OMAR: Look at how we all connected through nerddom, man. My mother used to read The Hobbit to my siblings and me when I was a baby. Ever since the day Mom bought Storm as my first action figure and I found my father’s and brother’s old comic books, this book was destined to happen. My parents initiated me for this life not knowing it would be taken this far. Not knowing that their boy would say, “Fuck getting a government job or becoming a preacher, what the world really needs is these bars about Scott Summers being an underrated X-Man. What the world really needs is someone to remember all these Black characters in comic book limbo. What the world really needs is to know that CARS 3 IS AN UNDERRATED PIXAR BANGER!” And I hope that having read this book from Will and I, at some point after finishing a chapter you felt relaxed and comfortable enough to say, “I needed that.”
WILLIAM: Shout-out to our parents being the guiding nerddom in our lives, and shout-out to the folks raising nerdy-ass, Black-ass kids today. I know them getting into Dora the Explorer lore and fan fiction sounds crazy, but let it happen. I know they want to make YouTube videos about the origin of those Marvel: The Hip-Hop Covers and all their references. *John Boyega head nod* ALLOW IT. Nerd shit can lead to big things, yo. Big things.
Acknowledgments
OMAR: Biggest thank you to my wife/tag-team partner, Natasha, for enduring every good and really bad essay pitch I was working out for this book. To my mom, Isabelle, for taking me to see Meteor Man; my dad, George, for showing me his comic books; and my sister, Kece, and brother, Travis, for taking the time to listen to their little brother rant about pop culture. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet an array of nerd specialists in their respective fields that I could call friends. I learned how vast the spectrum of nerd truly is from Acting Nerds (Brittany), Comedy Nerds (Josh), Academic Nerds (Christabel), Med School Nerds (Mackenzie), Zombie Apocalypse Nerds (Nicole), Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Hetero Nerds (Malika), Book Nerds (Jordan), Lyricist Nerds (Toney Jackson), Hip-Hop Nerds (Frantz), SneakerHead Nerds (Jive), Wrestling Nerds (Big Mike), Music Nerds (Glynn), Sports Nerds (Elvis, Bri), Poetry Nerds (Cristin), and of course all them Black Nerd Problems Nerds. Much like Deku adjusting to his quirk One For All, y’all have strengthened the foundation for the type of nerdy muhfucka I am.
WILLIAM: First off to my wife, Leah, who displayed superhero patience while this book was being written and for my daughter, Amira, the budding and ultra-fun nerd that she already is and will be. Thank you to my mother, Beverly Ann, and my father, who I named after and was the first Black nerd I came to know. To my sister, who has always kept a constant stream of nerddom flowing between us. Thank you to Carrie “Clipps” McClain, who helped Black Nerd Problems go from some bullshit Omar and I were on to a living, breathing, and accessible community. To Marshall Shorts and Soulo Theory, who helped launch us. To everyone who has and continues to contribute to Black Nerd Problems. Your passion and perspective have pushed me to be better more than you could know. And thank you to our Black Nerd Problems community, for letting Omar and I know that all of those hours, weeks, and years of work—and I mean real-ass work—was not wasted. I’m so happy to share the space with you all.
More from the Authors
We Inherit What the Fires Left
About the Authors
WILLIAM EVANS is an author, speaker, performer, and instructor known for founding the Writing Wrongs Poetry Slam and cofounding the popular website Black Nerd Problems. He has been a national finalist in multiple poetry slam competitions and was the recipient of both the 2016 Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant and the 2018 Spirit of Columbus Foundation Grant. He is a Callaloo and Watering Hole fellow and the author of three poetry collections, and he currently lives with his family in Columbus, Ohio. He is an MFA candidate at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
OMAR HOLMON lives as he writes, one nerd reference at a time. Recognized by Rutgers University as a distinguished Alumnus Poet, he is the author of the poetry collection We Were All Someone Else Yesterday and cofounder of the website Black Nerd Problems. Omar’s voice is one that makes a home across numerous demographics. Like A Beautiful Mind but with more comic book and movie quotes, Omar is able to find the correlation between pop culture and any body of work, using humor in his social commentary to make serious points.
FOR MORE ON THESE AUTHORS:
SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/William-Evans
SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Omar-Holmon
SimonandSchuster.com
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Gallery Books
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Copyright © 2021 by William Henry Evans III and Omar-Abraham Holmon
Interior art by ONeillJones
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First Gallery Books hardcover edition September 2021
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Interior design by Michelle Marchese
Jacket design by Emma A. Van Deun
Jacket illustrations by Getty Images
Author photographs by Erica Hardesy Photography (William Evans); Natasha Singh-Holmon (Omar Holmon)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-1-9821-5023-5
ISBN 978-1-9821-5025-9 (ebook)
Black Nerd Problems Page 26