Q & A: Tennessee Reed

Authors Ishmael Reed and Tennessee Reed (Photo courtesy: Red Room)

Sometimes, a diagnosis can mean the end of the road. In the case of Tennessee Reed, the daughter of choreographer Carla Blank and writer Ishmael Reed, it was a new beginning. By the time she was two, she had been diagnosed with a speech and language-based learning disorder. Over time, names like Aphasia, Dyscalculia, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder entered her vocabulary and her life. But she learned to deal with all the labels and disorders she had been overwhelmed with. Even though experts had predicted she would never be able to read or write, she was authoring poetry books by the time she was in her teens. She went on to get a graduate degree from Mills College, write five books of poetry, and most recent next......