Melville House Books

It started when struggling Portland artist//writer ayo damali complained to her mother that she was “fed up, feeling people only valued her because of her race.” Her mother, quoted an old joke by sixties comedian Godfrey Cambridge: “Well, you can’t be everyone’s Rent-A-Negro.” As Florangela Davila reports in a Seattle Times profile, “And ayo, never shy about speaking her mind, ran with the idea.” To wit, she’s now published How to Rent a Negro, a book of “biting satire with billing tips, contract language, sample invoices, even a ‘frequent rental’ card.” Davila, covering damali for an appearance at Seattle’s Elliot Bay Bookstore, reports “Reaction to the book is visceral.” She says damali, recalling Jonathan Swift‘s A Modest Proposal, explains, “I’m really trying to get people to think. And with satire, you want that humor but you want that sting. You want that ‘Oh, I feel sick to my stomach’ feeling.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.