Today’s special guest writer is Audreyanna Garrett, MBA, MS (AKA AudriWrites), and we’re chatting about her memoir, I Don’t Respect Your Politics!
Bio:
Audreyanna Garrett is a 36-year-old poet, author, writer, social activist, and psychology enthusiast, from Houston, Texas. Audreyanna has been published for over 13 years with work in genres of self-help, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Audreyanna has experience as a ghost writer and has ghost written internationally recognized literary work.
Audreyanna currently contributes blog posts solely to AudriWritesDotCom, a psychology and self-help blog that creatively and/or poetically expresses the importance of establishing and maintaining healthy relationships that foster spirits of self-acceptance, growth and empowerment.
Audreyanna has received a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) in Dance, from Sam Houston, subsequently acquiring a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in Global Management, and Master of Science in Psychology. She is currently a Psychology PhD student.
Through Audreyanna’s work, her motivation to encourage, support, spread love and provoke conscious thought into the lives of many is very apparent.
The more I learn and grow, the more my readers get to learn and grow with me…
Please tell us about your current release.
I Don’t Respect Your Politics is a non-fiction book created to explain the lack of BLACK respect for American Politics, and aims to challenge the perception of all the wrongs we regard as “that’s just how it is” in America, while turning the light on conditioning, confronting irrational cultural ideals and white ignorance. I Don’t Respect Your Politics attempts to explain the impact of social, civil and political oppression on the Black psyche, through correlating systemic oppression, white privilege, respectability politics, injustice, racism, equality and equity. I Don’t Respect Your Politics hopes to challenge readers (and all engaged parties) to question their mindset and invoke desire to change the social construct of America for the better.
The ultimate goal is to provoke necessary conversations that encourage forward thinking and challenge individuals to reevaluate their moral compass.
In this book, I try to highlight the error in the concept of “The American Dream”. I want people to understand that in America, a large part of the American dreams is creating a world that may or may not be situated on truth. And from that, I hope people come to understand that, “The American Dream” is and has always been relative to individual ideals, no matter what it cost for others.
“Being Black in America means that any time we enter a room of white people, we have to act according to white social expectations in order to convince them that we are worthy of their courtesy, respect and consideration.” -excerpt from “I Don’t Respect Your Politics!
Excerpt from I Don’t Respect Your Politics!:
Besides obvious reasons, I believe that it is time for more Black and African Americans to share their stories and experiences of being Black in America. We have so many non-blacks trying to get us to buy into their ideals and provide us explanations for our experience, and so few non-blacks who are aware of and willing to empathize with our experiences. The greatest issue I have with America is the fact that we literally have the option to believe facts. We have the option to judge and disregard someone’s truth, which is fundamentally why we can’t really achieve social justice, equity and equality in this country.
“A country that refuses to acknowledge that freedom exists, only in the formality of civil liberties for “some”, is a blind country.
A country that refuses to acknowledge its lack of equity, is a poor country.
A country that allows those same civil liberties to be used as a weapon of support for racial attacks and murder without cause, is a damned country.”
What exciting story are you working on next?
Presently I am working on another memoir unofficially titled, “The Unemotional Guide to Emotions”. It is a work that assists with gaining an understanding that we are all emotional beings, and supports recognizing and processing emotions.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I honestly knew I was a writer my entire life. I actually began writing in the 4th or 5th grade, sharing my thoughts and feelings in journals. I relied heavily on writing to process emotions as a child and try to make sense out of the life that I endured. With writing being my best friend, I believed my writing ability to be a God given gift and not something that I much studied. But because I love to help others, writing isn’t the extent of who I am, so while I always believe that I will retire as a writer, I have too much other work to do in the community first. But undoubtedly writing supports every endeavor in my journey.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
Presently, I am writing full time, maintaining my blog, as well as developing my YouTube Channel (Life Advice with AudriWrites), all while studying in a Psychology Doctoral program. Should I return to work, which I hope to in the coming months, I will work in public service in some capacity.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I believe that because I identify as a poet first, a lot of my work embodies a poetic undertone. Blogs included. It’s quite interesting for me to read some of my blog posts while editing and come across poetic phrases, as it is never my intent. I’ve come to realize that as a writer, poetry is embedded in my literary voice…
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a child I can recall wanting to be a lawyer, not really sure why (in hindsight). If I had to guess, it would probably be because I am a great arguer and researcher, but I never really liked history or law much. Not only that, but I have always identified as a writer.
Links:
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Author | Facebook Book | Amazon
Thanks for joining me today, Audreyanna.