The Magic of Pride with Ibi Zoboi

THE MAGIC OF PRIDE

Interview by Gillian St. Clair Written by Kelsey Bjork

Stories are magical. They take readers to new worlds where they can meet interesting people from all walks of life. That is why when a reader finishes a story it can be difficult to say goodbye. Luckily, not all stories end on the last page. Instead, they get retold by others, but with a twist. That is what author Ibi Zoboi has done with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Featuring all characters of color and set in Brooklyn, Pride is still very much its own story despite being a retelling. The protagonist, Zuri Benitez, has her world shaken up when a wealthy family, the Darcy’s, move in across the street. But that is not the only change Zuri is going through; she is also dealing with the gentrification of her neighborhood as well as a looming deadline for college applications.

Zoboi herself went to college as well; she has an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also a graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop which she will teaching at next year. This program lasts six weeks and prepares its students for writing careers in science fiction and fantasy. “CW is where I starting honing my craft,” Zoboi said, “so I’m immensely grateful to be back as an instructor.”

Zoboi identifies as a sci-fi/fantasy author, and that has not changed with her upcoming novel. Just as she included elements of magic in her first novel, American Street, she does so in Pride as well. “It’s the magic of first love,” Zoboi said.

“The landlady, Madrina, is a Santeria priestess. She honors Ochún, the orisha of love. It’s a love story, so I had to include a love goddess! A turning point in the story is when Zuri dances for Ochún. If you’re familiar with this tradition, then you know that a dance is an offering of sorts. If there was some hesitation or ambiguity before, then a dance offering will seal the deal. This is slight magic, but that’s what makes it real for me.”

Along with magic, Zoboi also included spirituality. This is an element that she loves to include in all of her stories, and she greatly appreciates it when other authors of YA books do so as well. She said that the “spirituality for my characters takes the shape of magic in my stories.”

“My Caribbean characters have their own traditional values and these are the cultural details I include in my stories. Fabiola is Haitian, therefore she practices the Vodou

tradition, In Pride, Madrina the landlady, is old school Puerto Rican and she practices Santeria. These faiths are part of who my characters are. Including spirituality simply adds layers to their cultural backgrounds.” In turn, of course, this helps make her characters feel more real.

Another way in which Zoboi was able to make her story feel more authentic was by incorporating her own background. Pride takes place in a neighborhood in Brooklyn called Bushwick, and although Zoboi did not live there as a teenager, she

said that she is “a New York through and through.”

“I know what it feels like to sit on a front stoop and there’s a cute boy across the street or down the block. There’s an art to sitting on steps in a certain way so that you’re seen and you look cute,” Zoboi said. “As a teen, my friends and I would walk to the corner store just to be able to run into cute guys. I remember walks around the block and train rides. First dates were in and around the neighborhood. New York is very walkable so there was lots of walking and talking. The whole neighborhood would know who was messing with who.”

But Zoboi has not lived in America her entire life. Just like her character Fabiola in American Street, she too is a Haitian

immigrant. And in 2009, she was able to create The Daughters of Anacaona Writing Project (DAWP) which she did from 2009-2014. This creative writing program for teen girls lasted during the summer and involved an exchange program between Haitian girls and Caribbean girls who were in Brooklyn.

After the earthquake in Haiti, Zoboi said that despite the circumstances, the Haitian girls remained positive. Instead of discussing the disaster, they chose to focus on their love for their country.

“The teen girls in Haiti had so much love for their culture. They had so much to say about Haitian food, music, language. I grew up always hearing about the negative things happening in Haiti, from the news and my own family,” Zoboi said. “It

was so refreshing to be in Haiti and hear how young people loved their country even after facing so much tragedy.” The impact these girls made on Zoboi can be seen in her work. Her character Zuri has the same positive attitude and love for her culture. “This pride is also part of Zuri’s resilience. She’s witnessing the changes happening in her neighborhood, and since poetry is her creative outlet, she documents her love for everything from the ‘boys in the hood’ to her landlady, Madrina.”

She went on to say, “I’ve worked with teen girls for over fifteen years, and when given the opportunity to write their truths, they always gush about their family, cultural foods, their neighborhood, their race, and their nationality. Zuri is a reflection of those girls--lots of resilience, pride, and love for where they come from.”

An interesting fact about Zoboi is that Ibi Zoboi is not her birth name. She actually chose to change it when she became a writer. “I started my writing life as both a journalist and a spoken word poet. Way back then, everybody had a stage name

much like the poets of the Black Arts Movement. Amiri Baraka was Leroi Jones. Ntozake Shange was Paulette Williams, and even Toni Morrison was Chloe Wofford. I personally was continuing in the tradition of Black writers,” Zoboi said.

“I loosely translated my very French first and last names into similar words in the Yoruba Language. My current last name is my husband’s Liberian last name. Some people think it’s French, as in Dubois, but it’s from the Loma people of Liberia.”

Zoboi has a blog, and in it she once discussed the necessity of “decolonizing the imagination.” Groups of people can be influenced to view themselves in a negative way due to racism and other means. Zoboi’s phrase is referring to the idea of changing negative mindsets that unconsciously influence the way people look at themselves and others.

She discussed the ways in which people can adopt this idea and why it is important that others do this as well. “To me, decolonizing the imagination is a long process. Proclaiming this phrase means that I recognize that even my imagination has been usurped by another culture.”

“For example,” Zoboi continued, “I know that even black writers can create problematic black characters and ideas. We’ve been indoctrinated to view even ourselves in a certain light. So I have to do the work of constantly checking myself and my work for dehumanizing content. Part of the colonization process involved separating people from their traditions and memories. For Haitian, Vodou has been bastardized in the media and this is a result

of colonization.”

That is why Zoboi believes it is important that she and others help bring to light what is real. “My job as an artist is to humanize my people, make our stories and truths whole again. I also have to dig for old truths that have been buried. Currently, I’m thinking about our way of telling stories and how I can include these traditions in my novels--lyricism, symbolism, nuanced characterization. It’s constant work and it shifts with each new project. In my personal life, I’ve already decolonized on so many levels.”

Zoboi’s writing process is heavily influenced by her background in oral storytelling tradition. “My books come to me aloud, as music, as lyrics. I have to hear the feeling of a story first. The written part of the story is the very last step. First, it’s sound, then feeling, then words on the screen.”

Although this is Zoboi’s second novel, she is not fully ready to discuss what she has learned from her journey so far. “I’ll have lots to share about my debut experiences in the future. But I’ll let those memories simmer a bit. I’m still learning from them.” She did, however, go on to talk about success and the way it means something different to everyone.

“Some people want shiny things--the visible markers of success. My successes have been in the background, those incredibly magical moments that I can’t and won’t share on social media; those moments that let me know that I’m on the right track and there’s a greater purpose slowly unfolding.”

At the end of the interview, Zoboi had this final message to give: “I hope readers and fans seek more depth and more nuance in everything that they do. Peel away at layers, ask big and small questions. Look for deeper meanings in everything. Personally, that’s what keeps me hopeful and enthusiastic. I live and create as if magic lives beneath every surface and around every corner.”

If you would like to discover the magic in Pride, you can get it on September 18! Links to where the book is available can be found here. If you would like to read more about Zoboi or follow her on social media, check out her website!

TWITTER: @ibizoboi WEBSITE: ibizoboi.net INSTAGRAM: @ibizoboi