2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 183
Every Sunday at midnight, a new episode of “Our
Moment: A Literary Podcast” is released, and Exquisite
Williams turns a new page with her book club.
Williams, an LSU senior majoring in
communication studies and English creative writing,
started the book club podcast as part of a new media
project for a screen arts class.
“It’s like halfway a school project and halfway a
passion project because I’ve always wanted to do it,”
Williams said.
A self-proclaimed reader by trade, Williams loves
talking about books. She finds it especially important
to uplift the voices of diverse characters, so she uses
her podcast to celebrate books that center characters of
color by authors of color.
“Reading is the first way a lot of kids learn about
the world — reading and TV — and if they learn by
reading experiences different from them, they can
sort of begin to empathize with those around them,”
Williams said. “It’s important, and if anybody will read
these books and develop more empathy for just a stage
in life that they’ve never had to deal with, then that’d
be great.”
For the first season of “Our Moment: A Literary
Podcast,” Williams is highlighting “Legendborn,”
a contemporary fantasy with a twist on Arthurian
legend written by Tracy Deonn. The book follows
Bree Matthews, a 16-year-old who recently lost her
mother in an accident. In an effort to find an escape,
Bree begins attending a residential program at the
University of North Carolina, but on her first night on
campus, she witnesses a magical attack.
“This book made me slow down, which is very rare,”
Williams said.
Since discovering “Legendborn” earlier this year,
Williams has read the book at least five times, and
she owns close to as many copies of it. She has digital
copies of the book on Audible and her Kindle, she
owns an unopened physical copy with the cover still
intact, and then there’s the copy she uses during her
podcast.
Dogeared, highlighted and full of notes written
in pen, Williams brings this copy with her to every
recording session in the Speakeasy sound booth in
LSU’s Communication across the Curriculum’s Studio
151.
Williams said when she sits down to record her
podcast, she pictures what her audience might be
doing while listening. She said a lot of unexpected
backend work goes into a podcast, like long hours of
editing.
For frontend preparation, Williams said she goes
with the flow. She thinks about her favorite scenes
from the book, the most important themes and how
they can apply to listeners in everyday life.
Williams also chairs an in-person book club with
the Ogden Honors College Black Honors Initiative.
The club is currently reading “Legendborn” as well, so
Williams draws on conversations and thoughts from
those meetings when she’s preparing to record.
Since not everyone can be in-person to talk about
books with her, Williams said doing another book
club over audio is a way to create shared, yet accessible
moments celebrating books and each other.
“We’re taking time together and it’s ‘Our Moment,’”
Williams said. “The reason that we have books is to
kind of explore or create these shared experiences.”
Williams has had listeners from all over the world,
including Germany, Jamaica and Spain. Jason Buch,
an LSU English professor who teaches Williams’ new
media class, is among “Our Moment’s” wide range of
listeners.
“Exquisite found a subject that excites her and that
she believes deserves a spotlight, and that enthusiasm
comes through in each episode,” Buch said. “It is also
a great way to combine traditional media and new
media, delivering the podcast through platforms like
YouTube or Spotify, while also encouraging reading
and exploring an author that her listeners might not
otherwise be exposed to.”
Highlighting authors who may not be getting
enough attention is one of Williams’ primary goals.
She seeks to find and explore authors whose writings
make up a new literary canon.
“My overarching goal is that people start engaging
with the book and start seeing that the only works of
literature are not just classics,” Williams said. “The
books we have now are also, like, important in regard
to what we read and how we see the world.”
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