"Illuminating the darkened corridors": an interview with Alexs Pate - Interview

African American Review, Winter, 2002 by Katherine Link

Link: I've heard you speak about working in the corporate world for about ten years after you graduated from college. Why did you wait so long to commit yourself totally to writing?

Pate: Because being a writer in this society is a very difficult thing to be. You have to be "it" and something else. You have to be "it" and a waiter, or "it" and a teacher. Our society doesn't reward writing financially unless you write commercially lucrative books. So for me, staying in the corporate world was always about working my way to a place where I thought I could survive as a writer. But then I reached a certain point where I said, "To hell with it. I'm going to take a chance and see what happens." It's very much like making yourself a pair of gossamer wings with a wooden frame and going to a high cliff with a long ramp. Once there, you start running up the ramp. As you're running, you think, "Okay, can I jump now? Is it time?" And then finally you run out of ramp, and you have to jump off the cliff. When you jump off, you don't know whether you're going to fly or fall to your death. So the time period spent in the corporate world was the time I was running.

Link: You're not only a writer, but you are also a professor at the University of Minnesota. Do you enjoy teaching?

Pate: Yeah, I love to teach. That's one of the things I love to do most. I have taught creative writing, fiction, and African American literature. I teach, particularly, classes on the literature of African American men. I also teach a class on the poetry of rap where I help students do poetic critical analysis of rap poems. And I teach a class on Amistad and other slave revolts.

Link: What do you like about teaching?

Pate: Working with young minds. It's amazing when somebody comes back to you five years later and says, "You know, I never forgot when you said 'such and such'." Then you realize that people are listening to you. And if they actually absorb what you teach them and apply the things they learned in some way, it has an impact somewhere--it may even impact the way they look at the world, which is really what I think a good professor teaches in literature. It's not just about analyzing a book or how to write, but rather how to process what is happening around the world, and how to make sense of all that somehow. So when I talk to former students who got something from my class, I realize the value of teaching. But I also teach for me--and maybe this is the biggest reason why I teach: I love to teach because it keeps me learning. I learn about new people and new ways of looking at things. I also get challenged on my ideas.

Link: You also teach writing classes at The Loft. Describe your work there.

Pate: The Loft is a literary center in Minneapolis. It's one of the largest literary centers in the country. They offer classes in writing; they sponsor readings; and they give grants to writers. It's a full-service literary organization. My work there goes way back, starting during the mid-eighties when I moved to Minneapolis. As a writer in the mid-eighties, I just sort of hung out there. It was a place that made me feel like I could be a writer. It was a place to get support, and to be nurtured--where you met other writers who were trying to do the same thing you were doing. There was fellowship and comradeship. Eventually, I served on the board for a couple of years and then became president of the board for a year or so. My interaction with The Loft was also driven out of a desire to make them more aware of what writers of color were doing in the Twin Cities. Because it's Minneapolis, I think historically the organization has had a hard time envisioning the role, or the impact, of writers of color. I cam e from Philadelphia where I was around a lot of black writers, and I just wanted the organization to be open and accessible and diverse. So I contributed my energy and time to try to make that happen.