David Dark's Whisper Campaign

Family, friends, lurkers, and children of the revolution. This is one of my more brazenly self-promotional posts. But…I’m bold enough to believe that this book isn’t just about me. I…honestly believe reading, sharing, discussing, talking up, and/or disagreeing with this book is doing oneself and others a solid. I might be wrong. But maybe Axl Rose was right the first time when he offered this counsel: Use your illusion.

We Become What We Normalize is now out in the wild. You’re doing me a favor when you spread news of its existence. Please do that. There’s buying it and talking about it in your context. There’s reviewing it. There’s also ordering it through your library or even telling someone they’ll probably hate it. There’s reading it in public. There’s sharing quotes on the socials. There’s talking a photograph of the thing and posting it on God’s internet.

And listen: If you live in the beautiful state of Tennessee, you might be in it. I’m serious. I speak very specifically about myself and others and what we’re putting each other through…in…the…book.

Maria Browning interviewed me for Chapter 16. This will appear in this week’s issue of the Nashville Scene. I love the questions she put to me and the words her questions brought out of me. Please consider sharing it with anyone you imagine might make something of it. Here’s a favorite part:

I say there’s more than one way to give voice to what bothers you. Mother Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, is said to have said, “Every force evolves a form.” Sit with the feelings, feel their force, give them a form. During Nashville’s lunch counter sit-ins, there were those who found themselves constitutionally incapable of nonviolent actions that would involve being arrested and physically assaulted. They engaged in other ways: making phone calls, offering support, writing letters, scheduling meetings. There are so many ways to bear witness, so many ways to access and even enjoy our own moral power, so many ways to not give in to fear.

I’m also overjoyed with the words my friend and sometimes-mentor, Byron Borger, of Hearts and Minds Bookstore recently voiced in support of my latest. Here’s a snippet:

Without a hint of condescension, he invites us in. Controversial as some of his views may be to some readers, his tone is utterly honest and utterly hospitable. His radical commitments to nonviolence just seep through into his writing style, generous and gracious even as he offers firm rebukes, mostly to himself.

I hit the road this week. If your environs aren’t on this schedule, put me in touch with a bookstore or someone at an institution that hosts these kinds of things and we can talk about getting me closer to you. In fact, that’s my answer to the question: “When are you coming to _________?” You talking someone else into wanting me around is how this works. I speak from experience.

November 6, Square Books, (with John T. Edge) Oxford, MS

November 9, Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, KY

November 10, Parnassus (with Bonnie Smith Whitehouse) Nashville, TN

November 12, Union Ave Books, Knoxville, TN

November 14, Two Dollar Radio Headquarters (with Hanif Abdurraqib) Columbus, OH

November 17, Mac’s Backs, Cleveland Heights, OH

November 19, Novel., Memphis, TN

November 25, Lowry’s Books and Huss Project, Three Rivers, MI

People, tell your people.

Special thanks to all who’ve reached out in recent years to encourage me to keep doing what I’m doing. It helps.