I understand you were inspired to begin writing by the poetry of paul laurence dunbar gwendolen brooks and maya angelo. Were your parents big fans of the arts? They were. It's interesting, so my parents met on the campus of john's hopkins, and gilscott heron was a student there as well. He was in the master's programme when my parents were undergrads. And i grew up with this awareness of this uncle gill figure. But i would also say that growing up part of the time in washington, d c, and then later in new york, at the u. N school, i had the