Yé Moun La! Today, I’m switching things up a little bit with a special discussion. I thought it would be interesting to look at what’s going on in the Black romance community in the United States. I invited author Tati Richardson (Romance in colour Podcast) who just released her debut novel “The Build up”. She will give us her insight on the Black romance landscape in the US, the diversity her book brings to the Black romance narrative, and how being involved in a community is important. The last part of our discussion was about the cultural diversity behind the word Blackness. I hope you will enjoy this conversation.
0:00 – 3:07: opening credits + intro
3:08 – 5:20: Tati Richardson’s self introduction + the first reactions about her debut novel “The Build Up”
5:21 – 9:35: the challenges in writing a dual POV
9:36 – 13:49: writing romance with characters in their 40’s
13:50 – 15:35: how to keep podcasting book reviews while being an author
15:36 – 17:25: how podcasting helps growing the romance community
17:26 – 20:52: the evolution of the Black romance (authors) community in the past 5 years
20:53 – 23:34: her take on the similarities between Black romance and Caribbean romance
23:35 – 26:17: the French Black romance issues
26:18 – 30:47: Tati’s publishing journey
30:48 – 35:19: how she handles her promo campaign
35:20 – 37:49: her upcoming projects (Lost in the Stack, a Georgia Tech podcast)
37:50 – 42:29: why US Black romance romanticizes France
42:30 – 45:11: brief history of Creole people in the US
45:12 – 47:59: what it’s like to be a Black Caribbean person
48:00 – 51:31: the invisibility of Black people in French TV shows
51:32 – 53:32: the parallel between the Black experience in France and the Black experience in the US
53:33 – 54:50: the lack of diversity in Black representation today
54:51 – 56:11 : how Caribbean films help me define myself
56:12 – 57:39: outro + bloopers
Episode recorded on April 30th 2023.
Tim Tim? Bwa Fik! 