Talkin’ about Stompin’ at the Grand Terrace

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PB: Oh God, yeah. They were book people, and I was very privileged for that reason. I grew up surrounded by books. My mother read poetry out loud to my sister and me from real early on. I think that’s probably how it got into my ear.

DS: So when did your interest in poetry first manifest itself?

PB: I think it was sixth grade. One of my teachers got sick and had to take an extended medical leave. We had a substitute teacher who was this white guy. He was affable and nice to us. We thought it was a vacation of sorts because our mean black teacher was convalescing at home.

It was Halloween, and Halloween was always one of my important days because you got to dress up, go out after bedtime, and get candy. That was just magical for me. I mean, you were with your parents, but it was really cool to do that.

So the substitute teacher said, “OK, I want you guys to write a poem about Halloween.” So I went home and I wrote this poem and turned it in and didn’t hear anything about it. A couple of weeks later, he was passing these things out and I’d gotten a G, which is equivalent to a B, and I was real happy about that because my grades weren’t so great back then.

He said, “Can I see you after class?” And I said, “Sure.” He says, “Sit down. That’s a pretty good poem.” And I said, “Aw, yeah, I’m glad you like it.” And then he was talking more to me and he says, “You didn’t write that, did you?” And I said, “What? Yeah, yeah, I wrote this.”

I started trying to convince him that I really wrote this poem. It became a sort of standoff. He says, “Well, I’m not gonna flunk you or anything, but I don’t believe you wrote that.”

As I was walking out, I thought it was kind of weird, because I’d done a lot of other things, but cheating wasn’t my métier. But then it hit me. I said, “Damn, this must be pretty good if he thought I copied it out of a book.” That always stuck with me.

DS: Was there ever a moment where you remember thinking to yourself, “I’m going to be a writer”?

PB: I was 13 years old and I enthusiastically told my parents I was going to be a poet.

They were proud. The thing is, there was no community to support that kind of thing on the South Side of Chicago. It would have been better if my father had been a musician, as opposed to a writer, because there was much more of a community to lean on. Either you were in a band or you hung out in the clubs or you got with these guys who were teaching out of their storefronts or their apartments.

There was nothing like that for writing.

DS: What is it about the writing process that calls you?

PB: I can talk a lot. My students will tell you that. Go to RateMyProfessor.com: “He kind of goes off on tangents a lot.”

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