2.12: "Year of Yes" feat. Evette Dionne

Meet Evette Dionne, a black feminist culture writer, editor and scholar based in New York City. On today’s episode, we’re talking about Shonda Rhimes’s “Year of Yes,” a book both Evette and I both found both freeing and challenging. We dig into how we’re both wading through anxiety a la Shonda, and moments when Evette has said ‘YES!’ to herself, her writing, and her love. Speaking of love--if you’re loving this podcast, consider recommending it to your friend on the glow-up, or leave a review on iTunes. Whatcha reading? Show me using #bribooks on Instagram and following @bribookspod. Bribookspod.com 2:30 – Evette loves to write about pop culture and politics, and loves being a black woman. 3:35 – How Evette and I discovered “Year of Yes” 5:34 – “God can’t steer a parked car.” 7:51 – Evette on Shonda Rhimes’s bluntness about being fueled by anxiety: “She has a whole night dedicated to her work and people investing in her work. And she’s still able to admit she has anxiety. And it doesn’t cripple her. It wasn’t something that stopped her from achieving what she set out to do.” 8:08 - What does Evette need to say “yes” to in her life?? 10:30 – When Evette started writing, she was rejected…a lot. “I went through a year and a half where no one would accept anything I’d written.” How did move beyond? She leaned on her network and resources, something that for some of us is still all-too-hard to do. “Mentors, parents, people who said I could be a writer and asking, how do I go about making this happen?” 12:04 - “I realized that rejection was part of the process, and if I’m going to do this, I’m going to be a writer, I need to keep pitching.” 12:43 – Evette says you’re not an aspiring writer: “Either you write or you don’t.” 13:00 - Evette says yes to refusing to be silent: “My viral tweet shows how unsafe the internet is for black women.” 14:33 – “I am not...the first black woman to be harassed on the internet. 16:44 – Evette says yes to her love, and a quest for partnership a la Oprah and Shonda: “Why Shonda Rhime and Oprah’s convo about marriage is revolutionary.” 19:33 – Evette says yes to not having the answers: covering the Mike Brown verdict in the classroom: “How can I explain what happened in Ferguson to my students?” 25:00 – “That's the beautiful thing about life: you have multiple times to reinvent yourself and figure out your passion. Life’s short, but it’s actually really long. You have so much time to figure out what you want to do.” 28:15 – How being a schoolteacher taught Evette how to manage people 28:54 – Other People’s Podcasts and what Evette’s loving rn: “The Read”, “The Combat Jack Show,” “Complex” magazine, the writing of @ishmashfizzle, @MorganJerkins 30:13 – Evette couple’s fiction and nonfiction—I think I’ll start doing the same! 30:21 – Evette’s reading “Give Us the Ballot,” to explain how the voting rights act has been undermined since its very inception and gives a clearer image of what’s at stake; “Into the Go Slow” for strong, compelling fiction, and “Wild” because Cheryl Strayed MY GOODNESS. 32:30 – My OPP: “Dear Sugar” podcast featuring Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond. The podcast isn’t prescriptive. The hosts talk to experts and use their backgrounds in writing to get inside the minds of letter writers in need. 33:17 – We buried the lead—here’s how Evette and I met, thanks to the Glorious Glory Edim and “Well Read Black Girl.” If you’re loving this podcast, consider recommending it to your friend on the glow-up, or leave a review on iTunes. Whatcha reading? Show me using #bribooks on Instagram and following @bribookspod. Bribookspod.com

Meet Evette Dionne, a black feminist culture writer, editor and scholar based in New York City. On today’s episode, we’re talking about Shonda Rhimes’s “Year of Yes,” a book both Evette and I both found both freeing and challenging. We dig into how we’re both wading through anxiety a la Shonda, and moments when Evette has said ‘YES!’ to herself, her writing, and her love. Speaking of love--if you’re loving this podcast, consider recommending it to your friend on the glow-up, or leave a review on iTunes. Evette covers race and feminism through lens of pop culture, and in this epi, I ask a few questions about times she said yes to her writing: an instance when she was harassed on Twitter and how she said yes to fighting back; Evette says yes to not having the answers: covering the Mike Brown verdict in the classroom: “How can I explain what happened in Ferguson to my students?”; and Evette says yes to not having the answers: covering the Mike Brown verdict in the classroom: “How can I explain what happened in Ferguson to my students?”

1. Evette Says Yes To Not Being Silenced: A tweet about Muhammad Ali turned into an attempted hacking of Evette’s account? Why did Evette say yes to fighting back against the trolls? “I am not the first black woman to be harassed on the internet. They’re being harassed every day…. Some of it escalates to them feeling unsafe or if they have to leave the platform. I wanted to take that power back.

1. Evette Says Yes To Her Love: Shonda and Oprah’s chat inspired Evette to explore black women creating their own space to have a conversation about something different—to capture a quest for partnership. “Stedman has stuck by Oprah, and supported her and her career. And them not being married doesn’t negate the importance of that relationship. Oprah is a billionaire. She’s a self-made black woman, she champions other black women, and because she isn’t married all of that’s for naught? I simply don’t agree with that.”

1. Evette Says Yes To Not Having The Answers: I’m a St. Louis native, born and raised between Florissant, MO and Ferguson, MO. Evette said yes to the impossible question in the wake of Mike Brown’s killing and Darren Wilson being let off. How could she explain what happened in Ferguson to her students? “All of them were crestfallen and didn’t know how to move forward. I knew I had to be there to have the conversation. I knew I needed to be there.

So, what Does Evette need to say yes to next...? The process of writing a book. “The process of writing a book. Having something I can pick up and look at and give to my niece and my mother and my grandmother is something I know I need to do but I’m terrified of doing it.”