On the evening of Tuesday, 26 October 2010, the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series, in a special “extracurricular”, Halloween Season event, presented an evening of African-American fantasy writers on the “new” or contemporary vampire literature. Titled “Beyond Blacula” (for which this writer bears some blame, being the first to evoke those feature films upon hearing the readings’ theme), the event, guest-curated by Terence Taylor and Sheree Renee Thomas (in absentia, regrettably, due to a family emergency), was held at the NYRSF Readings Series’ current venue at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art. Displayed around the room on the SGDA’s screens were photos of the authors and covers of their novels and comics, as enabled by the Gallery’s screens-instead-of-canvases set-up.
In opening remarks, the Series’ producer and executive curator Jim Freund, host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy—(kudos on the nifty full-color program)—welcomed and tantalized the audience with upcoming events (which includes readings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman—in the now-traditional December Holidays “Family Night”—Rick Moody, Gary Shteyngart, and Samuel R. Delany), then turned things over to Taylor, whom, it was noted, had gone from “comforting young kids” on PBS, Disney, and Nickelodeon shows to “scaring their parents.”
In introductory remarks, Taylor praised the contemporary publishing industry for enabling writers of color to break past barriers, restrictions, and stereotypes, and allowing new freedom in what they can get published. In return, African-American authors have enriched the horror genre, for one, with their unique perspectives. The creations of the evening’s quartet of readers, it became clear, went far beyond William Marshall’s titular black vampire… as well as Grace Jones’s Vamp and Eddie Murphy’s Vampire in Brooklyn, each offering a distinctively individual take on the vampire myth. He concluded by presenting the first reader, Linda D. Addison.
The first African-American recipient of the Bram Stoker Award (presented by the Horror Writers Association), Addison read her poem “How Her Garden Grows.” Though, like Marshall’s tribal prince Manuwalde, African, her vampire was emphatically post-Blacula… and ecologically-minded!
Taylor returned to the podium in his other role, author, to read a chilling excerpt from Bite Marks, the first-volume in his multi-generational urban epic, the Vampire Testaments trilogy. His selection revealed the origin of Rahman, the thousand-year-old Moorish vampire, set among actual historical events and characters.
Alaya Dawn Johnson read from her charming novel Moonshine, set in 1920s New York and featuring “vampire suffragette” and “bleeding heart do-gooder” Zephyr Hollis, who fights for vampire rights, but hunts them down when they need killing (for going after human prey rather than feeding on blood-bank blood), and who seems equally undaunted by Prohibition.
Addison came back to read another poem, “The Hunt,” in which the vampiric predator mused about his prey. Following the intermission, she read a third poem, “One-Night Stand” (ah, love!).
The final reader of the evening was the “indomitable, inimitable, and ever-loving” New York Times and USA Today best-selling, award-winning author L.A. Banks. Under several pseudonyms (the L stands for Leslie, by the way) she’s written over 40 novels and a dozen novellas in diverse genres, including romance, women’s fiction, crime/suspense, and paranormal/horror. Prior to reading, she reiterated Taylor’s earlier remarks about how African-Americans have been able to add elements of their cultural heritage (such as voodoo) to the “gumbo” of the traditional supernatural fantasy genre. Her selection, from the prologue to Minion, the first in her twelve-volume Vampire Huntress Legends series (chosen in order not to give away plot spoilers), at a time that the eponymous huntress is a baby in New Orleans, described a vampire’s devastating seduction and attack, and was quite heart-rending (figuratively—in this genre, one does have to specify). The series, which has been adapted into comics and been continued in a sequel series featuring the next generation, mixes the supernatural with action, mystery, and political intrigue (think of “Cheney and Halliburton with fangs”). Taylor concurred, and concluded by asserting that horror has always provided a safe remove from which to comment on the real world.
The audience, which handily exceeded 40, included Margot Adler, Amy Goldschlager, Barbara Krasnoff, Danny Lieberman, Jon Messinger, and Genevieve Valentine. Afterward, as customary, the guests and a number of audience members adjourned to a nearby pub, Milady’s, for dinner (which, it is to be hoped, did not mean feeding on blood).
The next reading, in barely a week, is on the even-more-terrifying-than-Halloween Election Day, 2 November, and celebrates the Hugo-wining Clarkesworld Magazine (for Best Semiprozine). Guest-curated by Neil Clarke, its publisher/editor, featured readers are Desirina Boskovich and Genevieve Valentine.