Welcome to the bookcase.

I'm your host, Shawna Richards a sometime writer and a longtime reader.

I invite you to join me as we explore The Bookcase and celebrate Virgin Islands authors and talent.

Each week on The Bookcase, we'll introduce you to a local author and learn more about them and their work.

A storyteller lives in each of us, and I am so excited to give our homegrown storytellers a chance to tell their story.

Tonight's selection from The Bookcase is a Caribbean Man's Perspective on Race, Religion and Capitalism in America.

And I'm honored to welcome its author, Sylvanus Donaie Sylvanus.

Welcome to The Bookcase.

Thank you so much for joining us this evening.

Thank you very much.

So I'd like to start with you telling our audience a little bit about yourself.

Well, I was I grew up here in St. Croix I left about 30 years ago to engineering school, became top of my profession, and started teaching at a college level.

And when I started teaching a lot of young, young folks about the electrical and refrigeration and to see how some folks coming to school from the prison system and those who didn't come from the prison system couldn't read and write, but they were they had children, they had family.

What do we do?

So that was my inspiration.

And to start writing after interviewing them and seeing where their life was about it, it's it saddens me that I had to do something.

So you started writing as a way to encourage literacy?

Yes, I started writing because I wanted them to see the surrounding.

what was happening around them.

That was all in Houston.

Someone who lives in the north side of Houston don't know what's going on in Houston.

They don't know what's in the west side of Houston.

They only stay in their little circle.

So it was a way to to take them out out of the community and show them the different areas and also to give them a skill, some skill in refrigeration and electrical so that they, too, could could support their family.

Is a Caribbean Man's Perspective.

Your first book?

No, it's not.

It's my sixth book.

It's your sixth book.

Yeah.

Most of my other books were in mathematics.

Coming from an engineering background was in math.

So you've written both professionally.

Professionally?

I wrote a lot for any Fortune 500 companies in processes, how they build the processes of the manuals and how they optimize, in essence, how they could make it just by making little changes.

They could optimize the expenses and make more money.

Make more money.

Okay.

Was it a big shift for you from technical writing to creative writing?

Yes.

Yes.

Technical writing was more clean.

Keep it simple.

A expository writing was more of a creative thinking.

Building up your vocabulary, building up your style of writing.

So that came with time.

Time because I started I was a publisher for a newspaper.

I started a newspaper in Houston, and I had to write.

So I challenged myself in that area.

Did you start the newspaper publishing the newspaper before you started working with the students and writing and then before?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, before.

So that was a big leap from being a engineering technical writer to now a newspaper publisher.

Well, the newspaper was only a hobby, okay?

It was only a hobby.

Once a month, I printed about 20,000 papers a month and delivered all.

It was a free newspaper.

Supported by the community.

Right.

Yeah.

So.

But I force myself to.

To learn that style.

So, as publisher, were you writing anything for that?

definitely.

The most read stuff was my publisher stuff Everybody was like, What are you going to talk about?

This, this month.

So is that what shaped your perspective on race, religion and capitalism?

Definitely, Definitely.

Especially when in addition to what I saw in school, you saw a lot of Caribbean people who came to the U.S. and not understanding the system that they were going into.

The kids get in trouble.

I want to know, you was a good kid and the why why and why that and they didn't understand why those things was happening to them.

So my newspaper was, you know, was a a means to have them to answer those questions, to face those realities and to, you know, understand that system, the new system that day.

So your book is titled A Caribbean Man's Perspective on Race, Religion and Capitalism in America.

Why was it so important to have a Caribbean man in the title as opposed to, well, black man?

Because we in the Caribbean came in with a totally different perspective than a black man in America.

We didn't Although we had a suffering.

But you see, in America, the system goes and they change it by a different name.

We grew up in the Caribbean, whether we were Danish, colonized by Danish and so on.

Once we were able to fight and become, you know, kind of semi independent and kind of rule our own our own islands.

In America, they never did that.

What they did was to change from slavery to sharecropping.

And then they went into the prison system.

So a lot of our young black men was was trained to go into the prison system.

So, so so if you were probably a black man over there, you probably would more than likely either your kids or yourself end up in the prison system.

Then I have to ask my question is why, after seeing so many you know, you're 50 years old, you're 40 years in the in the prison system.

Why?

So that means at ten years old.

But did you find that was tied to education.

Yes.

Yes.

Most most of our young kids are unable to do basic mathematics and basic English.

So when when a young kid comes to you and put a gun in front of you, you're like, well, what's wrong with that?

Is he cannot see pass right here.

He doesn't see.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to my my parents are going to be worried.

My family is going to be worried.

The pain and the suffering for the people who who are around you.

They don't see that.

And just having some education would would give them that that background to be able to make different decisions.

So is that what inspires you to write.

Yes.

That you want I want wanted to teach and train our young folks of the system that they're dealing with because they don't know themselves.

So how to deal with the system or how to overcome the system?

Well.

Well, I think if you're aware of it, how the system runs and if, for example, why why are the police patrolling in your neighborhood?

So I had to take some students and take them into the rich areas and said, do you see any police?

Why is the police in your neighborhood?

You know, why is all this drugs in your neighborhood?

Why are you selling it?

And and you get arrested and you have no means to to even bail yourself out.

So.

So, again, it's some of the remnants of poverty that, you know, the the educational system in this state is based on how poor you are if you are poor.

Property taxes.

Yeah.

You have a you have a poor education.

If you're rich, you have a rich education because they tied the education to your property taxes.

Yeah.

So how old were you or when did you start thinking about race and religion and and the things that you address?

Well, and capitalism.

I think is I did not know it was capitalism, but I remember my grandmother in Saint Lucia was she grew cocoa and coffee.

And she is she's always saying, look at this.

You know, it takes us so long to get this cocoa in a bag to sell it out.

Right there, there.

I'm selling it for $0.20 a pound.

But it comes back to us in a can and call it nescafé.

And they selling it to us for $5 an ounce that mathematics just don't.

So I always had this in the back of my mind, you know, So.

So as I, as I, as I experience more it, you know, that really came to reality.

And how did that those early experiences of hearing your your grandmother talk about what you now understand as capitalism, how did that inform your writing?

Because this is not your first book.

No.

Has that thread been common throughout your other books?

Yeah, I wrote Pie don’t fall From the Skies, whereby even a lot of our young black men will have an expectation that stuff will come to them.

They're going to have this.

They're going to play in the NFL, they're going to be the best rapper.

They had this and push education to the side.

So I told them, you know, these were the exception to the rules.

But if you're educated, if you're educated, you have more of a more benefit.

Your cost benefit is better.

If you are educated, do not put education to the to the side, become educated, learn how to read, learn how to do basic mathematics.

Because we have kids coming out from graduating from high school who cannot do basic English and mathematics.

Absolutely.

So the average person reading your book doesn't need a college degree to read your book?

No, not not at all.

Not at all.

It's the experience that we see everyday how you go to a to an employer if you're not if you're if you're educated, if you're not educated, they tell you you’re under qualified.

If you're educated, they tell you you're overqualified.

If you're an expert, they don't you know, they've tried to push you around and all the shenanigans that goes on just because you have some skills and put you to the side.

So.

So when if you are aware of this, you could build bridges to how you go around it.

You know my grandma my not my grandmother, but my mother always told me that, you know, if you can't work at the table, you know, you need to be able to make your own stable.

You know, so.

So if I Shirley Chisholm said if you don't get a seat at the table bring your own, bring your own chair.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's my and you know my mother is not, you know, you know she, and she had her PhD in street smart.

So is that who you wrote this book for?

The person with the PhD in street smarts.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I learned that with that.

Very, very, very street smart.

You know, So what inspired you?

Were you writing this book about race and religion and capitalism at a specific time?

Were there any particular events that really drove you?

Well, to, I don't know, paper.

I mean, to the start of this book came out of when the former president started talking about how they would they would put push in the back of the car with the umbrella in the ambulance.

And I was like and then I, I wrote my first poem, Lunacy of a President.

And and then I was like, that that was good.

And I put it out to all my friends, you know, and so on.

And so that started out the creative just to put stuff into writing.

Plus, I had almost eight years of writing on various topics, so.

So it was a feel good too to do a poem because I had never did one before.

But this book is mostly poetry.

Yes.

Yes, I had to.

So this is your first book of poetry?

Poetry?

Okay.

I had to because I wanted to particularly look at our young black folks who who were in the community who always wanted the they could see what was going on, but they didn't analyze it.

They did not know the results of where you were.

You did what you were doing.

So I wanted to put it in a in a, because I always like to rap.

They want it to be the best rapper, which is poetry.

Yeah.

And so I had to put it in a way that they to could digest some of the lyrics and see it from a different perspective because they always saw me as a Caribbean man and, and they were Americans.

So you mentioned that you have some people who read your first poet, your first poem, and I guess told you you are on the right track.

Who reads your work?

Who tells you who's part of your circle that tells you that you're doing good or you're doing bad when it comes to writing?

Well, as a publisher in the in the Eastern Caribbean community, I had a worldwide audience.

So I had this network of people that could be trusted and send it to them and look and look at some even some, you know, preachers.

Pastors.

Okay.

And teachers.

To review this book, I had people from Trinidad, London and Toronto.

You had pastors in your review circle.

What did they say when you wrote about religion?

one in particular.

I said I agree with that.

Okay.

They just said, I can’t tell this to my audience and to to my congregation.

You know, they just couldn't, you know, because I the congregation ones have a certain of what religion should be.

So I said, I just cannot you know, if you tell them that, then I won't be in the pulpit next week.

So when you write about race and religion and capitalism, who are you writing for?

Who is your target ?

Well, when when I spoke to a lot of my students, you saw that at an early age, they grew up in the church.

And it was like, okay, if you grew up in the church at 12, 13 years old, you end up in the prison our in the government custody.

You know why?

I mean, it was it's very, very telling, you know, because you grew up in.

So then there seemed to be some there's some disconnect on why what happens?

Because I certainly believe the church, the preachers in in the community are very powerful.

And within the black community, they're very they're very powerful.

They're very respected.

But then when I saw that you look at a lot of our churches, you look at a lot of these megachurches, and they're preaching the gospel of prosperity.

They're also talking about capitalism.

Yeah, but when when I saw many of them was with Donald and in the White House, and he was asking, you know, how much money do you want?

I was like, this This doesn't sound so.

So it made me to research a little more.

I'm talking to my, my students.

They were really my, to go to get answers while talking to them and find out will do at the center.

They grew up in the church.

And if you grew up in the church, then why do we have the worse education, the worse healthcare, the worse.

Most who go to prison, the most police brutality.

Why are they in your neighborhood?

You know, so when you summarize all of this and then you see what is the results, most of them went to the prison system.

So it you know, and they don't know that because I was trying to tell my mom, you know, saying, you know, you don't necessarily have to do anything to go to prison, not anymore.

Now, because most people, you know, you get charge and you just plea bargain, you know, and and you end up in there because you have no representation.

Would you say that all of the books in a Caribbean Man's Perspective are inspired by current events?

Yes.

Yeah.

Especially how how poverty is created, how poverty is created, how our young black people end up in the prison system.

So I wanted to bring awareness to those to those issues and also look at where I come from, from the Caribbean and and to to understand that, hey, we love a party.

We would do anything for a party.

We have a carnival, We have all this.

So, so look, look at us.

And also you're looking at many Caribbean people how they they are up in the in the middle echelon.

And a lot of things don't happen to us.

You don't see cops in our neighborhood, you know.

And so I wanted to to show them the Caribbean people have a different lifestyle and a different thinking.

Yeah.

Is there a favorite poem or passage in your book that you can share with our audience?

All of them.

I got all of them.

I will pick one, but I could pick one for you.

Well, this one I picked out was, You.

You.

What's it say?

You ain’t better than me.

you would see sometimes you go to.

Yeah.

I've been to many places, and you.

You trying to get a project going, and the person who's in charge of the project is looking at you and, you know, and so that's what it says.

You ain’t better than me.

You are staring at me over your wooden glasses, searching my thoughts to your silly questions.

Why are you asking me about your crabby grass, your crip in command.

Rooted in free disillusion.

My baby boss full of no energy.

Your brain work in a culturally traditional ploy.

So accept your failures and learn the power synergy.

Because an empty vessel makes the most noise.

And I know that.

Why are you staring at me over your big shot desk?

Acting like a big fish ready to eat a small fish?

Why are you asking me to explain your comical mess?

Your process sucks in illogical path to accomplish my head huncho, full with a sense of superiority.

Your sham act under the command of the whip.

So step aside and understand your role as the authority because an orange jumpsuit always love bandit and I know that.

So go ahead.

keep staring at me.

You reap what you sow.

You are mad because you fail.

You believe that you are better than me.

But I know how you got to the top.

It wasn't.

It was not because of your intellect, your education, or your experience that pop.

So let's get this straight.

Misdirect you ain’t better than me.

And I know that.

So when I first read that poem and hearing you read it, now I have a completely different opinion.

I thought it was someone who had, you know, gone to work and is working for someone who they're probably more educated than smarter than.

And then it and then there was that shift where you understand that you're talking about people who are in prison that the prisoner and the person who has authority over that.

What motivated that?

Well, you would always see, you know, supervisors very, very much similar.

You know, you you'll see most educated black men would will probably more than likely have a white supervisor.

And whether, you know or to my feeling most, most or most of my experience is they couldn't fit in my shoes but they they were they were there They were my boss.

So.

So that's that was my thinking, you know?

You know, because while they talking, I'm like, you know, in my mind, you know, go ahead.

Do what you say what you want.

But I know I'm better than you and you can't do it without me.

So when you started off in your career, you're an engineer, you've written technical books, books on engineering and books on math.

Did you ever.

Way back when envision yourself as a poet.

Never.

It was like I said earlier, it was always because I. I saw an issue that was happening in my community with our with black and brown kids.

And I wanted to bring it to them in in the way that they would understand.

And also to teach our Caribbean people who believe that, you know, kind of the same lyrics that's being spread around.

You know, they're lazy, they want to do this and, you know, and not understanding the system because we come from two different cultures, Kind of the clash of the cultures.

Yes.

So how do you balance being creative with your life and do you have tips for aspiring writers who are also trying to figure out how they can balance work with their creative aspirations?

Well, you have to have good time management, discipline.

Discipline.

So I normally on any given day, you wake up at 4:00 in the morning, do about one or 2 hours of writing or reading and you know, I'm getting ready to do the rest of the day.

So that's also.

Most of my creativeness comes in when I'm alone driving.

I used to drive 2 hours, one way to school, 2 hours to come back.

So I had a recorder.

When the thought comes, you know, you just record it and you could expound on it later on because that thought comes in.

And trust me, 2 hours from now, you'll never remember what it is.

So that's how I balance.

And as a most of my work is in project project, meaning that you need to have good time management skills and to to make a determination of what time you're going to do this.

And because it then becomes a habit.

So we will look out for more work from Mr. Sylvanus Donaie It's been a pleasure to learn more about our local talent, Sylvanus Donaie.

And for more information on this book or any of the books featured on this program, visit our website at www.

WTJX.org We appreciate your support of our local authors, and we'll see you next week when we take another book from The Bookcase.