20 Questions with D. Yobachi Boswell

This week's blogger is a writer, spoken word poet, hip hop artist, social activist and political watcher. He came on my radar because of the case of the Jena 6. His passion with getting the word out about that situation, mobilizing other bloggers and posting detailed updates on the situation was nothing short of miraculous.

Name: D. Yobachi Boswell

Blogs: BlackPerspective and The Jena 6 Blog

1. When did you start blogging?

I started officially blogging in February of 2007; but I'd been writing similar post for years on message boards and on the personal page on social networking sites. As far as my own stand alone website though, I made my first post to BlackPerspective.net on February 26th, 2007

2. Why did you become a blogger?

Well as stated above, I'd already been doing this kind of writing else were since about 2001, and I wanted to expand my voice. I wanted to do something a little more professional and thematic where I could do a little something to add to the social dialogue and maybe have a tiny part in effecting some social change over the long haul. Basically I felt that I had something to say that was worth hearing/reading; and a blog was the most direct way to get my thoughts out there.

3. What do you hope to accomplish through your blog?

Well I'll just quote myself straight from the About the Blog section of BlackPerspective. I created this site to give new voice to socio-political issues that are in need of thoughtful consideration and re-address. I would like to take an academic and in line with my personality – snarky look at various issues facing the black community both here in the States, and those affecting the global African Diaspora.”

Ultimately as a writer and artist I'm about paradigm shifts to elevate the culture and effecting socio-political change for the positive.

4. Which blogging platform do you use?

Wordpress. Tuluum of TriniGourmet.com suggested it and set it up for me.

5. Mac or PC?

PC, I've only used a Mac a couple of times or so.

6. How many hours per day do you spend on your blog?

Weekdays, 2 to 3 hours; weekends tends to be half an hour to an hour. This includes not only the writing but all the research, sourcing, tagging, formatting, responding to commenters, analysis of traffic and promotion.

7. How frequently do you post to your blog?

I usually end up with about 7 or 8 post on BlackPerspective.net per week, and from about 2 to 4 at TheJena6Blog. Posting at TheJena6Blog depends on the pace of developments at a given time.

I post at least 4 out of 5 weekdays at BlackPerspective. I don't post very often on the weekends because I realized a long time ago that people don't read message boards and blogs very much on the weekends and I see no need for a good post to go to waste; unless there's a particular reason to post on a given weekend.

8. How many hours per day do you spend reading other blogs?

Ummm, I read around throughout the day while I'm at work; in between task. It's good to poke around just to see what's going on out there; hell, that's how I learned of the Jena 6. It's hard to put a time on it because it just depends, but I read at least a dozen other blogs a day.

9. What's your best blogging experience?

Probably the success of the Day of Blogging For Justice: The Jena 6 and all that subsequently came after it.

I was relatively new on the scene when I proposed putting it on, yet many other bloggers, some who were already well established, such as yourself; jumped on board with me right away. PurpleZoe at the UltraViolet Underground immediately offered to help write the press release and Francis Holland of the Francis L. Holland Blog gave me some good advice on framing the campaign.

It was my first time doing a campaign like that, and I really didn't know what I was doing, but it went off like gang busters and served as a model for future campaigns that I've run and even others have run.

10. What's your worst blogging experience?

Hmm, probably when I was nominated for a Black Blogging award and jokingly made references to voting for myself from different email accounts, which I actually never did; but I said it and I was rightfully disqualified. That was embarrassing.

But the guy who replaced me in the nominations, The Field Negro, ended up winning; which probably means I was going to win, and I basically gave that award away. But I'm glad someone like him won it if I couldn't; he has a very good blog.

11. Why do you think there are not more black bloggers?

Well to me there seems to be a pretty damn good amount; though Villager often quotes stats that says we're only 5% of bloggers in the U.S., where as we're about 13 percent of the overall population; so by that measure we're clearly underrepresented.

Putting on my socio-economic analysis hat I'd have to say it's due to the fact that when blogging as we know it today started to come into its own about 8 years ago, I would say, significant numbers in the black community were just starting to get home internet. On the other hand many white folks had already had the internet for awhile. So we've had to catch up to them. Even now, the number of white homes per capita with the internet is still greater than that in the black community. So there is the whole digital divide issue, but the gap is closing.

I know I didn't have the internet at home until late 2002 even though I'd been on the net since 1996 when entered college. It's hard to blog from the library or school.

Also there's the educational factor. Let's face it, people who blog and mostly read blogs, other than the celebrity ones maybe, tend to be those with at least some college, and our college attendance rates are low. I don't think you have a ton of high school drop outs blogging. And it's not that college has anything to do with blogging, it's just that it tends to be the same type of people who tend to read and write a lot.

12. How would you go about increasing the number of black bloggers?

My focus is not so much on more black bloggers as I think there is a great array of them out there already; but as I was talking about in my Black Blogging Year In Review post, I'm more interested in increase the capability and reach of the Black Blogosphere strengthening our know-how, increasing our use of multimedia technology for more effectiveness, and so on.

You can have a whole lot of nothing and mediocrity so I'm more focused on quality over quantity; effectiveness in doing it, rather than just doing it. Increasing the number of black bloggers is all good, but what's more important is increasing the number of black folks willing to recognize and uses blogs as a significant information source so that they're getting more of their news and information from their own rather than from the Euro-centric agenda and wealth class slanted corporate media.

I think with more audience, the more Black bloggers we'll have because blog readers are the ones who become bloggers.

13. What's your favorite color?

Don't really have one but I wear a lot of blue and green clothes.

14. What's the last book that you read?

The last book I started to read but didn't finish was the Origins of The Civil Rights Movement by Aldon D. Morris; but the last one I completed was 1984 by George Orwell.

15. Who's your favorite author?

That's a hard one, as I don't so much have a favorite author as I do a pantheon of authors that are important to me. At the top of that list I'd put: Ben Ammi, Carter G. Woodson, Chiekh Anta Diop, and Jon Henrik Clark.

16. What's your favorite type of music?

Hip Hop; but then it's not just music to me but part of my cultural identity. I'd follow that pretty closely by classic style soul music and Reggae. But I like any type of quality music with some rhythm, soul and heart.

17. What famous person, living or dead, would you like to have a conversation with?

Jesus followed by Malcolm X

18. Who are three of your favorite bloggers?

lol, you're going to get me in trouble. I've become friends and colleagues with so many over the past year I'd hate to put anyone over anyone else; but the ones I'm drawn to the most are Overanalyzeit.blogspot.com/, Purplezoe.blogspot.com/, and ElectronicVillage.blogspot.com

19. What one piece of advice would you give to new bloggers?

Post often especially when you're starting off and trying to build an audience. Different people will randomly come by your blog from search engines, and the more you have and more diverse stuff you have up, the more you'll draw traffic. Plus when someone is on your blog and they're not interested in one subject matter they can scroll down and find something that they'll want to read.

20. What don't we know about you that we should know?

Umm. For me, this blogging thing is all about sincere concern for the things I write about; and staying true to my purpose comes far ahead of any other considerations.

Sure, I'd like to build a popular blog; sure, I'd like to develop a more professional writing career; sure, it's great if I can make money doing this; but those things are only considerations for me within the confines of sticking to my purpose.

Next Week: Invisible Woman

Comments

[invisiblewoman]

Great post!

[rawdawgbuffalo]

nice post folk, maybe u will do me one day

[Karen]

Great post!

[Villager]

Excellent interview...very well done!

[brnsugar]

Nice blog.

Great interview.

[JD]

Yobachi is one of my favorite bloggers. He is a young man of great strength and compassion. I celebrate his academic credentials, our youth need to know about this man and others that have found honorable ways to succeed and still love black people

[Shelia]

Very nice interview! It's good to read a little more insight into you Yobachi.

I really enjoy this blog because of Yobachi's commitment. He is definitely take no prisoners in whatever stance he's taking.