Name: Darius Williams
Year: Junior
Major: Communications
Hometown: Newport News, Va.
Relationship Status: Single
Favorite Part about Spring: The view
Oh! The places he will go! From drumming in Spain to writing a novel, this rising senior will take a stand on issues about which he is passionate. Philosophical. Well-spoken. Insightful. Prepare to be inspired by this week’s Campus Cutie, Darius Williams!
HC (Her Campus): Wow! I can’t believe the school year is almost over! What hobbies have kept you busy this year?
DW (Darius Williams): I play the drum called a cajon. It’s one of those super cool drums where, just sitting down, you can just be jamming away. I’m not that good, but I’m picking it up and I’m learning every day. I’m also a poet and a writer, and I love it. I do spoken word and written poetry and visual poetry, which is a whole different dynamic of storytelling. I am a photographer, and I really enjoy working out and sports.
HC: How did you get involved in playing the cajon drum?
DW: I have never been musically inclined; I’ve always been a writer – artsy in my words but not in musical expression. But I love music! All types of music. I wanted to learn something where I wouldn’t have to learn how to write and read music, but I can just learn to play with a rhythm and a beat. The cajon drum was so convenient. It’s like a drum set but in one. You have a bass tone and a snare tone. I bought it while I was abroad in Spain. It’s traditionally a flamenco instrument, and I love Spanish and flamenco music. So the cajon – being in Spain – just felt right and appropriate. And now I’m picking it up and learning it!
HC: That’s fascinating! You were talking about writing and poetry. Is there a genre of poetry you like or themes you tend to write about?
DW: Walt Whitman. He is one of my biggest influences. I am a free verse type of guy. I think it reflects my personality. I think free verse is structured enough but allows you to have the agency to do what you want with it – the free will. It’s like life: the guidelines are unstructured but there’s a structure to it.
HC: Have you always been into poetry or is it something you picked up like the cajon?
DW: In the tenth grade, I had my heart broken. And my best friend at the time always told me that I’m a great writer, so why don’t I pick up poetry? I never really picked it up, never really had anything to write about. But when I had my heart broken, that was when I wrote my first poem. A year later, I won my first poetry contest and ever since then, I like to think I’ve gotten better!
HC: Have you taken classes or anything to advance your poetry?
DW: No. It’s interesting: I am very against the English major. No offense! The way that it is done in school – I feel that it emphasizes styles without teaching students, especially those who are gifted in writing, how to create their own style. How to develop their own style of writing within their own structured guidelines. I’ve never been interested in majoring in English, but I read. I write. I study all these things in my spare time, and I’ve developed my own style – just tailoring it and developing it. I’m also a novelist.
HC: Plot twist! Tell me about it!
DW: It’s kind of semi-autobiographical. I think, oftentimes, we get caught up in stereotypes. We get caught up in, “This is the way the world should look because of … my personal experiences and this and that.” I’m a firm believer that everyone is the maker of his/her own life. I know that perceptions and stereotypes are used to inform the world and how we look at each other. There are about 320 million Americans. There are 320 million ways to be an American. Within my own cultural context, as a black male, there’s 40 million ways to be black and, oftentimes, there is so much categorization and fragmentation within these dynamics that it is much easier to say, “Okay, you’re black because you do one, two, and three.” The novel itself is about my experiences here at Wake Forest, as well as a black male in America. It’s based in this fictional makeup, but basically it’s about the battle of identity and trying to battle these perceptions that I’m fighting every day of my life, while also still trying to be Darius and trying to figure out what that means. It’s basically been my college journey, that battle: who is Darius and what is blackness? It’s called Black by Popular Demand tentatively. It may be called A Shade of Sunlight. It depends on how the novel is going! It’s going and it’s great!
HC: Is this novel something you are planning on getting published?
DW: I want to finish it this summer; it’s the reason why I didn’t take up any internships and why I decided to do some light coursework at Wake Forest this summer. I want to get it done by the end of this summer and start looking into getting it published either before the end of winter semester or by spring semester. That’s the goal!
HC: Are you going to publish it under your name or a pen name?
DW: It’s interesting that you say that! I want to go into politics. You’re under a microscope all the time. So if I go nom de plume (under a pen name), then it would be easier to maneuver that space. But, I would have to be super low key about it, and my face would have to not be revealed at all. I think I’m just going to go with my regular name. I believe in taking stands. Take a stand in what you believe. As a writer, I want people to know that I wrote it, and as a communication major, it’s all about the rhetoric. Part of the rhetoric is the context of who is writing it. In understanding who Darius is, you understand who is writing [the story] and why he is writing it.
HC: Great answer! Is there an author or type of book you really enjoy?
DW: Can I say Dr. Seuss? If we want to talk about being inspired, there’s a book he wrote called The Places You Will Go, and it’s by far my favorite Dr. Seuss book and top five favorite books of all time. Absolutely incredible! I guess the first author to really get me to start thinking about themes of identity was James Baldwin – incredible mind. His book Another Country just had me thinking about life differently. Langston Hughes was a huge inspiration for me along with Maya Angelou, in terms of poetry.
HC: Do you want to publish your poetry as well?
DW: I write mainly spoken word pieces, but I’m actually in the process of putting together a poetry EP with a friend of mine who is a producer. I do spoken word poetry more than I write, at least recently. If I were to publish it, it would be under a free EP that I’m putting together right now. Tentatively, there is no title because poetry changes.
HC: What themes do your poetry focus on?
DW: I haven’t practiced free style poetry in a while. But, generally speaking, most of my poetry is centered on life experience. A lot of those themes are drawn from my faith – from the things I’m learning. They are being drawn from other conversations with people. I want my poetry to get people thinking deeper about the everyday things in life. I wrote a poem about the theme of this question of death: it’s the only constant in the world, but it’s the only unknown. That’s the type of thing I want people to think about because that’s what my mind is thinking about.
HC: That’s very deep and very philosophical! Does this just come to you?
DW: When things hit me, I have to write. I have a close friend group that calls me “Deep Darius” because my mind just wanders, and I like to think about things. I jokingly say I like to think about everything and nothing at all. For me, it’s just an everyday thought. Just boom – it hits me and I write it down and keep moving on. Other people are like, “Woah, you should expand on it!” I will eventually, but it’s just that my mind is everywhere. It’s the “Mind of Darius,” and my poetry reflects that. I have a lot of unfinished poetry that I need to get back to, and I will. But it’s just not where my mind is [right now].
HC: Do you do anything here at Wake that helps you with poetry?
DW: I am only involved in one poetry club called Can-I-Poet, and it’s a poetry spoken word group of incredible poets. They are like family! Otherwise, I am more engaged in other passions, such as communications, political science, policy making, and leadership. Those are the things on a practical day-to-day basis that I am more involved in. That’s what I’m engaged in here at school. Poetry is a strong passion of mine. That and the cajon drum!
HC: That’s interesting that you brought up leadership because it sounds like you really are a leader here at Wake. What have you experienced at Wake that has led you to become where you are at today in your leadership abilities?
DW: A lot of it is rooted in my life experiences. I was always surrounded by good leaders, starting with my parents. I love them to death. [They are] excellent leaders. Inspirational. My dad is, by far, my biggest influence. Just seeing the way that my dad was a leader in everyday life has inspired me. I have had a plethora of mentors. With that said, coming to Wake Forest, I didn’t know what to expect, as do most freshmen. I did recognize something very quickly: there was a lack of black males in leadership positions on campus. When I coupled that with campus problems that have recently surfaced but that have been persistent for decades, I decided that I wanted to be what I did not see. I would like to say that over the course of these past three years, I definitely have become a black male leader on this campus who is representing a very unique demographic that, oftentimes, is silent, if not oppressed in their voices. I think I have been able to make some leaps and bounds in terms of motivating other black males on campus and inspiring my peers from all races, colors, and ethnicities to really step up and speak up about the things we experience in our daily lives that are unjust.
HC: If there’s a piece of advice that you could give to freshmen and sophomores about leadership, what would you say?
DW: I think we get so caught up in the way leadership looks like that we forget that leadership itself was created to be flexible. There are so many different types of leaders. So many different types of personalities. So many different types of people. I would say this: Occupy yourself with your passions, because out of your passions, leadership will come.