Louis Chude-Sokei | Floating Between Worlds
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2021
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Born in the short-lived West African country of Biafra, Louis Chude-Sokei and his mom fled the country during the war that would take the life of his father, a figure of such great reverence in the country that it would create a set of expectations about who Louis was and should be that would follow him well into his adult life. Landing first in Jamaica, where his mother was from, then eventually making their way through DC, to LA, he spent his life, as the line from the Bowie song, Space Oddity, goes, “floating in a most peculiar way.”
That song, in fact, has been a bit of a lifelong obsession for Louis, along with Bowie and his music and, in fact, it’s the name of his moving new memoir, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way (https://amzn.to/36NqRZh), his evolving exploration of everything from identity and race to science fiction and music. Louis is now Professor of English at Boston University where he directs the African American Studies Program. He is also the author of influential and award-winning scholarly work and his writing appears in national and international venues, and he is the Editor in Chief of The Black Scholar, the premier journal of Black Studies in America.
You can find Louis Chude-Sokei at:
Website : https://www.bu.edu/afam/profile/louis-chude-sokei/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So born in the short-lived West African country of Biophrah, Lewis Chodosuki and his mom fled |
| 0:11.8 | the country during the war that would take the life of his father, who was also a figure |
| 0:16.1 | of great reverence and prominence in the country, and it would create a set of expectations |
| 0:22.0 | about who Lewis was and should be that would end up following him well into his adult |
| 0:28.3 | life, landing first in Jamaica where his mother was actually from, and then eventually |
| 0:33.0 | making their way through DC to LA, he spent his life as the line from the Boiseong |
| 0:38.6 | space out of the goes, floating in a most peculiar way. |
| 0:43.2 | And that song in fact has been a bit of a lifelong obsession for Lewis, along with Boise |
| 0:48.1 | and his music, and in fact, it's the name of his really moving new memoir about this |
| 0:53.1 | evolving exploration of everything from identity and race, science fiction and music. |
| 0:59.1 | Lewis is now a professor of English at Boston University where he directs the African |
| 1:03.2 | American Studies program. |
| 1:04.9 | He's also the author of influential and award-winning scholarly work and his writing appears in international |
| 1:11.0 | and national venues and he's the editor-in-chief of the Black Scholar, the premier journal |
| 1:16.3 | of Black Studies in America. |
| 1:18.1 | So excited to dive deep into this conversation with him and share it with you. |
| 1:23.2 | I'm Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project. |
| 1:34.8 | So you and I both share what sounds like a lifelong obsession with the same song. |
| 1:41.2 | Which one? |
| 1:42.2 | Bowie's Space Audity. |
| 1:43.2 | I thought it was that, but I wanted to confirm. |
| 1:46.2 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which clearly, you know, you've pulled the line from it to name |
... |
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