We caught up with the brilliant and insightful T Lyons a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
T, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I have worked on was revisiting my family history as an adult. I connected traditions and wisdom from my family to the larger scope of history, therefore deepening my appreciation of struggle, sacrifice and achievements.
As time moves us further away from sensibilities that were once assumed, building a body of work through prose, plays, and short dissertations brings enlightened relief to people who remember and essential knowledge to younger citizens.
I began to piece stories together from the dinner table in a simple pursuit for relief from daily monotony. Our culture, for me, had become homogenous from television to music to the pain of one-dimensional coworker interaction. There was no depth. I remember how people in my family and their friends sat around the table and truly enjoyed a meal and one another. They gathered around the piano, they put records on the hi-fi. I remember how they supported and convicted one another through all kinds of good and hard times. This evolved into a project that became my first book, Let me Tell You What Mama Said.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I got into the craft to enlighten myself on relevant history and to keep myself grounded when I was forced to face absurdities that daily life brings. I internalized Mother Wit and sage seasoned humor to keep practical sense alive. My craft developed when I realized there was a hunger, especially from our young people, for clarity about why things are the way they are, why, after so many movements and protests we’re still fighting the same battles. Where’s the hope?
My craft later developed onto the theater stage. I bring our ancestors to life. I give their difficulties a voice and tie their struggle into ours keeping them relevant. I developed prose and plays from this concept.
I fill in the gaps about people and events that are absent in popular discourse because we tend to recycle the same information over and again.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Books that document the raw edge of historical events are being banned. The scope of what is allowed in schools and libraries has narrowed. Therefore, we’re on track to a level of ignorance, or at least oblivion that is sanctioned and promoted. It leaves everyone at a disadvantage and criminalizes those that may know better. The residue from the past will always persist. It contributes to our moral compass, capacity for empathy, and critical thought toward an equitable future.
My mission is to bring African Amercian history, women’s history, and joyful moments during difficult times to the stage all year long. Truth, conveyed with care, does not contribute to harm but manipulating or erasing it does.
Have you ever had to pivot?
My first pivot took place during the year 2000, Y2K. Everything was supposed collapse. It didn’t. People prepared for all kinds of disasters that never occurred. I watched how people believed almost everything they were told and without a thought, they complied. It was also when, at least according to me, some elements of everyday life didn’t make sense. Using good sense became problematic. Our culture lost something. I became bored. That’s when I began to read. I started reading James Baldwin. followed by Ralph Ellison, Howard Zinn and Richard Wright. These authors not only saved my life but changed it. I gained insight. They gave me the anchor I needed to survive the nonsense from corporate culture. I became more aware of insidious racism, sexism, and predatory pursuits that lie and steal money, minds and hope from everyday people.
My second pivot occurred when my parents became ill. As an only child I had no choice but to care for them as best I could. I reached a point where I had to choose between my job or my parents. They never put me second. My job would easily replace me before my chair cooled off, therefore, I did what was best for them, and for me. It was difficult losing them, seven months apart. Caring for them while embracing a new lease on life was a strained yet rich experience. I wrote a book about it; I Shall Not Want as a form of healing and to support others coping with madness and love at the same time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: terriniteowl
- Facebook: Terri niteowl Lyons
- Linkedin: Terri Lyons
Image Credits
Cleo Townsend