Nichole Perkins isn’t afraid to say something outrageous.
Why was it that a memoir ended up being your first book?
NICHOLE PERKINS:I don’t really know.
Nichole Perkins.Sylvie Rosokoff; Grand Central Publishing
AlsoMindy Kaling’s humorous essays.
That was really hard for me because I still communicate with that person.
And I anticipate him saying something like that: “I didn’t know you feel this way.”
And, I mean, I didn’t know I felt that way either for a very long time.
Also, I knew my mother would be reading it.
The chapter about shrooms, taking shrooms and loving Valentine’s Day.
Not necessarily that I loved him, but just that maybe I liked him more than I thought.
And I did not want to admit that because there was nothing that could come from it.
This book showcases your sense of humor as well.
Do you make yourself laugh out loud when you’re writing?
And it just cracks me up.
Do you ever look at something you wrote and think where did that come from in my brain?
I’d be like, “Oh, that’s really good.”
Or “That’s really silly.”
I do surprise myself.
Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.
Do you feel like your book is emblematic of that statement in some way?
I thought that either one of those would be the first thing that I wrote.
But it seems that the memoir these essays wanted to come out first.
So yeah, definitely emblematic.
I was like, “Yeah, this makes a lot of sense.”
And I’m really grateful for getting into podcasting.
I can lock my account if I want to.
I can set up all these particular boundaries.
What scared you the most about writing this?
I was worried that people thought this was going to be a continuation ofThirst Aid Kitin a way somehow.
And then they get to the book and there are some darker themes throughout.
I was concerned that people would be disappointed that they weren’t getting a whole lot of thirsty content.
So that was a major concern.
And that I would be misunderstood.
Was there something that got away that you would love to write an essay about in the future?
Spock and Lieutenant Uhura fromStar Trek, the original series.
I was trying to write about that.
They look a little bit alike."
I was intrigued by seeing this Black woman on screen.
We didn’t see a romantic relationship with her.
We didn’t see her in the context of being put upon and being miserable.
We didn’t see her trying to navigate her love life.
Or I used to anyway.
I wanted to pull something out of him and get him to break the shell.
I realized that at a point, that was a lot of work.
It’s not my responsibility to get anyone to show me deeper emotions.
She’s dealing with grief in a particular way.
She has an impolite job.
I might want to come back to that at some point.
Why do you find pop culture such a valuable lens to make sense of the world?
I can’t necessarily remember things by their dates or anything like that.
But I can remember what happened by the pop culture thing that I was engaged with.
My mom always had magazines.
We always had cable.
I don’t think people give pop culture the respect that it deserves.
Are you not worthy of recognition?
What was the easiest essay for you to write?
I was just surprised at how it was a really quick essay for me to write.
What essay are you proudest of?
“The Women” where I talk about my great-grandmother, my sister, and my aunt.
I talk about my auntie, who is my father’s oldest sister.
She just was not the woman that I’ve grown up with anymore.
My sister is very important.
So I was watching stuff that I probably should not have been watching with her.
She was my de facto babysitter, but it was always a really good time.
And I love my sister, so I wanted to put that down in writing.
Is that something in the future we might see from you?
I don’t know that it’s necessarily the next project, but maybe the next, next.
