Teaching 11 Regents, Shakespeare, AP Language & Composition

Tim Tyson recently sent me a copy of an interview he’d done for J.F. Webb High School (in Oxford, North Carolina) which publishes COLLAGE, a literary magazine much like North’s Epiphany.  He very kindly gave me permission to post an excerpt here.  I’m including the section where he discusses the movie version of Blood Done Sign My Name, but if you would like to read the interview in its entirety, follow the jump after the excerpt:

A little birdie told me that Blood Done Sign My Name is going to be made into a major motion picture. . . . Who are the people that are currently set to work on the movie? (Director, producers, are there any actors named yet?)***We are shooting the movie now, from May 5 to June 20, 2008, in Shelby, North Carolina.  There are also scenes in Gastonia, Statesville, and Charlotte.   The screenwriter and director, Jeb Stuart, also did “The Fugitive,” with Harrison Ford, and “Die Hard,” with Bruce Willis.  We have a full cast.  The young African American actors on this film are remarkable.  Nate Parker plays Ben Chavis,  Darren Henson does Eddie McCoy, and Afemo Omilami makes a fantastic Golden Frinks.  Rick Shroder plays my father.  Mary Williams, my favorite gospel singer, plays Roberta Chavis.  Susan Wagner is my mother.  A terrific young actor named Gattlin Griffiths performs as the young Tim Tyson.  He’s a lot smarter than I ever was.

How much are they allowing you to work on the movie?***I advised Jeb Stuart on the script, consulted on the casting, and I am spending as much time as possible on the set.  My father has been a great acting coach and consultant.  Eddie McCoy is a technical advisor.  I am doing everything from helping with the language to handing out fresh strawberries to the crew.  It is fascinating in every way.

The whole interview follows, and is highly recommended reading for the writers among us!

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 I’m delighted to welcome Timothy Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name and professor of Afro-American Studies at NCU Chapel Hill,  to our AP Language and Composition classroom.  I am grateful indeed that Dr. Tyson has agreed to speak with us, and I hope that our discussion of his book is the first of many discussions with contemporary writers.  It’s a privilege to have you here as our guest, Professor.

Dr. Tyson suggests that we begin by posing our questions to him and go from there.  For now, we can ask questions in comments to this post; if we find we need another post we can add one.  I recommend that when composing questions we think about Blood in terms of language, structure, content, and process.  For example, and to jump right in, my first questions are about structure:

1. Many works begin with an Author’s Note and/or a Forward.  Your Author’s Note is placed at the end of the work, so that readers are immediately confronted with your first chapter.  What made you decide to organize it this way?
2. In your Author’s Note you refer to Blood as “both memoir and history” (323).  We’ve talked in class about your choices of chronology when interweaving personal memory with historical events.  For instance, on p. 4 you leave your young self asleep in bed and travel both geographically (to downtown Oxford) and chronologically (”years later”). After a thorough description of the night’s events, you return to young Tim in time to walk with Boo to school.  How did you decide when to leave the straight narrative of your own experience, and when to return?