The Baileyophile: Vol 2
On My Great Resignation & the Need for More Black Book Podcasts by Reggie Bailey
Last night Kathia asked me if I still read for fun. I replied barely. She seemed a bit saddened by that & asked me if there was a book I would like to read for fun with her (you're right, she is very kind). I told her I thought that would be fun & asked her which book she would like to read? She responded by beginning toย look around to see if anything would grab her attention. She mentioned that there was a book she remembered seeing recently that did grab her attention, but she just couldn't recall what it was. I tried asking if she remembered anything at all about the book; the color of the cover, a name, a tad bit from the synopsis, she said she had nothing.
Ultimately, a sweet idea to get me to read a bit more for pleasure turned into us watching a couple episodes of Swarm. Next time Kathia asks if I have been reading for fun I will say yes, because I am going to make the time for it.
Just like how, come hell or high water, I'm making time to talk to y'all every Tuesday in this space: The Baileyophile. This is Volume 2.
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A Note on My Great Resignation
Betting on yourself is risky & worth it. Risky because you could lose, worth it because you could win. In 2022, I joined what was called The Great Resignation because, all things considered, it was the best decision for me to make. An exercise in me betting on myself. A calculated bet considering all the thought that went into itโthe planning, the conversations, the consideration. It's something I was never raised to do by any means, but something that I raised myself to do.
The part of the story that you never hear about when we speak of betting on ourselves is the failure. The part where you did take this gamble, albeit calculated, but you still didn't accomplish the goal in the timeframe that you allotted yourself. The price that you have to payโvia lost time & moneyโthat you can barely afford, if at all.
There are two phrases that I think of all the time now that I find myself exactly where I am: 1. Rejection is like taxes, everyone has to pay the price of it & it's unavoidable. If you have plans to do anything that one might consider big &/or worthwhile, you are going to hear what I would argue is 100 no's before you hear a single yes. I argue this literally, because I have lived in Delaware for close to 15 years now & there is a company in Delaware that I have applied to, for various positions, over 120 times (this is no exaggeration) over the course of 8 years. I had a phone interview with said company recently & it went well, so much so that I was told I would be recommended for a 2nd interview at the end of the interview, but of the 120+ applications I've put in this is the first time I ever made it to a 2nd interview (one other time I had an in person interviewโI wasn't so confident after leaving that one. Then there was another time when I had a phone interview I thought I did well enough on that one, but it still amounted to nothing). It's exciting to be here, but it also shows that all that stuff they say about working twice as hard, being overqualified is true. I look back & wonder why I ever got this MBA now more than ever. Who you know matters way more than anything & the work/hands on experience matters second. I'm not sure where education falls on the scale of mattering because I've NEVER once had my extra degree, that was supposed to mean so much, mentioned, or even inquired about, during a job interview.
The second thing I always think of is "nobody cares, work harder." I could be like everyone else who acts like "I lifted myself from my bootstraps with absolutely nothing from no one, blah blah blah," but that's not exactly true, because I have had some help during this process & to erase my family, as in, my actual blood & Kathia, would be a shameful act, but that help, has only been able to get me so far. It's kept me a float, on a float, while the ship I was once on has drowned. All that remains is to continue constructing this new ship. It feels, for maybe the 3rd or 4th time, that I am almost done with its construction, but we all know how topsy turvy the journey to success is.
To build someone else a ship you have to not only build or buy your own, but have to have gotten to a space where you can affordโfinancially, physically, emotionallyโto build &/or buy + possibly gift a ship to someone else. This is why nobody cares. Not because they are heinous, but because they too are worried about themselves. I tend to chuckle to myself a bit when peers talk about how busy they are, because we are all busy, we are all occupied, if not overrun, with tasks that can be done at any given moment (so much so that there is a sense of guilt that I felt when Kathia & I chose to look at those episodes of Swarm). People tend to be good to the degree that they can affordโfinancially, emotionally, physicallyโ& a lot of us are so busy that helping others doesn't align with our budget. That's why I work harder. I know what I am able to do & have the time + energy to do, I know that everyone else is probably making sure that their ship is properly cared for &/or working towards building one that they can gift to someone else, who more than likely ain't me.
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We Need More Black Book Podcasts
In the fall of 2022 All Ways Black, run by the uber talented & uber inspiring Cree Myles, posted a graphic that has lived in my mind rent free since I saw it. The graphic is called Black Lit Podcasts You Should Be Following, & it included 8 podcasts that were Black & Lit(erary). Of course I was honored to see Books Are Pop Culture listed but that number, 8, was completely unacceptable, if not disappointing, especially when I think about the amount of dope readers & dope creators that we have in our community. All creatives have our wings & we do ourselves & our communities a disservice when we leave them sitting folded on our backs. It's time for us to take off & jump into Podcast Land & in large amounts.
There is this idea that there are a ton of Black podcasts & I'm sure there is no shortage of Black podcasts that talk about being Black in America from a personal, or pop culture perspective, but on the whole, there aren't enough Black podcastsโnot just from an empirical perspective, but even from a desirable perspective. Black listeners of podcasts want more podcasts from Black creators & they even want more niche podcasts from Black creators.
We are desired in our niche, because we know better than anyone the impact of our effortlessness. We know what happens when we take on a culture, in large amounts, with our full selves. We know how anything we anoint becomes pop culture. For books and the culture around it to reach its full potential we have to do more than read the books and talk about them, and book culture, in short form. We have to create longform content that people don't have to keep their phone unlocked or sit in front of a tv to consume. We have to hit the airwaves, using our skills honed from a rich history of oral storytelling, so we can make sure that our culture, criticism, effortlessness, enthusiasm, and exuberance are in the listener's headphones & accompanying them while they are out in the world handling business, working out at the gym, or cleaning up their homes. Physical books & in person events are the only parts of our culture where we should force our consumers to be stationaryโcontent creation outside of that should imitate audiobooks by being able to accompany any given journey.
Controlling your narrative & inspiring people through your narrative is never something that you should pass on, because it is irresponsible to do so. If you are Black & bookish then go to a studio or create your own by getting yourself a good mic, getting on Streamyard, Zoom, Riverside, Spotify for Podcasters, or whatever the case may be. Write down your topics, read up on them, come with talking points, record the episodes, book interesting guests (if you want guests on your show), promote like crazy, be on every platform, create a website, a newsletter, a Patreon (or whatever subscription service you prefer), some merch (I promise we'll get here y'all) & be consistent on all the platforms. It's not easy & there's never enough hours in a day, but it's worth it & there is a room for all of us inside the building of success.
The abundance that we can build in podcast land is going to benefit book culture as a whole & make it so more careers are created & lifestyles are funded. Remember what I was saying earlier, no one is coming to save us, so we gotta put in this work, there is no other option. Book Land is too white & as such, Literary Podcast Land is too white. We know what will happen if we wait for anyone else to change those numbers, so we owe it to ourselves & our community to do the work that will pay the dividends we seek.
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What Iโve been Entertained by That I Can Talk About
Y'all know that I have a goal to spend some time "reading for fun" based on the conversation I had with Kathia, so there still remains no books in this section that I can technically speak to, but I have had some fun enjoying some of the other things the vast & wide world of entertainment offers.
Abbott Elementary: It's always nice to see a community surprise you in the best way that it can when their backs are against the wall.
Bel-Air: I'm 1000% jacking the phrase "No Grit, No Grind, No Greatness." It's like saying "nobody cares, work harder," except it keeps it all internal.
BMF: Young Miami got so much flack for her acting in episode 7 of BMF's season 2, & sure, she wasn't exactly Viola Davis, but Lil Meech damn sure ain't Denzel Washington. They might have to just put some Clear Eyes in his eyes whenever he has to play sad, because the last two deaths he had to cry for on the show yielded zero tears & zero watchers convinced that he was actually sad. Big shouts to him always, I just advocate for criticism of bad acting to be distributed equally is all.
Ghost: The Power Universe is proof that there is a book out there for any TV viewer, because I always talk about this universe, especially Ghost, the continuation of the original Power series that starred Omari Hardwick, is the best hood novel I've ever watched. The most tasty nothing burger on the market. I can't get enough.
Ja Morant's Interview With Jalen Rose: You know young people are when they come across all the isms & ideologies that rule or world & try on a version of radicalism? You're thinking of how annoying &/or funny they are & how they make excellent targets for satire, right? Well, Ja Morant carried his PR & media talking points as badly as those young people carry their ideologies & isms before they become seasoned & lift the necessary weights. Shouts to Jalen Rose & his jet black hair, for giving Ja Morant the runway to make me laugh more than I should have at his "new & improved" media training. I'm looking forward to him getting back on the court & not having to speak about all this other nonsense so we can continue celebrating him the way we should be celebrating him.
NCAA March Madness: I didn't fill out any brackets & thank goodness I didn't because the Fairleigh Dickinson win over Purdue would have easily killed my perfect bracket. A team that spent 7 weeks as the #1 team in the country, who was widely considered to be the best player in the country, who is also 7'4", lost to the smallest team in the country, who barely squeaked into the tournament. Fairleigh Dickinson, to their credit, gave Florida Atlantic, the only other team alongside the Houston Cougars, another #1 seed, to win at least 30 regular season games, all they could handle before eventually bowing out. It was announced this morning, to the surprise of no one, that Fairleigh Dickinson's head coach, Tobin Anderson, would be leaving for a bigger opportunity. A 5 year deal had been finalized for him to become the head coach of Iona. That's a trend that's fun to see; the coach who goes on a run with a lower seeded team & ends up with a gig at a bigger school as a result of it.
Snowfall: I was telling Kathia how impressed I am by Damson Idris. I hope to see him in some films once this final season of Snowfall is over. Seeing him be himself recently on Jimmy Fallon in comparison to him playing Franklin on Snowfall showcased just how much work he is doing & talent he is exhibiting to be Franklin Saint.
Swarm: Dominique Fishback is doing the damn thing. She's so weird on this show, that I was ready to call her, as in Dominique & not Dre, the character she plays, weird. I'm three episodes in & look forward to hopefully finishing the rest by next week, so I can say more about this fascinatingly strange show. I'm also accusing Donald Glover & team of reading books. Yes, I know that's an honorable accusation to make. I make this accusation because this is the second series (the first was Atlanta) that made me think of specific books by Black authors that could have inspired the work depicted on screen. Atlanta, at times, made me think of various short story collections like Insurrections & The World Doesn't Require You while Swarm is making me think of My Sister, the Serial Killer. Ideas live very interesting lives, so they may not actually be reading books over there, but it sure looks like it.
The Tournament of Books: Art imitates life is how the old saying goes & one thing I always appreciate about this literary version of March Madness is that #1 seeds tend to go down early. This year we saw Cormac McCarthyโs The Passenger and Shehan Karunatilakaโs The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida go down early against Antoine Wilsonโs Mouth to Mouth & Alison Espachโs Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, respectively. This isnโt quite like Purdueโs loss to Fairleigh Dickinson, since these are more like the elite, beating the elite, but I am always curious to see just how far the literary #1 seeds will go. It was interesting to see Nightcrawling go up against Olga Dies Dreaming and win. Both of those are debut novels that I read & enjoyed. Nice to see Brendan Slocumb & The Violin Conspiracy still remaining in the tourney as well.
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I hope you had as much fun reading Volume 2 of the Baileyophile has I did writing it. I hope you are feeling energized and inspired and I look forward to your feedback.
If an interviewer does not mention your MBA, maybe you should. You could tell them how much more you bring to the table because of it, as well as the skill set you developed, which makes you more qualified for the position and enables you to โhit the ground runningโ (people at my job say this phrase all the time).
A while back, I had an interview for a lab supervisor position in a DNA testing lab. My MA is in Anthropology. One of the interviewers asked me what digging up dinosaurs has to do with DNA testing. I said I have no experience digging up dinosaurs. Another interviewer sitting next to him elbowed him and said โthatโs paleontology!โ I wasnโt going to be the one to tell him! Sometimes itโs really awkward when they bring up that second degree.๐