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A couple of hacks that I developed for Writers With Drinks, the long-running spoken word show that I've been hosting forever:
1) Ask every participant the pronunciation of their name. Even if their name is John Smith, ask how to pronounce it. Don't single out non-anglo names.
1) Ask every participant the pronunciation of their name. Even if their name is John Smith, ask how to pronounce it. Don't single out non-anglo names.
(Of course I still screwed up the pronunciation of people's names, but I tried not to. I also watched YouTube videos to try and see how people pronounced their own names, in addition to asking directly.)
2) To find more Black authors and performers to feature, don't just look for people you know. Find a Black poetry night or a Black comedy night or a Black literary reading and show up. Listen to a dozen people reading their work to find the handful that you'll fall in love with.
Especially before so many shows were posted on YouTube, I used to lurk in the audience of so many events that featured specifically BIPOC ppl. I tried to cast a wide net, because I'm a picky curator, and I wanted to expose myself to lots of voices in their own cultural context.
Oh, and as an addendum to the "ask John Smith how to pronounce their name" thing: Someone's name might be spelled "John Smith" but have a totally unusual pronunciation. It happens. But also, it just makes the asking into a regular thing that everyone is subjected to.
