Q&A with Chyrel J. Jackson & Lyris D. Wallace
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Different Sides of the Same Coin is a modern and sassy collage of poetry as experienced from the black female perspective of two sisters and authors. This timeless collection of poems is refreshing and unique.
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In this poetic adaptation, Chyrel J. Jackson and Lyris D. Wallace attempt to navigate the pouring rains of life's conditions as they tell their tale in poetic contemporary modern verse reflecting on present day social and political events facing the black community.
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Q: When did you know you wanted to become a writer? What inspired that choice?
L: I knew I wanted to write in college. It was at the end of the ’80s, early '90s, and we as black people were experiencing a new renaissance: black films, black literature, and black music were all at their height. Spike Lee was really taking off and, I guess, he was my first inspiration, really showing that writing could be a real thing for me. Of course, I started trying to write films, which led to treatments for TV shows, which lead to short stories, etc. However, it wasn’t until I heard the poem “Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni that I got the bug for writing poems. When I heard that poem, it was like my life had just begun. I had never heard anything so beautiful, so rhythmic, so us! It literally changed my life.
Q: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
C: Trust your instincts, they’re never wrong.
L: Not to be afraid of all of the unfinished projects, just keep writing. Eventually, you come up with the one.
Q: Who are some authors that you admire and why?
C: All of the old vanguard black classic writers influenced us the most: James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Bell Hooks, Ntzoke Shange, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez.
L: I knew I wanted to write in college. It was at the end of the ’80s, early '90s, and we as black people were experiencing a new renaissance: black films, black literature, and black music were all at their height. Spike Lee was really taking off and, I guess, he was my first inspiration, really showing that writing could be a real thing for me. Of course, I started trying to write films, which led to treatments for TV shows, which lead to short stories, etc. However, it wasn’t until I heard the poem “Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni that I got the bug for writing poems. When I heard that poem, it was like my life had just begun. I had never heard anything so beautiful, so rhythmic, so us! It literally changed my life.
Q: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
C: Trust your instincts, they’re never wrong.
L: Not to be afraid of all of the unfinished projects, just keep writing. Eventually, you come up with the one.
Q: Who are some authors that you admire and why?
C: All of the old vanguard black classic writers influenced us the most: James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Bell Hooks, Ntzoke Shange, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez.
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Q: What is your favorite childhood book?
C: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Terri McMillian’s, Disappearing Acts. L: My favorite childhood book would be a fairy tale book my father purchased for me to encourage me to read. My favorite story in the book was Beauty and the Beast. Q: What’s a book that helped shape you as a writer? L: It would be Disappearing Acts, by Terry McMillan. I will never forget when my sister came home and told me about that book. That was the first time I actually read about people who looked and sounded like myself. When I was in school, we were made to read Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemmingway, etc. We were given books on slavery and civil rights. There’s nothing wrong with those books, but it was nice to read about everyday black people going about everyday living at that time. It wasn’t until I read that book and others that I learned to appreciate Charles Dickens, Hemmingway, and Jane Austin. As a matter of fact, Jane Austin is one of my favorite all-time writers. But it took reading James Baldwin, Terry McMillan, and Zora Neal Hurston first to appreciate Jane Austin’s style of writing. |
Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It’s about respect—what it can and can’t survive. And it’s about the safe and secret places that only love can find.
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Q: Have you always wanted to write poetry? What about poetry captures your attention?
L: It wasn’t until I started journaling that I discovered I could write poetry. I was going through some things in my life that I couldn’t understand. I felt like if I wrote them down, I could better understand myself as well as why those things were happening to me. When I went back and read my entries, they had a rhythm to them and I liked that, so I kept writing like that. That’s when I discovered that I could write poetry. You can say so much in poetry, you can document history, you can work out your fears and frustrations, you can paint pictures, and you can capture moments. In one poem you can tell your whole life’s story. C: Yes. The rhythm, topical subjects, and language of poetry. |
Q: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
L: Finding the inspiration. Sometimes, depending on what’s going on in my life, it’s hard to find inspiration and/or motivation.
C: Being concise, and brief in my writing.
L: Finding the inspiration. Sometimes, depending on what’s going on in my life, it’s hard to find inspiration and/or motivation.
C: Being concise, and brief in my writing.
What are you currently working on?
This time around, our third book is a chapbook. Our first two books were huge volumes of poetry. We want to show people that size isn’t an issue. Full, large volumes, or small, the content will always be true, unique, and based on our life experiences. -- Chyrel J. Jackson
What’s in your writing space?
A notebook and a Bic pen with blue ink and a cap. For some strange reason, I can not write without a Bic blue pen with a cap. If the cap is not on the pen, it doesn’t feel balanced and it throws me off. I don’t know why, it’s been that way since college. -- Lyris D. Wallace
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Chyrel J. Jackson and Lyris D. Wallace are avid lovers, readers and writers of African American Literature. They grew up in a Southern Suburb of Chicago, IL. Country Club Hills. As young girls they read Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Judy Blume novels. College was the real scholastic awakening introducing these two literary enthusiasts to the literary works of their great ancestors: James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and more.
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