An Interview with Michael A Gonzales

By Invisible Woman

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Invisible Woman:  I know that you are pretty much a music writer, but what films have had the greatest impact in your life, both past and present? If you could write to the world about one film, what would it be?

MG: Films have always been a big part of my life as well as a part of my creative process. If I'm stuck while writing an article, short story or my novel, I'll put in a movie to get the juices flowing. Being a native New Yorker, directors Spike Lee, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese are my cinematic holy trinity. Still, I am a fan of many genres and styles. This might be cheating, but if I had to write to the world about TWO films they would be Annie Hall  and Mo' Better Blues—both New York stories that document the ups and down of being an artist in this crazy city of mine.

Invisible Woman: What book or other media form do you think would make a great Black film? Do you agree with the sentiment that a lot of the readers here have that Hollywood should start making films that are not specifically "Black," but all types of stories and subject matters that just happen to have a black cast?

MG: I read this cool book last year by Martha Southgate called Third Girl From the Left about three generations of women and their relation to movies; I'd love to see that. I would love if some cutting edge animator created a feature film based on the Parliament-Funkadelic album covers of Pedro Bell and Overton Lloyd. As much as I like the urban camp of Beat Street and Krush Groove, I'd love to see a film about hip-hop that was as powerful as Citizen Kane.

My good friend Barry Michael Cooper, who wrote New Jack City and Sugar Hill (see Stop Smiling Online), and I often have these discussions about where we want black film to go. Both of us are influenced by David Lynch, but don't bet on Hollywood ever investing in a Black director with that kind of bizarro vision.

Barry has been experimenting with film and different technologies, but I could only imagine what he could do with a few million dollars. I just wish Black filmmakers like AJ Fielder (who shot Daughters of the Dust and Crooklyn) and Malik Sayeed (director of photography on Clockers and Girl 6) were allowed to tell their stories too.

I had this crazy idea for a script about my family, but I'm sure if it was ever made it would be more like Martin Lawrence than Wes Anderson.

Invisible Woman: I have a pretty sizable amount of readership that are bloggers as well. Some of them aspire to be culture writers. What advice would you give them?

MG: My problem with some younger culture writers is that they limit themselves by not reading more, seeing different kinds of films or opening themselves up to different experiences. If you want to write about hip-hop and R&B, that's cool, but you should read up on jazz, old school soul, punk, etc. I'm not saying you should be an expert, but as a music writer you should know the difference between Monk, Miles and The Clash.

The cultural critics I admired when I was starting out, most noticeably Carol Cooper, Greg Tate, Nelson George, Barry Michael Cooper, Bell Hooks, Michele Wallace and Frank Owen all knew a little bit about a lot of things: old novels, films, paintings, poetry, art galleries and museums, playwrights and small theater, comic books, rock music, etc. It's all good to specialize, but don't be afraid to enrich your mind with something new. It can only make one a better writer.

Invisible Woman: I ask everyone this one question. A subject that comes up here quite often is the dissatisfaction with what "The Hollywood Machine" is producing in the way of Black Cinema. What, in your opinion, can the public at large do to change things?

MG: Yes, I agree. I'm not going to pick on anybody, but it seems that only certain kinds of Black films are made. Truthfully, the public is partially to blame, because when a different kind of Black film comes along, we don't support it. I'm not talking about the handful of folks on both coast, I'm talking about the rest of the country. As for the Hollywood machine, well, where do I begin. I've met Black folks involved in the Cali film world (lets not even talk about the inflated egos) and I'm not impressed. Creating for a certain audience is too easy, and I hope to one day see films based on the works of: J. California Cooper, John Edgar Wideman, Walter Mosley, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia Butler and others. There should be more to movies than black men in dresses.

Invisible Woman: Some of the readers have commented that many singers and especially rappers, are taking a lot of work from Black actors who have trained in the craft most of their lives. Some feel it is unfair, and these actors careers are languishing. What is your take on this?

MG: Well, this is a tricky question, because some singers and rappers are good actors. My only problem is when the actor is obviously a wack choice. Since Friday is one of my favorite films, I'm proud of the success of Ice Cube. And really, Method Man always plays himself, but that's cool—Cheese still lives as far as I'm concerned. But, thinking back to Nas in Belly or Q-Tip in She Hate Me, makes me very sleepy.

Invisible Woman:  What upcoming projects do you have popping up in the future?

MG: I'm working on a few things, but in August a collection of short stories about superheros of color is coming out. The book is called The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows (Tor Books). Edited by Cali crime writer Gary Phillips and Chris Chambers, the book feature a new fiction piece from me called "The Whores of Onyx City," and introduces my fly female superhero Sage Steele.

Ms. Steele is based in part on my fascination with blaxploitation queens Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson and Judy Pace; my personal soundtrack while writing the story was Cree Summer (Street Faerie), Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Martina Topley-Bird, Stephanie McKay ("Tell Like It Is"), J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Portishead. Needless to say, the story is funky and strange. Darker Mask also features powerful stories from Walter Mosley, L.A. Banks, Ann Nocenti Gar Anthony Haywood and Jerry Rodriguez.

Currently I have a cover story coming out in Uptown magazine about the cast of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," an upcoming Ne-Yo feature for Stop Smiling magazine and my wild styled South Bronx noir short story "boogie down inferno" has just been published in a Shannon Holmes ghetto-lit collection Hood 2 Hood.

Invisible Woman: Any thoughts and/or pop culture recommendations you would like to relay to the readers?

MG: My only thought is directed at those who want to writers. Me and my friend (and sometimes editor) Miles Marshall Lewis, like to proclaim, "Writers write." Which means, if you have a good idea you should write it instead of talking it. I know a lot of writers who talk a good game, but rarely produce. Of course we all need to pay bills, but don't wait for somebody to give you loot before you write screenplay, novel, short story or whatever...simply strive to be the best.

Source: Blackadelicpop and  Invisible-Cinema

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michael a. gonzales--Harlem native -- has written cover stories for Essence, Giant, Latina, XXL and Stop Smiling. A former writer-at-large for Vibe magazine, Gonzales has also been a staff writer for The Source, columnist for New York Press and a frequent contributor to the New York Daily News, the New York Post and NY Metro. He has also contributed articles to Spin, the Village Voice, Ego Trip, Trace and Entertainment Weekly. Gonzales co-wrote the book Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture (Random House, 1991).

Praised by writer/director Nelson George as “evidencing the mastery of detail required of a subject that is all about mastery of detail,” the book was a groundbreaking text in hip-hop literature.

Currently Michael A. Gonzales writes a regular music column called “On the Corner” for Popmatters.com  and has written liner-notes for reissue collections including The Hip-Hop Box Set, the O’Jays, the Gap Band, the Crusaders and Al Green. Having written for MTV and BET, he also served as a consultant to the Experience Music Project’s (Seattle) inaugural Hip-Hop/Rap exhibit. He also contributed the essay “From Rockin’ the House to Planet Rock” to their catalogue Crossroads (2000).

In addition, Gonzales’ essays have appeared in Best Sex Writing 2005 edited by Violet Blue (Cleis Press), Beats, Rhymes & Life edited by Kenji Jasper (Harlem Moon, 2007) and Best Sex Writing 2006 edited Felice Neaman and Frederique Delacoste (Cleis Press). A 1999 Code magazine feature on Prince was reprinted the following year in the landmark music criticism collection Rock and Roll is Here to Stay edited by William McKeen (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000). “My Father Named Me Prince” appeared alongside pop culture pieces by Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion and Lester Bangs.

Gonzales has published fiction in Brown Sugar 2: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction edited by Carol Taylor (Simon & Shuster, 2001), Bronx Biannual 2 edited by Miles Marshall Lewis (Akashic Books, 2007), Uptown magazine, Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract edited by Carol Taylor (Simon & Shuster, 2003) and the upcoming superheroes collection Darker Mask edited by Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers (Tor, 2008).

Gonzales’ short stories have also been published in France and England. Like Gypsy Rose Lee, Norman Mailer and Spike Lee before him, he lives in Brooklyn.