Make purchases. Well thank we want to thank dr. Jesus Jesse Esparza tsai. We want to thank cspan tv. We want to thank all of you. And the author will be available for for some conversation for just few minutes because we do have the next event thats coming in in 15 minutes. Lets give dr. Katz, a round of applause. Thank you. Thank. Kerry is a journalist and journalist and Editorial Board member with the san antonio expressnews, where he is the first black metro desk journalist. He has covered local and National News events and social for more than three decades. Hes the author of clowns and rats scare me and most recently just published more finish lines. Two cross notes on race, redemption, hope. He lives here in san antonio. Please join me in welcoming cary clack. I know the best part of this is that kerry is going to share some stories with us so well get to that. I think pretty quickly on and talk a little bit about whatever wherever you want to take it. But i thought i would just open with that kind of broad question that starts with today and reaches back. The new collection, which represents a period of your career, if you could kind of tell us how you you got to the point of of deciding nows time for a new book. Nows the time for a new collection, and then walk backwards a little bit with with whats kind of gotten you to this point in your different career trajectories. Well, thank you, tom. Thanks, everyone, for being here. I was really once i saw three days ago that i was the last session of the day. And i just wondered, many people were going to be here at 430. So thank for being here. First of all, i thank you for turning University Press for publishing both of those these collections. And you know, the first ones, clouds and rats, was published 15 years ago. And and that was 84 columns. And theres always more that i felt could have been in it. And then i left the paper for a lot for quite a while. And you know, after about four years, three years back, i just just a particular period of our history that i came back to the paper in time for cover it in time for george floyd in time for. The election. And youve vowed and ukraine and insurrection and it unlike the first collection this seemed like a more thematic and concentrated period of about of our nations history and. So i so i contacted go and see if yall would be interested in your work. So thank you very much. I want to get right to a particular that i had because it was a really powerful moment for me. As much as i think i know your reading it in the paper and having having heard you speak several times a few weeks ago, kerry was speaking at the texas folklife Folklife Society. I think its forgive me if im getting that wrong, which was having a statewide annual meeting here in texas and they invited kerry to speak and and and i knew it would be great whatever kerry was going to do. But kerry elected to reach for a piece in the book. One of the longer pieces in the book in which kerry really looks into his family. Family line back, back almost 200 years and. Said, share what you will about that piece, what that in particular. What stuck with me, though, was the central theme, which kind of easy to hear, but rarely warrants pausing and thinking about. And that is that idea of looking at this text not just described, but the Texas Folklore Society at the time. All the cowboy hats and then all the new young ideas and, leaders coming into the group and yet, like Many Organizations in a lot of change and you know, kerry, one of the real themes was that idea of your folklore, your folk history is not may not be my folklore. And my folk history and i want to ask you to just expand on that. And if i could append, put that in context of just your your daily, weekly writing and columns and to what degree that is a theme thats or thought thats in your mind when youre writing youre writing to an audience, you know you need to overtly or subtly, you know, remind them about that because its a really powerful message for us to all think about and live with. Yeah. And that it was about i think that particular column is what is what is heritage, if not truth, history. And it it ran june of 2020. Again after death of george floyd. And then we had this, this this day. Everyone calls it a racial reckoning, but an intense increase, efforts to bring down, you know, confederate statues and confederate symbols and, you know, you get i get tired of hearing the supporters of those of those symbols talk about oh, its its its part of our heritage. And its you know, its and so the point of the of the piece was that know thats its part of my heritage too is you know im you know im the descendant of of of the slave and the slave and the slave enslaved, you know, my great great great great grandfather, great my white great, great, great, great grandfather about my black great, great, great grandmother, 800 of us, and raped her, you know, because he older and so so whenever i hear them talk about heritage theyre talking about you know my white heritage but theyre not talking about my black heritage in that you know, talking about field cole, who was my great great uncle, who was also the last man killed by Wild Bill Hickok in a gunfight. But feel cole fight for the confederacy. But he fought for the confederacy to keep his his half brother. My great great grandfather dan enslaved. So that was just my my point of of the piece and it was interesting reading it to the texas Folklife Society conference because it was a unlike it was wasnt quite it wasnt diverse as this is this audience i think they may have been to the black members maybe three or four before latinos. It was predominantly white. And i knew that i was giving them a a story, a version of history that if theyre familiar with, they dont want to be as familiar with this as they should. And the thing about me talking about this issue is, you but you cant dispute me because its my family and, you know, i again, i am of the of the enslaved and i am of the slave holder. So you cant come at me with anything but as that relates to to daily write, you know, the columns, editorials that it depends the editorials and columns are different in that the editorials are the voice of the paper. And so the topics that i write editorials about, then maybe necessarily wouldnt write columns about, but in writing columns, the whole point of being able to have the privilege to write and to, and to be a journalist is you want to share something with folks. You want them to share understand something that initially of your own history but maybe a part of their cities or their or their state. The nations history that theyre not familiar with or nothing else to to give them Something Else to think about. And they may not agree with you, but maybe youve got into their minds to at least make them have some doubt about some preconceptions they may have had about any particularly issue. Extending that a little bit to the degree that youre working, you you, you do other other work, other writing, speaking to you work with the newspaper and a news platform. No doubt you. And you just kind of alluded to this and ive heard you talk about this a little bit before. You you think about what youre going to write and and part of that has to be kind of what your your hope or intention for what the reader would would take from it, get from it. Im curious to what degree the the the presumed reaction of the reader. It enters your mind as youre thinking of a story, envisioning a story, writing a story and not that youd not, theyd be a source of concern, but i wonder if you speculate like, how is this going to land it . How do i want it to land . Yeah, how could it land it . Everything i write doesnt everything i write starts with the assumption that no ones going to read it. Thats a seriously i, i will never assume that anyone is going to read anything that i write or that they something that i will you will never, ever hear me as you as someone else. Did you read this column that i wrote . Now were talking about a topic that ive written about. Thats one thing, but youre not going to hear me say, you know, did read that youre not going to, you know, hear, say, let me say, did you buy the book. But if you buy the book, youre not going to hear me say what did you read it . What did you what was your favorite one . Because i presume i assumed it anymore is going to read me because i just part that is my self esteem but part of it is yes. Its just just dont think like so im surprised when when people, when people read me now sometimes upon the topic they have assumptions that can be made about some of the reaction race guns. Issues like that and in one of the columns in the book i talk how in my previous life at the expressnews i would sometimes get allow the voices to get into my mind. The that were saying you write too much race even though i really didnt and maybe i wrote more about than and you know of my my my my colleagues but it wasnt all that i wrote about. And so sometimes i think i would get kind of intimidated and, and, and back off from that. I think the same thing many years ago with in writing about gun shows. I, you know, i woke far less about guns the first time around than i do now. And i think its because, you know, some of. Yes. Some of the reaction was, wow, you know you know, this is a maybe is not a public building, but you can just walk into the lobby and this is before we even had laws so you can walk the lobby should go and just some of the reaction that i would get from emails and letters it did kind of, you know, kind of slow my road a little bit, but its its dangerous to make to to make assumptions about how someone going to react to anything you wrote you write and there are times when ive written something, i just kind of felt that and its going to get slammed for just being bad and. For whatever reason, it resonates. And then there are some that i really thought were going to connect and they seem not to have. So its the problem with getting too caught in the presumptions of how people who react. What you write is that it keeps you from writing what it is that you feel you need to write what do you hear from readers and to the degree you do, are there other kind of common themes or is or is it is it warm and hugs. I dont hear as much as i as i as i used to. I dont. I think the times are different where like in the day you really encourage readers. We would have know not just our emails and voicemails, but we would have comment lines and and it was actually a department of paper that would print out the comments that people. Had for us. We kind of make it harder. I think, for for people to respond, which isnt necessarily bad. I probably also get less emails because i dont respond to the ones that are that the ones that do disagree with me, but the ones that are just going out of the way to be to troll me, to be nasty. And one of the things i said, you know, when we did the first event for this book at trinity was that there are certain names that pop up on my emails, my work emails in a column. So i automatically how much they hate what i wrote. And so i never read what they write because i and because i delete them else. But the thing is, they dont want to keep emailing me. So, so, so they continue to tweet me, but the nasty stuff, its not like it used to its not like it used to be. And again, part of because its not im not and in a way we said it is not im as accessible to be touched. The stuff back in the day was was incredible. There were times when i have i would get a particular voicemail and i would you know, i would have some colleagues come into the office, you know, just and play it for not because i wanted them to to feel bad for me at all i just wanted them to sometimes understand it. This is what i get in, what i want in. I do miss. And i wish i sometimes i do wish would get some of the the the really nasty stuff because i would i would take a particular or particular phone call and turn it into a column. I was always a satirical piece in which i was able to vent. I was able to get my stuff out because i had to respond to this, but at the same time kind of have of have fun with it. And one of things i especially up doing is when back in the day when we would be they would call and and you would know what the number was and you would call them back and they would always be three reactions. One is they never picked up the phone. The second is they they they pick it up. And now i was then the third thing is theyd be shocked that you call back and inevitably thered be a conversation and when the conversation ended, they may not have agreed with what i wrote, but because they were surprised that i called them back, they were these very nice and very kind to me. And because easy to take shots of someone who you who you dont know, someone you just see the name of the or their face in the newspaper. But when you actually have to have a you forced to have a even a 4 to 5 minute relationship to a conversation with them, then its harder to to demonize and and scapegoat than individual that sparks a thought in the moment, which is, you know, i dont want to put you on the spot, but if kerry is anything hes really good on his speech. So im not but forgive me if just throws you a little bit i am curious extending that, is there a particular moment or memory you have or even broader thought about about where your work is . Youre writing has resonated in a way that you felt you. You changed a mind or touched a heart, even if you even if they didnt say that to you, you could you could see it or sense that had i had had impact in that way just in calling someone back or having a conversation like that, it it would have been something about race because for whatever reason that tends to have been the, the, the more the issue that they would most spark someones eye and someones hatred and. I think i cant think of a particular topic but i do remember that in just talking to the and usually they were with me and they were white men, there would be some, some back, you know, of course, the thing that they would always come at me is, you know, you are racist, you are black races and you know, they it would be a lot of projection, but again, the fact that i actually took the time to to to talk to them and it didnt call names and then treated them with respect, i think it just made them pause little bit. And i mean, it doesnt mean it. I would never know if it changed them, but if anything, maybe theyd be a little bit slower. Next time. They, you know, pick up the phone and just think they could say anything they want and use every. Ethnic slurs they could think of. Well, last question about kind of the day to day at the paper. But im curious and i bet others are as well about. Just what are the white light heavy . Where are the where are ideas come from . And do they ruminate a long time or do you occasionally have that idea you just woke up that morning or like, im going write about that today, if im lucky, the the morning of the day, the column is, do i have an idea, you know, but it was it was a lot different when i when i was a columnist. And it becomes a week, you kind of got only this its just routine and i think so back to my colleague rick casey you know you finish former colleague with case you finish one column and you start thinking about the next one. You finish that. When you start thinking the other one. So you got into a routine with three a week, you felt i had this reflexive ability that i could you could range all over the place, be it in topic, be it in voice. Beardstown whereas with only one column a week is its like i really have to to to pick my spot and because i also do editorials in another colleague, Nancy Johnson you know all of you know, we all try to do a column week and two editorials a week. And so for me, i really dont start thinking seriously about the column until wednesday and my deadline is is noon thursday, but theres a process and it from just doing it a long time is there are days when i have no idea what im to write about and so ill go for a walk and what happens is that . Wherever the mood is on a particular morning, i may have this music in my head. Its kind of it could be kind of jazzy and upbeat and kind of hip hop. And that tells that even if i dont have a topic, i want the column to be something thats thats kind of it could be funny. It could be satirical, it could have a lot of attitude. Other mornings i, i could have this music in head. Its more like a slow song, like a ballad. And thats, i know that whatever the topic is going to be, i want it to be serious. A reflection. So so once i have the the musical score in my mind, then i start thinking about the topics and. Then i start thinking about whats going on in the news, whats going on in my life, what am i seen in my neighborhood. So i go from go from the musical score to the topic then once i have a topic, of course, then i can get to the to the words and to the lyrics. But a lot of times its, its, its the music will dictate where going to write about. I could have a i could. Dance there could be something that could be a topic that i know i have to write about i should write about, but maybe and this especially goes back again to when i was doing three a week, ive had that, you know, ive only had two or three or four columns in a row with that same tone, with that same voice. I need i need to change up. And thats one thing i have to say about the paper then and now, is that they always me the the flexible writing in the latitude to do pretty much i wanted. And when it came to topics and when it came to to a voice to to write and satire and writing and writing, they pretty much let me do what i want and let me experiment. You know, sometimes i would, you know, it was like, you know, writing a column sometimes its like, you know, being on that high wire and you fall off. Sometimes. They always allowed me to get up and to continue experiment and and and pretty much do what i wanted. So ive been its like theyve like a good hitter you dont want to mess with their swing. So they think they they never mess with my, my swing never mess with my with my voice. You up music. So im not going to turn it into a question but but i am i am wondering if you ever are working on a column in your mind while shopping at the almost part heb for those of you who follow him on on facebook or maybe other media ive often felt there should be a spotify cary clack almost part heb playlist. I mean, i know i want that playlist. Someone actually has created a youtube. I havent seen it all. Someone has created Youtube Playlist of the different songs mentioned that i hear enoki. I love it. I want to jump. Of course most folks know carrie, you grew up here in san antonio and so youve just just just as a a a native son. But but especially light of what you do, youve seen and observed and obviously thought about and shared a lot. And im curious that big or the larger the art kind of san antonio sure its grown a lot in size numbers and metrics but im curious just what would share about the evolution of san