Interview With Founder Emma Rodgers

Happy Anniversary to the Romance Slam Jam family

I am jumping with joy to bring you this month’s interviews. Our first, Ms Emma Rogers, needs no introduction. And if you dare say you don’t know her….well…I have a vampire who’ll come and tell you just who she is. Ms. Emma, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Will you share your memories of the first RSJ, please?

Ms. Emma: Francis Ray, author and RSJ Co-Founder, had the bright idea to “do something” for the black authors who were coming to the DFW area to attend a Romantic Times Convention in March of 1995. These black authors did not generally draw fans at this mainstream romance conference in the nineties.

Ashira Tosihwe, and I, as co-founders, planned the first RSJ in 1995 at Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas, Texas. Our original purpose was to bring readers of black romance together with black romance writers. The theme was the “Power and Pain of Black Love,” something Ashira Tosihwe borrowed from a Nikki Giovanni poem.

Francis, Ashira, and I launched an event that was momentous for the authors and readers. Donna Hill, Gwynne Forster and a few other authors were thrilled to be the headliners for the evening and to get so much attention from admiring fans. It was a love fest, which laid the groundwork for subsequent RSJ’s - an even bigger RSJ at Black Images in 1996 and a very successful cruise to and conference in the Bahamas in 1997. The baby that was birthed in Dallas, Texas has grown up and left home in the capable hands of committed teams of authors and book club volunteers.

Dyanne: I know we have the history of how RSJ started on the website. But there’s a little more to it than that. Would you mind telling the rest of the RSJ Family a little about how the entire idea
took life?

Ms. Emma: - R E S E P C T - We thought the publishers of these highly successful black romance novels were not respectful of the authors of this genre. From our vantage point, we did not see the publisher with marketing and promotion plans for this popular line of literature. Booksellers were not offered any coop advertising contracts from publishers for this money making genre as were offered other genres. Black Images was having complete sale through with books orders. We ordered titles by the dozens to carton quantities. We had a very high regard for the authors in this genre. They were filling a need for literature with positive black images. Therefore, as a result of our high regard for the authors, we decided to market and promote them using our own dollars. We did not get one cent from any publisher for our events in the mid-nineties. Due to our efforts and black romance popularity, publishers eventually began to become financially involved in RSJ. In 2000 they helped to underwrite luncheons, dinners and other planned events.

Dyanne: Ms. Emma, what area would you like to see the conference moving into?

Ms. Emma: I’d love for it to continue to grow by attracting more black authors and black romance readers. Continue to try something new such as publicizing the genre in traditional creative writing programs. Continue to have a community service component connected to each event. Continue to keep us all connected via social networking on the Internet, texting, and through other forms of new technology. Look for a university to maintain a data base of authors and books since the genre is relatively new. Graduate students can obtain at least a Masters Degree documenting the growth.

Dyanne: Well, at least part of your dream has come true in a small way. One AA chose to do her thesis on African American romances. She traveled to Mississippi to visit Genesis Press and to Bolingbrook to visit me.

Sorry about that little detour. We’re back on track with RSJ now. For me going to the RSJ is like going to a big family reunion. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much love even in my biological family. What about you?

Ms. Emma: A. We Are Family - Family Reunion - It is so wonderful to witness the love and camaraderie at a Romance Slam Jam. I love to observe the connections reader:reader; reader: writer….. For some, the RSJ is the only time we might communicate. I am still in touch with readers and authors I met at RSJ’s over the years.

Dyanne: How does it feel to have an award that is so treasured by the writers named after you?

Ms. Emma: What an honor to have The Emma Awards named after me. Brenda Woodbury (avid reader), Brenda Jackson (author), and Jackie Perkins (Montsho Books store owner) unanimously decide on it. I can still hear and visualize Jackie Perkins at the 2001 RSJ in Orlando, Florida as she presented me with a special award. Jackie stated that “the motion pictures has the Oscars, Broadway has the Tonys, television has the Emmys, and Romance Slam Jam has The Emmas. I had no idea that my dedication to making things happen for the authors would be regarded so highly. What a blessing and honor. I am so grateful.

Dyanne: Can you tell us a little about how your life is the eleven months before each RSJ?

Ms. Emma: Hallelujah! – In the beginning, we were in constant contact with the authors, publishers and fans – marketing and promoting the big event. When the RSJ transitioned to the planning model of author, readers (via a book club), and bookstore in 2000, it relieved Francis Ray, Ashira Tosihwe and myself of a great deal of planning and coordination. Now I help market and promote the RSJ by word of mouth and email. I encourage everyone I encounter to visit www.romanceslamjamconference.com. This new model with an author(s) at the helm of the RSJ provided an opportunity for new leadership, growth and expansion. When the authors took charge of the event, they introduced writing workshops, and pitched appointments with agents and publishers. These days as a founder, I look forward to writing the Message to Attendees that always includes a little American history.

Dyanne: Any last words you’d like to leave the RSJ family with on this the 15th anniversary?

Ms. Emma: I am truly thankful that RSJ is now a 501 ©3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization under leadership of the very capable and dedicated hands of Deatri King-Bey and committee members Dyanne Davis and Barbara Keaton

Continue to support the legacy of the RSJ. It is my hope that years from now there will be students completing master thesis and doctoral dissertations on the black romance genre. We need to let future generations know that black love was in the beginning, Continue to be the authentic voice of our stories.

“For in the end, we will only conserve what we love.
We will love only what we understand.
We will understand only what we are taught.”
Baba Dioum, Senegalese environmentalist from 1968 speech.

One Love, One God, One Aim, One Destiny,

Emma
esrodgers@aol.com
Co-founder and Stakeholder for a sustainable future of black romance literature