In an interview with Kiese Laymon at the Chicago Humanities Festival, Laymon discusses the book with the interviewer in front of an audience. This interview was recorded as a video and posted on YouTube by the Chicago Humanities Festival account labeled Kiese Laymon: Heavy. Throughout the interview Laymon is asked specific questions that help the readers understand why he wrote the book, the style that he wrote the book in, who he is writing the book for, and the reason behind the book  being called Heavy. Kiese also talks about the rigorous process of writing the book because he had put his family and himself in a difficult position to be honest with the public. At some point he reads an excerpt from the book which was very emotional for him because it talks about him stealing food and his mom not questioning how he got it but thanking him for it. Based on his reaction in the video, I believe this was an important moment in the interview because we see the impact it has on him. I find this source to be extremely reliable because it is a primary source since Kiese, the author himself, is explaining the book. Since the interview is also shown on camera we see how he expresses himself talking about certain moments in the book which helps the audience see the authenticity of the book and the true emotion behind it. 

YouTube. (2018). Kiese Laymon: Heavy. YouTube. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm_lJD-Iybg. 

The source I used in this assignment was from the “National Public Radio” website where writer Martha Ann Toll wrote about Kiese Laymon’s book “Heavy”. The title of this review is called “‘Heavy’ Brilliantly Renders The Struggle to Become Fully Realized”. The genre of this source was a review of Kiese Laymon’s memoir. This source helped me grasp a better understanding on the book I intend to read for this class. The source summarizes most of the struggles Laymon has faced and has put in his book. It talks about growing up with a single mother who was obsessed in making her son highly educated and would beat him throughout his childhood. It also discusses Laymon’s struggle with being overweight at a young age. However most importantly it is about Laymon becoming a man and battling through racism and abuse during his life and using that as fuel to become a better writer. I trusted this sources reliability as it comes from a trusted website in the “NPR’. Also the author makes her own summary and even puts several excerpts from the book and elaborates on them with added knowledge.

Link: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657824190/heavy-brilliantly-renders-the-struggle-to-become-fully-realized

Toll, M. A. (2018, October 17). ‘Heavy’ brilliantly renders the struggle to become fully realized. NPR. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657824190/heavy-brilliantly-renders-the-struggle-to-become-fully-realized. 

In June 2020, Jaquira Diaz published an article, “America Is in Crisis. But Some of Us Have Never Known Anything Different.” In the beginning of this article Diaz gives a first-hand account of getting pulled over by a police officer as a woman of color. She explains that her fear of police is rooted in her childhood. She says, “we learned to avoid them, and when we saw them, to hold out loved ones close.” She then talks about what it is like being a part of the LBTQ community and the difficulty of simultaneously navigating her race and sexuality. She has struggled with finding a community that accepts her as a Black Puerto Rican woman and a member of the LGBTQ community. In terms of the relevance of this piece, Diaz gives information about her background and life which aligns with my purpose of finding information that will expand my understanding of her work. Therefore, this source is reliable. 

Díaz, J. (2020, June 25). America is in CRISIS. that’s not new for many of us. Time. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://time.com/5859204/america-in-crisis/.