Interview on the Parker Edison Project

I was really delighted to appear on the Parker Edison Project, where Parker and I discussed my book TITAN, books that influenced me at a young age, the music that appears in the story, and weaving history and current events into the book.

Doing this interview was honestly quite emotional for me, Parker is literally my oldest friend, someone I met when I was maybe 10 years old, painfully shy and awkward, and definitely not fitting in to my elementary school. As I mention in the interview, he ended up becoming my “slightly older, but definitely much cooler brother” and he had a major influence on my early development as a creator and thinker… He was a super creative guy himself, loved film and music (he turned me on to everything from The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Spike Lee to De La Soul and Guns N Roses), and was the first person I can remember making up stories with me, always encouraging my passion to create narratives and art.

Parker and I fell out of touch when we went to different middle schools and drifted into different social circles, and in the pre-internet days when you lost contact it was hard to find someone again! But we finally reconnected a couple years back, and it was awesome to get to talk again and catch up on all the things that had happened to us in the last 30 years or so.

I was stoked (but not at all surprised) to learn Parker had been very busy on his own creative journey, finding a ton of success as a rapper in groups like Parker and the Numberman and Parker Meridien. Last year he launched his podcast the Parker Edison Project on KPBS and I’ve been a fan from the jump. He focuses on the culture of my home town of San Diego, and he approaches it thru the lived experience of Black America, but his voracious appetite for culture, history, and style knows no bounds, and he’s covered everything from the role natural spaces play in our lives to the underground history of cross-border radio. It’s always so cool to see a friend doing what they love, but there’s something extra special when you really, truly dig their work and what they are doing. After you check out the interview above (which is part of a great episode dedicated to authorship and books, featuring author Q.J. Zephyr, playwright Miki Vale, and more), please take a peek thru Parker’s back catalog as well, I think you’ll definitely dig it!