(HBCU - historically black college/university)
It all began with a post on Twitter. It was 2020 during the height of the pandemic and LaDarrion Williams was thinking about the lack of diversity in the fantasy genre. He proposed: “What if Harry Potter went to am HBCU in the South?”
“Growing up, I watched ‘Twilight,’ I watched ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Divergent’ and ‘Percy Jackson,’ which is one of my favorite books. I didn’t see myself in those stories, and I didn’t feel seen by them,” said Williams. He is a self-taught playwright, filmmaker and screenwriter.
The post went viral and started a dialogue online, leading Williams down a long road to make good on his idea. He’s the first to admit though that the process was not a fairytale.
Williams’ “Blood at the Root,” the first in a three-book deal, arrives in stores Tuesday. Jalyn Hall (“Till”, “All American”) recorded the audio version. The book follows Malik, a 17-year-old with magical powers who gets accepted into Caiman University, an HBCU with a “Blackgical culture” and a magic program.
Well fucking done, easy to complain, fuck I do it regularly, but LaDarrion put the effort to actually make something where he identified a lack. He stands head above most in actually writing a book and then it mentions he is self taught, may his endeavours yield all the fruit he has sown and tended to