Kenji Jasper 1976(?)–

Writer

Achievement-Oriented Teen

Persisted With Publishers

Book Led to NPR Work

Published Scathing Portrait of Music Business

Selected writings

Sources

Kenji Jasper wrote fiction that drew heavily from his life in both Washington, D.C., and its rougher quarters as well as among the more intriguing corners of New York City. Jasper worked as a music journalist after finishing college, and his second novel, Dakota Grand, won praise for its behind-the-scenes look at the sometimes sordid side of the music business. His debut novel, Dark, chronicled the coming-of-age of a District of Columbia teen whose life is derailed by violence. Black Issues Book Review critic Anthony Calypso called it a first novel that “addresses issues like gun-violence, the loss of mothers and motherhood, and the stinging reality of poverty swinging at you day after day.”

Achievement-Oriented Teen

Born in the mid-1970s, Jasper was raised in the nation’s capital, where his father worked as a graphic artist and then a real-estate appraiser; his mother was a school teacher who later moved up to the administrative level. They divorced when he was in his teens, but Jasper said their influence on him was nevertheless a profound one, calling himself “the product of intelligent parents who gave me equal parts of brains, sarcasm, stubbornness, and unbridled emotion” in an autobiographical piece he wrote on the No Exit’s website.

As a youngster, Jasper was a promising student in science, but realized that this path to professional success would be stymied by his corresponding lack of ability in math. He began writing at the age of nine, completing some short stories and a novel, and in the ninth grade was selected as a regular on Black Entertainment Television’s Teen Summit show. At Benjamin Banneker High School, Jasper was active in student government and once led a protest against the principal. Despite his achievements, he later recalled that growing up in the District of Columbia during the late 1980s was tough. He came of age in the city’s “‘murder capital of the world’ period,” he wrote for the No Exit site. “Gunshots were a sound effect in my dreams and a serious reality during parties on the weekend.”

Persisted With Publishers

Leaving D.C., Jasper studied English and journalism at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He lived in Charlotte,

At a Glance…

Born circa 1976; son of Melvin (a graphic artist, real estate appraiser, and entrepreneur) and Angela Jasper (a teacher and administrator). Education: Morehouse College, 1997.

Career: Author, 2001-. Worked at a Barnes & Noble store in Atlanta, and a computer store; contributor to many magazines including: Essence, Vibe and The Source.

Addresses: Home —Brooklyn, NY. Office—c/o Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

North Carolina during one summer while interning at the city’s Observer newspaper, and graduated in 1997. He found job prospects there meager, however, and instead he stayed in Atlanta and took a post at a Barnes & Noble bookstore. He later worked at a computer retail emporium, but also began sending out articles to magazines, and quickly built a career as a freelance journalist. His byline appeared in Vibe, the Village Voice, Essence, and Upscale, and he eventually decided to relocate to New York City.

Jasper also began writing his first novel, Dark, around this time, and borrowed heavily from his time in Charlotte to create its mood. He sent the manuscript out to publishers and agents, but it was rejected 30 times. Finally he found a publisher at Broadway, an imprint of Random House, and Dark was published to positive reviews in June of 2001, with the book-industry journal Publishers Weekly describing it as “a new twist on the growing genre of ‘thug noir.’” Dark begins in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest Washington, and recounts the downward spiral of Thai Williams, age 19. He has an entry-level government job and is considered the smart one among his close-knit group of friends, but then catches his girlfriend with another man and vows to give his nemesis a public beating. At the confrontation, Thai’s friends press a gun in his hand and jealous anger escalates into genuine violence. His pals help him flee, and Thai winds up hiding out in Charlotte, where he stays with his high-school friend Enrique. Never having been out of the District of Columbia in his life, Thai is stunned to discover the more intriguing possibilities in one of the American South’s black urban centers. The Publishers Weekly review, which termed the novel an “engrossing debut,” found that “in terse, fluid prose, Jasper paints effortless, three-dimensional portraits.” Booklist’s Vanessa Bush liked the way “Jasper captures the voices and rhythms of inner-city youth culture in Thai’s struggle to find peace.”

Book Led to NPR Work

In part, Dark was an allegory for Jasper’s own journeys to date. As he explained in an interview with Liane Hansen of National Public Radio (NPR), “Your neighborhood, growing up in the city, is pretty much the boundaries by which you define your life and that’s your frame of reference.” He also spoke about his penchant for creating flawed heroes in an interview with John Easton that appeared on the Morehouse College Alumni Community website. Easton wondered if there was a message that Jasper was trying to deliver in his fiction. Jasper replied, “I think my message is that there are no good guys and bad guys, just people who make different sets of choices. When you read my work I want you to ask yourself what you would or wouldn’t do in the character’s positions and what type of a choice-maker you are.”

Both the debut novel and his nonfiction work won Jasper an occasional guest slot as an NPR commentator. He delivered one piece just a few weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and caused havoc in New York City for days. “My life was changed forever by the awakening knowledge that camouflaged warriors were in our midst,” he wrote, “that the double-parked delivery van at the curb could be filled with something fatal. [I]n a city where we usually mind our own business, we now often look at each other as we pass, nodding in an almost silent reverence. Now we are the survivors.”

Published Scathing Portrait of Music Business

Jasper’s second novel was published in 2002. Dakota Grand is both the title of the book and the protagonist’s name. He is a young New York City journalist at a respected magazine of hip-hop culture. Dakota is initially thrilled by his coveted job, but he quickly wearies of the heady lifestyle it involves. When his editors give him a plum assignment for a cover story on a once-huge rap duo, Dakota recognizes the career-making opportunity. He interviews Mirage, one half of the group, who pours his heart out to Dakota; when the story appears on the newsstands, Mirage is enraged and sends thugs to rough him up. The now thoroughly jaded music writer tries to extricate himself from the furor, and finds both enemies and allies in unexpected places. Booklist’s David Hellman critiqued Dakota Grand and granted that the work “may not be a literary tour de force, but it should be commended,” especially for similarities to the works of Walter Mosely. A Publishers Weekly contributor liked its “strong characterizations and telling insights into hip-hop culture,” and asserted that the author possessed “an unfailing ability to recreate its glitzy locales, hip dialogue, slick characters and heart-pounding excitement.”

Jasper plans a third novel, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell. In the autobiographical piece that appeared on the No Exit site, he explained that “writing solves a lot of my problems. It is my exhaust vent. It helps me understand life. It also helps me to represent who I am and more importantly what I have to say.”

Selected writings

Dark, Broadway, 2001.

Dakota Grand, Broadway/Harlem Moon, 2002.

Sources

Periodicals

Black Issues Book Review, July 2001, p. 32.

Book, May-June 2002, p. 30.

Booklist, May 1, 2001, p. 1665; September 15, 2002, p. 207.

Ebony, September 2001, p. 22.

Library Journal, June 15, 2001, p. 103.

Publishers Weekly, June 4, 2001, p. 55; August 19, 2002, p. 64.

School Library Journal, October 2001, p. 194.

On-line

“An Autobiographical Fragment by Kenji Jasper,” No Exit Press, www.noexit.co.uk (February 24, 2003).

“Morehouse College Alumni Community,” www.more-housenationalalumni.com (February 24, 2003).

“National Public Radio: America Transformed—Essays: Kenji Jasper,” NPR.org, www.npr.org (February 24, 2003).

“National Public Radio, Weekend Edition Sunday, Remembering Dark Streets: A New Novel Looks at the Life in Inner-City Neighborhood,” NPR.org, www.npr.org (February 24, 2003).

—Carol Brennan