entertainment, sports and today’s issues all from the Black perspective. Ready for real talk and Black culture amplified. Be inspired. Listen to new and established voices now on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Listen today on theGrio Mobile App and tune in everywhere great podcast are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:16:49] Welcome back to Writing Black.
Jeanine Hays [00:16:51] We wanted to talk about what we call in the book The Journey Home, this historical movement that African-Americans have had for almost 200 years in making Home in America.
Bryan Mason [00:17:02] Yes. And I think it’s important to say something about kind of that conception and how it developed, too, because there are a couple of. Other things going on around that time. One of them is that we had started the magazine brand, so everything magazine was for us, is for us in a lot of ways was sort of a return. It felt like coming home because in a lot of ways, since Remix kind of moved us off more in the interior design trajectory. And so things were more about physical spaces, things like that, and about the work that we were doing was coming to the magazine we were able to start telling the story again of other people in the diaspora, really kind of holding up this lens to diaspora culture and making the decision early on that the magazine, we said, is never going to be about the people you know, it’s going to be about the people you should know.
Maiysha Kai [00:17:54] Mm hmm.
Bryan Mason [00:17:55] And within that kind of telling those stories, we that’s where we started looking more into telling even deeper stories in our house tours. We started a segment of the magazine, which is now called The Black Family Home, and actually looked at my family’s ancestral home in Philadelphia. We’ve had about five generations of my family in this one house since the fifties. And and our work on restoring that house and part of the way that it developed was actually that when Jeanine first kind of came well presented the idea, because even from the end of Remix, she said the house tour section was really great. I love to do a book, that’s all house stories. And then when it came back up again, actually after reading this article, it took me a minute to really say I want to do this, because at first I didn’t, I never wanted to do a book that was just an interior design book. You know, the point of the question always and even one of the questions our publisher asks first is why does the world need another interior design book? And I never wanted it to be that because I felt like the danger there was that at best we were present. Something was just another design book, and at worst we were present something that actually become part of the problem by presenting spaces that can be held up then to say, Look, here’s a book full of Black people who have nice houses. Everything for Black people is fine.
Maiysha Kai [00:19:21] Mm hmm.
Bryan Mason [00:19:21] And so for for for us, it had to be if we if we’re going to tell the story. So this is, again, where we get into the idea of what a design book is really about. It’s about the pictures, and it is about the words and how you you fight for space for the words in a design book. Because we said from the beginning, if we’re going to tell the story, we have to tell the whole story.
Maiysha Kai [00:19:40] Right.
Bryan Mason [00:19:40] Because it’s the one thing we’ve never really seen attempted. Right. Is to tell the whole story behind anything. So we’re looking at Black suffering or we’re looking at Black joy. But whichever one we’re looking at, we’re only looking at that one.
Maiysha Kai [00:19:52] I love that you just said that, actually, because like when I you know, I’m the lifestyle editor at theGrio and one of my imperatives coming in, even when I was interviewing for the job, was that when we talk about Black lives mattering, we can’t just be talking about trauma, like how we live, how we continue to live, create spaces for ourselves, create communities. Like all of that matters, right? Which is partly why, you know, I fell in love with you guys because I think that, like, that’s exactly what you’re doing. I think that’s exactly what you’re cultivating. I think it’s more than socioeconomic or even access conversation. I think it’s a community conversation. I think it’s aspirational. Sure. But inspirational. Absolutely. It’s also like where are we? Where do we live? What are we doing? How are we doing? Right. You know, like all of those things. I also don’t think it’s fair to say that to talk about how you guys were crafting this particular book without noting that you were also crafting it in the middle of I mean, what is an ongoing pandemic, which I know also touched each of you personally? So like, what was that experience like? Did it influence like how you wrote the book or, you know, what ideas you put into it?
Jeanine Hays [00:21:14] Yeah. I mean, definitely there is the book as we go through, you know, all these different house tours of 16 different homes that are featured in the book. And these stories really mirror the historical journey. We have people who have gone through the Great Migration. We have people, you know, who you know who you know. I was going to say this, the Great Migration, but some of the other historical moments. But we also talk about COVID, too, because for some of us, we’re going through this new sort of what we call the New York migration, where, you know, people who, you know, had to leave cities and actually start new home spaces. And the challenge, yes, we had to do that ourselves. And we talk about that in our own home tour. And we also have a section in the Journey Home section about COVID 19 and its impact on Black homeownership. Yeah.
Bryan Mason [00:22:13] So when we talk about the whole story, we really do try to to start from, you know, emancipation and reconstruction, going through the Great Migration, the Great Depression, all the way up to the present moment. And the reason why was so important to do that again, to your point, is just to say not Black suffering or Black joy, but Black joy in context is what we want it to be, because you really can’t understand one without the other. And again, it was one of those things where you really have to convince the people who you’re working with. You know that because they’re going, this is a history book now. And yes, yes, it is, because every story that we tell from the macro standpoint of this this African-American journey to home is mirrored in the individual stories that we tell for each homeowner. So if you’re looking at them, you can see where the connections are, you know, and it might not be, you know, page after page because you might be towards the middle of the book and see somebody whose life is in one story, something that connects to something that happened at the beginning of the book or in one of the other sections. But we wanted to be able to create that sense of the intertwining of the two. You know, you can’t can’t understand the joy without the suffering, but you can’t really contextualize the suffering without the joy of seeing everything that we and our ancestors have done and how we’ve created and shaped this culture to, you know, to be this beautiful thing, both in in tandem with and in spite of everything that’s arrayed against us.
Maiysha Kai [00:23:51] Okay. I love the idea of like, well, not even the idea. It’s the reality of and the phrasing of. You know, in tandem with and in spite of, because I think that to this day, like, that’s our reality. You know, we do a lot of things in tandem with in spite of. We’ll be right back in a minute with more Writing Black.
[00:24:13] Introducing Dear Culture with Panama Jackson on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Bring your friends for the shenanigans and stay for the edutainment. As Panama Debates Culture Wars. Janet Jackson versus Michael. Blackfessions, Blackmendations and everything, Black. Listen today on theGrio mobile app for all the Black culture conversations you don’t want to miss. Also available wherever great podcasts are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:24:40] Welcome back to Writing Black. I want to double back to the magazine for a second because, again, you know, you guys at this point, like, you know, part of listen, I have I again, I have dope friends, they do dope things. But but one of the things that I find so working in journalism every single day and knowing how exhaustive that thing can be, what prompted the idea or even the ambition or even the idea that you were capable of starting a magazine like you do? I know it’s a quarterly, so it’s not a daily. It’s quarterly, but it’s still it’s so well-researched, just so well-written and so well photographed. It’s a huge undertaking. And we’ve seen a lot of other magazines not be able to like keep up with that. What made you guys feel like that was something that you needed to do in the interim between these two books?
Bryan Mason [00:25:33] We’re massive nerds.
Jeanine Hays [00:25:36] I think I think it was really wanting to get back to just something slower. You know, it’s like the slow home movement. It’s just like that idea of just slowing down and that when you’re on blogs, it just starts to feel like you are just overrun with content.
Maiysha Kai [00:25:56] That you’re just on all of the time. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeanine Hays [00:25:59] You know, everything right now is just like there’s so much hitting us all the time. And there was a lot of pressure with a blog that it was like a daily content. Then it started to get to hourly content. It was just like, Oh, you have to churn out so much content.
Bryan Mason [00:26:15] And our quality levels were dropping commensurately. You know, like if you have to do something, you only have, you know, 3 minutes to do it. You’re not going to do the same level of work as if you have three weeks to do it.
Jeanine Hays [00:26:28] And we really wanted to kind of get back to something that both of us love. We are both writers. We love writing or creative writers. And so it just was to get back to writing, get back to thinking and being able to think more deeply about the story. If we were thinking about someone to highlight in food, we wanted to really go into and have an interview with them and talk about what was that journey for them. If it’s about home decor, it’s still those home portraits and getting to understand the person. Because when you step inside the space, especially in Black homes, what you’re getting is us. You’re actually stepping inside our space and you’re getting someone’s story, you’re getting someone’s family history, you’re getting what they love. Now you’re getting where they’ve traveled. It’s all there for you to experience and see. And the magazine, especially being quarterly, lets us do that in a way that we have more depth in our content rather than just kind of churning, churning out stories.
Bryan Mason [00:27:29] And if we can, we should circle back later to exactly why that is, because.
Maiysha Kai [00:27:33] Circle back to it now. Because, you know, we only got so much time.
Bryan Mason [00:27:36] But before I do that, I say, okay, I would say, now there’s the other thing I would say about the magazine, but there’s a reason why that is. And there is in that a unique aspect of what is Black design.
Maiysha Kai [00:27:50] Yeah.
Bryan Mason [00:27:50] And I will say I would want to think about it more, but I might even go as far as, say specifically African-American design or rather Black American design, because it’s not necessarily a given for every design style that that personal story is automatically there, it is always a possibility. And more and more now we do see people saying designs to tell a story, to be a story. But for a long time design was simply a mark of status. Wasn’t about telling who you are, is about displaying what you had accumulated, you know, or what you could afford.
HGTV’s Sneak Peek with AphroChic [00:28:23] As we go around to the credenza here, the credenza is another really special piece. Not only is there, you know, local things, Philadelphia things, things that are about our sort of culture of where we come from, but Brooklyn things as well. And the credenza was something that I found online by a really cool group here in Brooklyn called Egg Collective.
Bryan Mason [00:28:48] But the African-American home is different. And one of the things that we talk about in the book is going a little bit deeper into actually explaining what is Black American design and what is how it works, things like that. Because we’re constantly presented with the question, is that a real thing? And we keep saying, well, you know, the Scandinavian designers, French designs, Japanese design, why would you not like it is like that’s why I want it to be Black design.
Maiysha Kai [00:29:16] Do they want us to call it soul design? What do they want.? What do they want?
Jeanine Hays [00:29:18] Yeah I’m sure, I’m sure they’ll like that.
Bryan Mason [00:29:20] It’s yeah but but the reason behind it being that there because there’s so little space made for us in this society that we live in and because representation is such a constant, unending battle for us on pretty much every front, one of the. Things that home represents for us is a place where we can be represented freely. Hmm. And there’s all of these sorts of things that go into the ideas of, you know, safety, control, celebration, memory. And we do talk about those in the book and really bringing those together to explain why African American or Black American design is more about feel than it is about specific furniture choices or a specific color palette or, you know. And so the designs can vary wildly. And the homes that we’ve collected in this book are very different homes. You wouldn’t expect in any of the design book to necessarily see some of them put together. But if you’re looking at them through this lens of what design does for us, how it functions as a cultural artifact to service the needs that history has created for us in this country, then they all make sense and they all fit together, and they’re all woven together in this larger story of the African American journey to whole.
Maiysha Kai [00:30:38] Okay. So I love all that. We will be back in a minute with more Writing Black.
[00:30:46] theGrio Black Podcast Network is here and it’s everything you’ve been waiting for news, talk, entertainment, sports and today’s issues all from the Black perspective. Ready for real talk and Black culture amplified. Be inspired. Listen to new and established voices now on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Listen today on theGrio Mobile App and tune in everywhere great podcast are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:31:15] Welcome back to Writing Black. And this is where I love you guys. I mean, listen. For those who have not engaged with Remix, they should. I’m really looking forward to the new release because I think, you know, this sounds like A. I can’t wait for it to reach me. But anyway, it’s available for preorder, y’all. AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home. You can get it now. Wherever books are sold, I’m preordering mine. Although they better send me one too. But I’m not going. You know I’m not. Listen, I know you gonna put me in the next book, and that’s fine. That’s fine. But how is it that you didn’t.
Jeanine Hays [00:31:57] You didn’t make after the mid.
Maiysha Kai [00:31:58] You’re right. You’re right. I was moving. Point is, you know, you guys remain a constant source of inspiration for me, both as a lover of great design and esthetics, and also as somebody who’s gotten to know you personally since you’re both writers first. Really. What do you read? What inspires you? Like when you’re thinking about these dialogs, I have to imagine that it’s not just like, you know, you’re not just looking at Elle Decor. Shout out to Asad Syrkettt. But like, I got to imagine, you’re drawing from a variety of sources here when you are cultivating these ideas of what home is. Who do you guys read? Who do you listen to? Who do you watch?
Jeanine Hays [00:32:43] I mean, I probably it’s like the list is probably pretty unexpected. I think that we just get inspired by everything. So, you know, it’s just really taking in a lot of different mediums right now. I’m really enjoying graphic novels. It’s something that I’ve really gotten into, especially battling Long-Covid reading is harder because you go through brain fog, which is basically you call it brain fog, but it’s neurologic damage that’s caused by the virus. And graphic novels are something that I can easily sit down and read and enjoy. And I am in particular, I love historical Black graphic novels. So I just finished reading Bitter Roots and reading right now the John Lewis series March, which is three parts, which is just the most amazing graphic novel I think that’s ever been done. There’s a series called Black. Some guys we met in Harlem at the annual Harlem Comic Book Festival that they have that the Black Series is about what if only African-Americans were the ones that had superpowers? And what would the reaction be by society, by the government?
Maiysha Kai [00:33:58] So we’re waiting for them to activate. We thought it was going to happen on December 12th.
Jeanine Hays [00:34:02] And what’s so cool about graphic novels and actually I will say actually did have some inspiration to this book is graphic novel Black graphic novels in particular, weave history into the story so seamlessly and make it feel entertaining and also great for a younger audience to learn history.
Maiysha Kai [00:34:23] Just you guys. That’s exactly what you’re doing, too. And that’s exactly why I.
Jeanine Hays [00:34:27] Something similar.
Maiysha Kai [00:34:27] Started this podcast. I do think that that’s exactly what we do. We can’t help it.
Jeanine Hays [00:34:32] Exactly.
Maiysha Kai [00:34:32] Yeah, yeah.
Jeanine Hays [00:34:33] Yeah, yeah. So that’s it? Yeah. Telling beautiful stories, looking at beautiful spaces in our book. But you’re also going to learn.
Bryan Mason [00:34:39] And me I read, I’m still very much a diaspora studies kind of nerd.
Maiysha Kai [00:34:47] Don’t ever lose it.
Bryan Mason [00:34:49] I can’t. Because I’m still trying to figure it out. Like the magazine has been great because I have that section on diaspora. I’m kind of just like working through the ideas. So but I love I love things that were written by Black people in the academy, like prior to the 1980s. There’s no shade anybody been doing the right, doing the work since then. Well, I mean, when you go back and you read like especially the nonfiction of like a Richard Wright or James Baldwin. Definite, definite shout outs to Robert Allen, who was basically the one who recruited me for for Berkeley and his books, you know, Black Awakening in Capitalist America. And, you know, the concept of internal colonization, just just such amazing work. And Richard Wright, I think, you know, the same way that we were inspired to kind of weave history and culture together to write this book. I was inspired by this quote from Richard Wright, where he said that he was upset after Black Boy was released because of the success of it, because it was something that anyone, even a banker’s daughter, he said, could sit down and cry about and go to sleep feeling better about themselves. And so he said he wrote Native Son because he wanted to create something that people would have to confront. And I love this quote. It sticks with me every time we start to write something “without the constellation of tears.”
Maiysha Kai [00:36:15] Yeah. You have to confront your biases.
Bryan Mason [00:36:18] Yeah. And I think for us, so much of what this book is is telling the story. But also. Pulling it together because we as we were going through it, we realize you see this this was say this a lot that the the Black family home was a missing character in the narrative of American history. And we see American history now, Black history, because Black history is a missing character in the narrative of American history. And so needing to kind of to weave all of those together, it brought up the question of why. And so we we take time in the book to explore that and to see not only the causes, but the outcomes of removing the Black family home from our concept of American life and all of the things that go on that we don’t pay attention to, because it’s not in it’s not in our popular knowledge. It’s not in our public concept to even think of the Black family home. So its absence is noticed. And so how that fits together in terms of inheritance, in terms of wealth, in terms of everything from educational access, medical access, food justice, all of these things, environmental justice, all of these things are wound up in and tied into the presence and more specifically, the absence of the Black family home as a component in public discourse.
Maiysha Kai [00:37:46] We’ll be right back in a minute with more Writing Black.
Speaker 5 [00:37:51] Introducing Dear Culture with Panama Jackson on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Bring your friends for the shenanigans and stay for the entertainment. As Panama Debates Culture Wars, Janet Jackson versus Michael, Blackfession, Blackmendations and everything Black. Listen today on theGrio mobile app for all the Black culture conversations you don’t want to miss. Also available wherever great podcasts are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:38:19] Welcome back to Writing Black. I entirely agree and I’m so glad that among others you all are doing the work and that I get to personally get to ask you about this work. Jeanine Hays, Bryan Mason of AphroChic, thank you so much for being on this episode of Writing Black. I’m sure it is not the last that our Grio audience will see of you. I will make sure of that, because, hey, lifestyle. But, you know, for those who are wondering, again, AphroChic, their second book, Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home. You can order it now. I highly recommend it. Even unseen. When I recommend something site unseen that means it’s dope. And I know just because that was in the first book and it was dope. But thank you guys so much for being on writing Black and also for writing Black. Writing Black Lives and designing Black lives and and and celebrating Black lives. We, we. I love you. I’m sure our audiences will love you. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much.
Jeanine Hays [00:39:29] Thank you. You know, we love you. And I am so excited. I’m so glad you got this series that you’ve created this and that. I know it’s you. It’s 100% you and it is exciting to see you do your thing.
Maiysha Kai [00:39:45] Black stories, you know, that’s my jam.
Bryan Mason [00:39:49] We’re still waiting for your novel.
Maiysha Kai [00:39:52] Don’t pressure me. It’s coming. We will be back in a minute with more Writing Black.
[00:39:59] TheGrio Black Podcast Network is here and it’s everything you’ve been waiting for. News, talk, entertainment, sports and today’s issues all from the Black perspective. Ready for real talk and Black culture amplified. Be inspired. Listen to new and established voices now on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Listen today on theGrio Mobile App and tune in everywhere great podcast are heard.
Maiysha Kai [00:40:30] All right. Let’s get back into it. Welcome back to Writing Black. So if you did not guess from that interview, I am a lover, lover, lover of great design and particularly great Black design. And there really are so many exciting people working in this space. You know, I’m thinking of like I mean, there’s so many people I’m thinking of Asad Syrkett at Elle Decor who we gave a shout out in this interview but like, you know, we’re talking about a Black editor in chief of Elle Decor. If you think that has not changed the dynamics of how that magazine is presented, how those homes are presented, think again and definitely like go and check it out and and and see what what the the good news is, as I like to say also, we talked about this book remix. I mean, this is not a new book. It’s probably about a decade old now, maybe more. But Janine and Brian’s first effort is not just a favorite of mine because I’m in it, although I am in it. No, but they really you know, exactly what they were discussing in this interview. You know, they are really talking about not just what a Black home looks like, but also what components go into it. What what what is the spirit of that home? What is the soul of that home? And not even in that colloquial, soulful kind of sense, although that’s relevant to, you know, the ways in which, you know, we decide to infuse history in our homes is not at all in like the way people are like, you know, have antiques or what have you. Our homes have meaning, too. And what I love so much about Jeanine and Bryan is that they have never divorced that from their design work. It’s never just a decor. It’s always imbued with like so much texture and history and relevance. And so I highly recommend. Thanks so much for joining us for this week’s episode of Writing Black. As always, you can find us on theGrio app or wherever you find your podcasts.
[00:43:03] Introducing Dear Culture with Panama Jackson on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Bring your friends for the shenanigans and stay for the edutainment. As Panama Debates Culture Wars, Janet Jackson versus Michael, Blackfessions, Blackmendations and everything Black. Listen today on theGrio mobile app for all the Black culture conversations you don’t want to miss. Also available wherever great podcasts are heard.
[00:43:31] theGrio Black Podcast Network is here, and it’s everything you’ve been waiting for. News, talk, entertainment, sports and today’s issues all from the Black perspective. Ready for real talk and Black culture amplify. Be Inspired. Listen to new and established voices now on theGrio Black Podcast Network. Listen today on theGrio Mobile App and tune in everywhere great podcast are heard.
