Tomi Adeyemi Calls Her New Book ‘Black Panther With Magic’
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.6 • 924 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2018
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
Tomi Adeyemi is the 24-year-old author of 'Children of Blood and Bone,' a new young adult novel that — in terms of pop culture blockbusters — could be on par with 'The Hunger Games' or 'Harry Potter.' The book, the first in a West African-inspired fantasy series, hit shelves earlier this month — more than a year after the movie rights were picked up by Fox 2000.
Adeyemi tells Nerdette that part of her motivation to write the book stemmed from racist reactions to 'The Hunger Games' movies.
“There were people online being like, ‘Why’d they make Rue and Cinna black? Why’d they make all the good characters black? It wasn’t sad when Rue was speared to death because she was black,’” Adeyemi says. “Seeing that level of racism applied in a fictional world heightened it for me. Because yes, The Hunger Games isn’t real, but the fact that someone could feel that strongly and have that much hatred for something that isn’t even real? I’m like, if that’s what you feel for fake things, then what do you feel about me?”
Adeyemi talks with Nerdette host Greta Johnsen and special guest-host Jenn White (of WBEZ's Making Obama and Making Oprah podcasts) about how she came to write a fantasy novel that simultaneously depicted the modern black experience.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still |
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| 0:12.7 | soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making, |
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| 0:25.7 | Join me as I share how the genre began, their social impact, and why these stories endure. |
| 0:28.3 | Listen wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:35.0 | From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Greta Johnson. |
| 0:38.5 | And with us this week, sitting in for Trisha Bolbe, we have a very special guest host, Jen White. Welcome. Hello. I am so excited that |
| 0:44.9 | you are here with us today. I'm so excited to be here. So a lot of you may know Jen White as |
| 0:50.1 | the host of our making podcasts here on WBEZ. we've got Making Oprah and Making Obama. These are both |
| 0:56.3 | super awesome stories about amazing Chicago humans. Whose names start with O. Yeah. So who are you |
| 1:03.3 | going to do next? Have you thought about it? Oh, we've got idea. No, I have no idea. I'm not a clue. |
| 1:07.7 | Not a clue. And Jen, you are also like a legit nerd in your own rich. I am. I'm a huge nerd. I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy pretty voraciously. My older siblings were into it. And so they passed it down to me. And so I was like, this is a little embarrassing. I was the kid sitting in my room reading, you know, I don't know, Pierce Anthony and listening to Andreas Vallinviter. |
| 1:33.1 | Wow. |
| 1:33.6 | You know, like, soundtracking my reading experience. |
| 1:40.3 | This was the soundtrack to like my reading. |
| 1:44.5 | I live in the land of Zanth, which is distinct from Mundania, |
| 1:49.2 | and that there is magic in Sand and none in Mundania. |
| 1:52.8 | Everyone in Sand has his own magic talent. |
| 1:55.9 | No two are the same. |
| 1:57.6 | But in Mundania, no one does magic, so it's very dull. |
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