MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The man who wrote the Black Panther book visited his hometown of Memphis and Orange mound Friday.
Before penning a tale about adventures across Wakanda Jesse J. Holland called Memphis home.
“There’s nothing special about me I come from the same streets that everyone in Memphis came from it’s just when the opportunity is placed in front of you, you have to take advantage of it,” Holland said.
He says Orange Mound is where the dream of becoming a writer started.
“It’s always great to be home I grew up in Orange Mound right over on Grand Street. We moved from Orange Mound to Mississippi but we always came back to Memphis,” Holland said. “I started reading comic books here in Memphis.”
The connection between the Black Panther movie and Wakanda-forever-mania now holds a deeper meaning for students at Shelby County Schools.
“It’s definitely some sense of pride. I’m happy to actually meet the man who wrote the novel,” Student Bariania Martre said.
An experience more valuable then vibranium to all dressed in kente cloth and locked into the action-packed adventure the novel and movie takes fans on.
“In our city, it’s important that our young people see people who look like them and have reached some heights,” Darrel Catron, who co-ordinated the visit, said.
Students leaned in eager to hear more as the author told students, they can go as far as their imagination and belief in themselves will take them.
While in town Holland visited St. Jude and several Shelby County School. He now lives in Maryland.
For now, the book is sold out but more paperback version is expected to come out in April