David Jackson Ambrose, a resident of East Falls and author of the powerful new novel, “State of the Nation,” will sign copies and read from the book this Saturday, June 16, 7 p.m., at Big Blue Marble Books, 551 Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy. Ambrose is seen here with a friend, Maria Milligan, at a book launch May 5 at Wooden Shoe Books, 704 South St. More information at www.davidjacksonambrose.com or 215-844-1870.[/caption]

by Len Lear

David Jackson Ambrose, a resident of East Falls and author of a powerful new novel, “State of the Nation,” will sign copies and read from the book this Saturday, June 16, 7 p.m., at Big Blue Marble Books, 551 Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy. Ambrose, who has degrees from Penn, Temple and St. Joseph’s Universities, writes with the power of a jackhammer. In some ways his writing reminds me of James Baldwin in “Notes of a Native Son,” an explosion of a book that has left emotional scars still tender 60 years after the first reading. Following is our interview with Ambrose:

• How old are you?

“Old enough to know I’m not going to answer that question. And young enough to realize that anyone can find this information with only a few keystrokes.”

• When you attended Upper Merion High School, did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

“When I was at Upper Merion, that is all I was! I wrote all the time. I entered a writing contest, came in second place and determined that I was a loser, and if I couldn’t be the best, then I wouldn’t try.”

• How was West Chester as a place for young blacks to grow up in?

“I don’t know how West Chester was for young blacks, but It was less than pleasant for me. I think it was fine for kids in junior high school, but we lived on the perimeter of the town proper, and so I was looked at as an outsider. I spoke well, and that brought into question questions about my sexuality. So there were the black kids making fun of my voice and the way I walked, and white kids making fun of my hair and my lips. Looking back, that was probably just a rite of passage for most kids, but I think the tremendous bullying that many young people experience is part of the problem that is manifesting in such a tragic way in our schools today.”

• Since you wrote comic books as a teenager, are you also an illustrator?

“Why yes, I am. A terrible one! Ha ha. Designed a graphic novel as my thesis project for my MS at St. Joseph’s, and if it gets into the wrong hands, my reputation as an artist will be destroyed.”

• What years did you graduate from Temple, Penn and St. Joe’s?

“I returned to school late in life. I moved back home to King of Prussia to take care of my mother when she was diagnosed with Pick’s Disease.  I tried to work and care for her at the same time … I started taking a class at Community College and was shocked that I did so well. I also submitted an application to the University of Pennsylvania. They were very gracious. They told me that if I demonstrated a commitment to learning by excelling in three classes, I would be accepted into their Liberal Arts program … So I did that and completed the BA in Africana Studies in 2013, completed my MA at St. Joe’s in 2015 and the MFA at Temple in 2017.”

• When and where were you a social worker?

“I worked for a provider of services for people with developmental disabilities in the ‘90s. I currently do performance management and quality assurance for a County Behavioral Health oversight entity.”

• What was that work in the ‘90s like?

“It was fulfilling to a degree. I’ve learned a lot about myself doing this work. Also, we are on this earth to help others; don’t you think? ... I’ve also learned a lot from these people with so-called disabilities because they are some of the most honest, loving, non-judgmental people you will ever know.”

• Are you a full-time writer now?

“I still work a 9 to 5. It would be a dream to be able to write full time, though. To be able to devote all of my time to creative thought and the entire process is a luxury that few people have.”

• How long did you work on “State of the Nation?”

“I worked on it for about three years during the course of my education, and then I spent a significant period of time in London, where I completed edits and revisions for a publishable version.”

• Please expand on this observation of yours: "For people of color, horror is an everyday presence. It is not fear of the unknown. It is fear of the known.”

“As we see in the press more and more these days, Black people are in danger because our bodies are not seen as valuable. The smallest occurrence might lead to Sandra Bland or Trayvon Martin. A routine traffic stop might culminate in the loss of my life. Because of this, Black people have to subsume, or ignore, the knowledge that they are devalued, just to go out their doors each day and interact with a hostile world.

“I’ll give you an example of how the most insignificant is fraught with significance. If I get on an elevator, and a white woman gets on the elevator at the next floor, I find myself acquiescing to her whiteness and her privilege. I don’t want her to feel threatened by my presence, but I assume that she already is because the media and generations of indoctrination have conditioned me to believe so. So, I move to the opposite side of the elevator, and I make sure that my movements are minimal and non-aggressive. But why do I have to police my behavior in order to make sure that this person feels safe?

“It would make more sense, actually, that SHE police HER movements so that I feel safe, because she has the power to make a call to authorities that a black male is making her unsafe. And for many Black people, the presence of the police is not to ensure our safety but rather to police our movements. The police state apparatus was designed to maintain dominance over subjugated people, not to protect and serve those people.

“And while I say this, it is not to negate the many helpful experiences people of color have had with the police, but even with that, the majority of Black people are able to detail at least once interaction that was less than positive.”

• You have said that pop culture glamorizes difference. Very interesting. What is the effect of that (and social media) on young blacks?

“It is a very dichotomous arrangement. But it is really no different than the effect the media and American culture has had on the rest of the world.  It shows this myth that communicates a way of life that does not even exist but that everyone attains to. It shows us a very glamorized diversity, too. Like all the non-white people are these biracial beings with auburn curly hair, and they move in this very accepting environment (Target, Cheerios, H&M commercials), and so we think America is very diverse and accepting, but our everyday existence tells us it is not. America takes care of us but also excludes us. I think Chris Rock described it best. He said our relationship with America is sort of like that uncle who used to molest you but also paid your tuition at college.”

• What are the ramifications of the Trump era on Black America? (Trump followers would certainly say they are not racists. Last night I heard Bill Maher say that there are two things most Trump followers hate: racism and black people.)

“Really, I find it heartbreaking. White Americans, at least poor and working class white Americans, have been just as conditioned to this paradigm as African Americans are. It’s in our genes. It’s the legacy of capitalism. Racism had to exist in order to justify slavery, which had to exist in order to create what has become the most powerful, most wealthy country ever. America was constructed on the backs of slave labor. Trump is nothing new. He is the same as it ever was.

“Obama was a dream that all white Americans dreamed of for themselves as this totally accepting, non-racist citizen ready to step away from the shadow of its racist past. However, once that man stood in office, looking so beautiful and clean, with his beautiful children and his beautiful wife and their pedigree that most white Americans cannot even compare to, it brought about a tremendous self-hatred that, as racism has always done, manifested itself as hatred of the other rather than an acknowledgement of feelings of inferiority.

“I really say that Obama is the reason that Trump has ascended to the office. He would not have been considered as a valid choice had the perfection of Obama not been in place first.

“So, while this change seems too pivotal to white Americans, for older blacks, this is nothing new. Now younger black kids, this might be new for them, and they have the power to make a change. They are using social media to broadcast civil unrest and police acts of terror. This is different than when broadcasts of civil disobedience were available during the civil rights era because now the power to disseminate these images is not always in the hands of those few in positions of power, and so grassroots efforts are able to make significant changes in ways that they haven’t before.”

• What writers, past or present, do you admire the most?

“Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, Chiminanda Adichie, Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Jacqueline Susann (yeah, I said it), Somerset Maugham, James M. Caine, Junot Diaz, bell hooks, Audre Lourde, Samuel Delaney, Prince, Marvin Gaye, George Gershwin, Bjork, Madonna, Anais Nin,

Tricky, Sapphire, Kanye West, James Baldwin.”

• What is the best advice you ever got?

“Shut up and listen. You don’t know nearly as much as you think you do.”

• What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

“Walk out my door each day. Present at the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) a month after burying my mother.”

• If you could meet and spend time with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

“Salvador and Gala Dali. Can you imagine? He was so creative. And Gala was so rude. I read that if you asked to use her bathroom, she would assault you because she thought it was rude to use other people’s bathrooms … I LOVE THAT! Anna Nicole Smith. She seemed so sweet. Joan Crawford. She did not. Bette Davis, Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, James Baldwin, Diana Vreeland, The Mills Brothers, The Andrews Sisters, The Chordettes, Black Betty (the 17th century black prostitute rumored to be the muse for the song), Harriet Tubman. Man, there are so many; I just better end this now!”

For more information, visit www.davidjacksonambrose.com.