An Interview with Lamont B. Steptoe S. W. Lynch: What year, and under what circumstances was Whirlwind Press founded? Steptoe: Whirlwind Press was founded in 1987. I founded Whirlwind in order to publish Dennis Brutus’ Airs and Tributes, which came out in 1989. Before that, my broadside, Refugee, which is situated on the Brooklyn Bridge, was the first publication of the press in 1987. I felt like I wanted to be able to publish Dennis Brutus in America, that he needed to reach a wider audience here, and once I did publish him it was just a matter of going forward from there. I published my own work, and that of other poets, because I didn’t want to play the game with university presses and commercial presses. Being a publisher is a powerful position. Not only are you able to empower poets who are emerging writers and help them become established writers, you become more than just a poet. You can give something back, and I wanted to become someone who could give something back to poetry. The reason why it’s called Whirlwind Press is because I was influenced by a quote from from Marcus Garvey, this is from his Philosophy and Opinion, “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm. Look for me all around you, for with God’s grace I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies, and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom, and Life.” It also was a way for me to bring together my two mentors, Sam Allen whom I met in 1985, as he wrote the introduction for Dennis Brutus’ Airs and Tributes. 2
The poet, Gil Ott, was the founder of a publication called Paper Air; he was a lang uage poet, and he worked at the Painted Bride Arts Center and I asked him to edit Brutus’ manuscript. It was published on 100 percent rag paper and five hundred copies were made. It’s very rare now. It’s worth a lot of money. However, Amiri Baraka wrote a negative review of Airs and Tributes, because he felt that Brutus’ poetry wasn’t militant enough because of what was happening in South Africa at the time. Brutus became upset with Baraka and they had a rift for awhile. It was published in the African American Review. I was at Baraka’s house one night and he said, “oh you were responsible for that book?” Dennis felt like: Who was Baraka to tell me what to write about? [In regard to Apartheid in South Africa. Lynch: What authors have been published under Whirlwind Press? Steptoe: The late Dennis Brutus, Bea Joiner, Aaren Yeatts Perry, the late poet Justin Vitiello, Askia M. Toure, Seneca Turner, Quincy Scott Jones, Dr. Keith Gilyard, Dr. Tony Medina, and Sean Lynch. Forthcoming from Whirlwind Press is the professor, Nzadi Keita, Rocky Wilson, and three more books by me. Lynch: What sets Whirlwind Press apart from other Publishing houses? Steptoe: It gives people the opportunity to have another book out there that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be published. Since A Long Movie of Shadows won the American Book Award it’s been a press that has the reputation of winning a major national award. It gives exposure to poets which would be harder for them to get otherwise. Lynch: Where can Whirlwind Press Books be found?