Afr’Am Fest's truth in fiction with Booker T. Mattison

As an author and filmmaker, Booker T. Mattison makes his living telling stories. As a man, he has lived quite a story.

Once upon a time, Mattison was a high school dropout looking to prove how cool he was by getting into trouble. More recently, he received a scholarship from Spike Lee and taught film production at Brooklyn College.

"It was interesting," said Mattison, who was born in New York but moved to Norfolk at age 4. He's since moved back to New York, but he'll return home as part of this weekend's Afr'Am Fest, in its literacy component. "I was growing up firmly middle class. My friends... we all lived in two-parent homes, but none of my friends finished high school. We thought in order to be 'legitimate' we had to be doing stupid things, and I fell right into that, much to my parents' chagrin." By 11th grade, he just gave up on school, dropping out twice - once at Kellam High and then at Green Run.

About a year or two later, Mattison, terrified by the idea of becoming "a loser," got a GED and applied to Tidewater Community College. From there, he transferred to Norfolk State and graduated with a 3.9 grade-point average. He interned at WVEC but soon discovered that he was more passionate about telling stories through film than about reporting them on TV. He applied to New York University, which has one of the best film schools in the country. "I was trying to make it as a rapper and filmmaker."

Rapping, he soon discovered, was not as realistic a career choice as writing and filmmaking, and so he continued with his studies at the school. In his third year, one of his professors was Spike Lee.

Mattison called it an amazing experience. "One day he brought in Martin Scorsese as a guest speaker, and I'm sitting there thinking, 'How cool is that?' "

For his thesis, Mattison made a film version of the story "The Gilded Six Bits," by Zora Neale Hurston. The 2001 film won a $5,000 scholarship from Lee and aired on Showtime, kick-starting Mattison's career.

After he graduated, Mattison taught film production at Brooklyn College and literary criticism at The College of New Rochelle (New Rochelle, N.Y., is suburb outside the Bronx). He directed music videos, too, for gospel hip-hop artists The Cross Movement and Flame. Then in 2008 he wrote his first book, "Unsigned Hype," from which he'll be reading excerpts at Afr'am.

Mattison also will sign copies of his book and do a dramatic reading from it at the Virginia Beach Books-A-Million on Princess Anne Road from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 10 (757-368-3167); on Tuesday he'll appear at Norfolk State University as a guest lecturer and have his work acted out by the NSU Players.

"Unsigned Hype" follows the pursuits of a teenager who, aspiring to be a rap star, finds himself mixed up with the wrong crowd and his life in danger. Mattison weaves some moralism and Christian themes into the book, which in some ways mirrors his own life.

"As an artist, I try to create a world that exists as most people see it, and most people have a belief in God."

In addition to doing a dramatic re-enactment of the book with actors, Mattison will speak on a panel for young authors. Both events are part of Afr'am's literacy component.

When he was just 9, his work was accepted at the Institute for Children's Literature. But as he became an adolescent he strayed from schoolwork, even though he was smart and talented. That's a familiar story. Mattison hopes that he can encourage others and that his "Unsigned Hype" book, which he's developing into a series with the intention of adapting it to the screen - will get young people to activate their own intellect by reading more.

"Even when I was, quote, 'messing up' in school, I was still reading and educating myself. I still considered myself an intellectual, and I prided myself on that."

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com