Then, eyebrows raised knowingly, he told me about the presence of a Confederate monument right in the town square. “When black folks come to town, I just want to make sure they know where they’re coming,” he said. Driving past fields of juvenile cotton plants as we drew closer to Oxford, Laymon issued a quick note of caution about the “brutal niceness” of the town. En route, as we discussed the specific intimacy of knife crime, he obligingly lowered the volume on Solange and Lil Wayne so I could illustratively play him Ghetts’ verse from Stormzy’s “Bad Boys” (sample lyric: “big spear that a’ go through your belly”). He was almost apologetic when he extended the offer, but it stems from a well-honed generosity: Giving rides is a service he’s used to performing for out-of-town guests. To visit the writer Kiese Laymon in the town where he lives and teaches, you have to fly to Memphis International Airport in Tennessee and then, if you don’t drive, like me, hitch a ride from there to Oxford, Mississippi.
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