Actor Omar Epps Imagines Life After The Climate Crisis

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

The leading man from beloved films like “Love and Basketball” and “Higher Learning” has entered the world of Young Adult fiction to inspire today’s youth and their fight against climate change.

Since his breakout role in 1992 as Q in “Juice,” actor and producer Omar Epps has become known for portraying the scope of Black life on the big screen. He joins host Kai Wright to talk about his new co-authored novel, "Nubia: The Awakening", which imagines a New York City ravaged by climate disaster, and a group of teens who hope to save it. They talk about Epps’s inspiration for the book, his pivot from actor to author, and reflect on his career.

Companion listening for this episode:

The Climate Crisis Needs a New Gospel (11/21/2022)

Meet Dr. Katharine Hayhoe – a climate scientist who happens to be an evangelical Christian. The climate crisis was on the minds of many Americans as they voted in the midterms, and Hayhoe offers insight about what productive action looks like in the critical years to come. She says we need to spend less time wringing our hands, and more time connecting the climate to each others’ values.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Notes from America. I'm Kai Wright. Actor and producer Omar Epps has starred in some
0:14.3	foundational films in the canon of Black cinema. His breakout role in 1992's Juice, alongside
0:21.1	Tupac Shakur, was part of this remarkable moment in which hip-hop began migrating to the big screen.
0:28.1	And then his leading man role in Love and Basketball, about a decade later, that was a landmark
0:33.7	performance for a whole new generation. And now, while he is still, of course, making movies and
0:39.6	TV shows, he's got a project that is explicitly about touching yet another generation of young people.
0:46.3	He's co-authored a young adult book with writer Clarence Haynes that he hopes will inspire
0:51.4	today's youth in their fight against climate change. The book is called Nubia The Awakening.
0:57.6	It's set in a futuristic New York that has been ravaged by climate disaster and divided by
1:03.2	wealth and technology, but in which a group of young climate refugees learn they may have the
1:09.8	secret powers that could change everything. I spoke with Omar Epps recently about the book
1:15.5	and about his whole career as an artist. Omar Epps, thank you so much for taking time to join us
1:22.0	on the show today. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here, even though it's, you know,
1:26.4	virtual. Yeah, this is the world in which we live now. So as I understand it, this book has been
1:33.9	on your heart for a long time. What sparked your interest in this story? Yeah, I've had the idea
1:39.1	for over a decade and I wrote a memoir a few years back called From Father's to Fatherhood and I
1:46.2	was doing a book fest in Jacob Javison, New York and I saw hundreds of kids like literally running
1:53.6	to this one book for particular author and so the people that I was with, I was like, who's what's
1:59.9	going on? Like, because first of all, I was like, oh, kids still read and they were. Yeah, and I was
2:06.8	like, man, that's great. But who's that person? It's like, oh, you know, he's young. They don't
2:11.2	sign by rockstar. And I was like, oh, you know, this, the light book goes off like, hey, man,
2:16.8	even sitting on this concept for a while. You need to activate on it. And that's when I started
	...

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