Recently, 2 Pens & Lint's own, Henry Duncan, had a chance to ask Reggie Walker a few questions concerning his literary influences, his thoughts on Christianity, and his thoughts on the progress of black people.

Henry Duncan: Who is Reggie Walker?

Reggie Walker: Reggie Rashad Walker is just an ordinary individual that is finally ready to share his gift for writing with the world. Beside who I am as a writer, I work as an academic counselor in high education for a program that assists studentsfrom academically and financially disadvantaged backgrounds. Helping people accomplish their goals is what gives me a sense of purpose. In addition to counseling people, my writing has been a huge tool in helping me help people as well. I just want to be to others what my ancestors, family and mentors have been to me. I’m also an individual that loves to laugh, make others laugh and really enjoy life. Being positive and about something doesn’t have to equate to being boring. I also like to show people that you can be intelligent and cool, not one or the other.

HD: In your Bio you say your mentor is Doughty “Doc” Long. Who are your other literary influences?

RW: Of course poets and writers such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Zora Neal Hurston, but also contemporary writers such as Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. I also love the writings of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Flannery O’ Connor. Last, rappers are also literary influences of mine. Individuals like Nas and Common are just as much poets as they are rappers, so their lyrics serve as literature to me.

HD: In your poem Look How Far We’ve Come one could get the impression that you believe Black men as a whole have not made any significant progress since slavery. Do you feel that way?

RW: I think we’ve made gains financially and socially, without a doubt. But it terms of the key things that truly elevate and maintain a people, we have not. Kool Moe Dee said in the song Self Destruction, “I never ever ran from the Klu Klux Klan and I shouldn’t have to run from a black man, because that’s self destruction.” That’s the state where we find ourselves today. The lynch mobs of the Jim Crow era are our own brothers and sisters today. Whips and chains confined us then and sadly whips and chains confine us now.

HD: In the poem, The Revolution Needs Ratings you talk about broadcasting on practically every TV station. If you had 10 minutes to do just that, what would you say?

RW: I’ll say “give me more than 10 minutes.” I’m definitely going to need a good hour for my revolutionary address. Somebody is going to have to miss their favorite sitcom or TV show that night!

HD: In your Acknowledgments you claim Jesus as your Savior and your poetry has a strong sense of Afrocentrism. How do you reconcile being a Christian verses knowing the role Christianity played in the negative effects we see in Africa and to black people in America?

RW: I don’t believe Christianity has played a role in that. I think Christians in America have used Christianity as a tool of harm towards blacks, but I don’t confuse Christians with Christianity. Furthermore, there were Christians in African before there were Africans in America, based on the origin of the religion. There’s nothing in Christianity that pertains to racial superiority, though my grandmother always made it clear that the Jesus looked more like me than he did the portrait that society has accepted as Christ. Having had a strong Islamic and Christian influence in my upbringing, I always find is funny that people label one as a European Religion and the other as one more geared to blacks, when in fact their origins lie in the same place (Middle East/Northern Africa), they hold the same prophets (Christ being one of them), and share the same fundamental principles. I think people use religion for their own propaganda and agenda, and my criticism and issues aren’t with the religion, but of the people abusing it.

HD: Your title includes the term “Volume 1”. What are your plans for this series entitled Universal Thoughts of a Black Man?

RW: I plan on releasing three volumes, as there is a huge collection of poems that fit the theme and direction of what the chapbook is about. I want people to see how these thoughts, though coming from the mind of a young black man, are universal in that they speak on issues that will resonate with or educate people from all over, regardless of race, class and gender.