In this exclusive interview, Mara Brock Akil opens up about her debut novel, “The Revelation of Dionne Daphne”
Long before Mara Brock Akil was an acclaimed television creator, she was a journalism student at Northwestern tasked with covering a World Aids Day press conference in the early 90s.
When she arrived for the event, a woman who was stylish and had this very put-together, seemingly has-it-all aura caught her eye. She was completely shocked to realize the woman she had been admiring was the subject of the press conference and there to reveal she was HIV positive.
“I thought it was very profound because here I was sort of attracted to her, her life, but damn, she’s near death,” Akil recalled to theGrio during an interview on Thursday.
“It’s just like whoa,” she continued. “That was a perfect framework. I think, for a lot of us in life, that we are, especially in this age of social media, where we’re attracted to someone, but we really don’t know the interior of their life.”
Now, nearly 30 years later, that life-altering encounter is the emotional inspiration behind her debut novel, “The Revelation of Dionne Daphne,” which uses an accomplished, seemingly has it all together Black woman’s journey while waiting to receive her HIV diagnosis after possible exposure to explore something Akil says may be just as pervasive as the virus itself—shame.
“I think that we are collectively at a place where I think we’re carrying a lot of forms of shame,” the writer and creator behind cultural juggernauts such as “Girlfriends” and Netflix’s breakout hit “Forever” said. “Our inability to release that out of us creates behaviors that create shame.”
She added, “And I think Dionne is a brave character to raise her hand and say, ‘I’ll go first. I’ll tell you my story, and in telling my story, I’ll share some of my discoveries, my lessons, so I can let go and move on.’”
Arriving at a time when HIV diagnoses are rising among Black women, and stigma continues to keep many from seeking testing (1 in 8 people with HIV still doesn’t know), treatment, and being honest, “The Revelation of Dionne Daphne” uses one woman’s agonizing two-week wait for an HIV diagnosis to explore the shame, silence, and self-deception that can shape far more than a person’s health. Through the book, Akil hopes to spark conversations about everything from HIV stigma to the emotional burdens so many people carry in private.
“I want people to learn to have compassion and empathy for Dionne and the world that she lives in and the other characters, so that it can translate to them,” the showrunner expressed.
Much of what Dionne wrestles with throughout her two weeks is the silent and secret shame that she feels from having been potentially exposed to the disease that was killing people of all creeds at a staggering pace in the late 80s and early 90s. In one early scene, Dionne goes to hug a favorite colleague and thinks to herself how weird it feels to hug someone who has no clue she could be vulnerable in that way. Even though the disease isn’t transmitted that way, she makes a point to tell herself.
Akil was able to write Dionne so honestly in large part because sitting down and writing this novel has been a way for Akil to navigate her own shame and trauma around several of the very things that happened to Dionne, including enduring her own two-week wait for test results once upon a time.
“I will never forget those two weeks of my life,” the writer said.
“Though I didn’t believe I was, but when you’re faced with your potential mortality, because in getting the disease, and even though I understood that there was hope between AIDS and HIV positive, it still felt like you could die,” she continued, adding, “In that reflection, when you’re looking at your life from that lens, I think it has a lot of revelations. And I just thought, what a great way to compact a person’s life who seemingly has it all, who’s elegantly running away from the storms of her life to rebuild a new world that she could be safe in.”
Akil has also opened up since the book’s launch about how she unfortunately shares another pain in common with her protagonist: they’re both survivors of childhood sexual assault. In a recent candid discussion with Oprah Winfrey, Akil first shared she had been the victim of molestation at the hands of an adult male for roughly three years of her life, from ages 9 to 12.
“I feel so relieved, to be honest, to have this book in the world to write it so fearlessly,” she said while speaking with theGrio. “Really, to make more room for stories that, God willing, my time here will allow.”
Since its release, Akil has received evidence of its impact. While she’s not caught up in all of the many messages and DMs she’s received from fans and others, she did read one from a Black woman gynecologist who said in the first seven days of the book’s release, five separate women came in for STI testing, and all said the book inspired them.
“Five patients in a seven-day window of a book being out—that means those readers had to read it, be impacted, and take action. Like, whether it’s like ‘I don’t want to be like her, or I’m ready,’” she said, still in total awe.
She added with a laugh, “That to me blows my… what they say ‘flips my wig.’”
Black women buying into a story from Akil, though, is hardly a shocker. For decades, she has been writing some of the most human portrayals of Black women who seemingly have it all together, only to be unable to escape the ways in which they are human like the rest of us, from attorney at law Joan Clayton on “Girlfriends” to track star and college-bound Keisha Clark in “Forever.” What Akil hopes also happens with “The Revelation of Dionne Daphne” is that it attracts Black men into the conversation because, in a world where according to data from the CDC, Black women account for roughly 50% to 54% of all new HIV diagnoses among women in the United States, despite making up only about 13% to 14% of the female population and 91% of Black women who test positive acquired HIV through heterosexual contact, men are very much the other component to this whole conversation.
“I always want to say thank you to Black women. They have been in conversation for 30 years through my work, but my work is for everyone,” she said. “I really want to thank Black women who constantly are the foundation of holding me down, but I really would love for men to read this book.”
The author is curious about the conversations we can have as a result of seeing Dionne’s journey, of that era in culture, and of the subjects that come up around shame, sexual behavior, and relationships.
“I would love for the book to reach the brothers,” she stressed. “I really hope that they love us enough to be aware that we’re that excited about something and to proactively jump to join in that conversation.”
She added, “The book is a conversation for everyone.”