Author and cultural worker Peter Harris visited Emporia State last Thursday to read from his various works and share his personal journey of overcoming hardships in life in the pursuit of happiness. His reading occurred in the Memorial Union to a full audience of students, faculty and fans of his work.
“What I seek to accomplish is what all writers and cultural workers seek to accomplish, something that we consider lasting,” Harris said. “Something we consider a valuable contribution to the field, the idea of literature in this case.”
Harris seeks to explore the meaning of humanity as well as African American culture.
“It’s important for me to value the African-American culture as a concept,” Harris said.
Harris is also critical of “the hierarchy of white over black” in America, and how “that hierarchy rests on a deep complex of myth.”
Harris said his writings are another way of debating, interrogating and attacking that hierarchy.
Debra Irsik, an audience member, waited after the reading to purchase one of his books.
“He has the ability to take words and turn them into life events and pull in so much of our own personal journeys,” Irsik said. “You can tell he’s a man who has climbed a lot of mountains, and it makes us better people.”
Harris read from several of his works, including “The Vampire Who Drinks Gospel Music: The Stories of Sacred Flow and Sacred Song” and “The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My ‘Unalienable Right.’”
Harris is the founder of the Black Man of Happiness project which, according to Harris’ website, “is a creative, intellectual, and artistic exploration prompted by one elemental question: What is a happy Black man?”
The website explains that the project explores African American life, culture and history through the lens of happiness of the men whose survival and joy “has never been a national priority.”
While reading, Harris said he felt the sense of a wave going in and out.
“As a creative person, it’s important for me to be in sync with the pulsations of my life,” Harris said. “The wave is constant, sometimes you step into it and you get that bliss thing. You can call it the flow. I just happen to call it happiness.”
