GRACE AND GRAVITY

4/20/2022

Nikolai Razumov is a transgender artist and aspiring graphic novelist living in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. He is studying Literature and Creative Writing at American University. Nikolai manages his website gallery which displays his whimsical paintings, nature photography, and blog. His poem “Deep Freeze” was published in the Snowdrops anthology by WinglessDreamer in 2021 and his art has been featured in PIKCHUR Magazine and AmLit Magazine. When Nikolai is not painting or studying he can be found running through the local forests seeking inspiration. You can browse his portfolio and contact information through his website, www.nikolaisergeirazumov.com

Introduction to “The Cigar Box Collector”

By Nikolai Razumov

Many people say that our memories are invoked the most by our sense of smell. Associations can be formed many different ways, but the scent of a person or a place can be a key which may be used to unlock something important from our past which may not even exist anymore. I have always been an observant person and when I was a child, I tended to notice the smallest details and hold onto them for comfort. For me now, the ocean breeze carries images of my tidal pool exploration into the present and the scent of a spiced wooden Don Melo cigar box transports me back into my childhood when I played alone creating my own imaginary worlds with plastic animals and tissue box dioramas. Trasi Johnson also knows how our senses can manifest memories in her story “The Cigar Box Collector,” where memories of a past city are awakened through a fantastical adventure. Her beautiful prose and attention to sensory details immerse readers into a spectral yet tangible doorway to a cigar store which only the protagonist has the ability to enjoy. 

Trasi Johnson was born and raised in Washington D.C. before setting out on her own adventure in the states and internationally. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in English and went on to help form the Dark Room Collective with fellow artists of color in the Boston area. Johnson’s love for writing was sparked through reading science fiction and fantasy which she began to experiment with herself. She is the author of multiple stories which have been published in many prestigious journals all over the country, including Callaloo and Agni. Her short story, “There Are Witches in the Park,” was featured both in Callaloo and mentioned in Ghost Stories by British and American Women: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography. “The Cigar Box Collector” is one of the most recent pieces which Johnson has published but she continues to experiment with literary form. She has begun to trek into the world of novel writing. 

Before I had the honor to speak with Trasi Johnson virtually, I explored her other work which was published in the 90s. It was special getting to see how Johnson uses the short story format to express her artistic voice while also exploring important questions about society. “The Black Unicorn” and “There Are Witches In The Park” were two stories of hers I enjoyed reading and spent time thinking about after. I especially resonated with Johnson’s first published work titled “The Writer,” published in the summer of 1993 in Callaloo. During my interview with Johnson I was able to learn about how that piece not only explored the general challenges of the writing process, but also how she faced difficulties balancing creation, socialization, and life when she was immersed in the incredible energy of the Dark Room Collective. Johnson shared a bit of her experience with me about being a part of this group and the strong impact they had on her life. “We were all there gathered together by chance and we started a reading series. We were inviting Black writers from all over the country who we were reading. They were inviting all of these amazing writers because we didn’t get to see these people in college. Writers who don’t get a lot of attention, Black writers particularly in the 90s, were happy to come and read for us.” 

Hearing Johnson speak about how she first handedly got the opportunity to engage with such amazing creative people, despite facing underrepresentation and eurocentricity in the academic and published world, contextualized her burst of creative expression when she began her writing career. Finding community and support is so important, and learning about how herself and many others in the Dark Room Collective have gone on to publish their work and receive awards is something that needs to be highlighted. 

When I was assigned this project and chose to focus on “The Cigar Box Collector,” I was extremely excited. Johnson brought me into her creative world and I got to step into this slightly surreal environment which echoed the past streets of Georgetown in Washington D.C. The alluring aromas of the cigar store and its special boxes in this piece manifest the spirit of experiences which only the main character is able to grasp onto. In this story and speaking with her, Johnson showed me how sometimes a special part of your lived experience can only be seen and appreciated in all its glory by you. The desire to share that joy or have that pain be heard is not always reciprocated. The ghosts we can conjure are sometimes so personal that even if others tread the same streets as us, those doors may not be opened even if they go looking for it. 

While Johnson expressed how in her past work she preferred to take on a more distanced setting, traveling and living away from D.C. caused her to rethink the ways she wrote. Coming home to Washington D.C. that inspired her to try out different creative strategies. Johnson expressed that for a while when living in Boston and France she never had the interest of returning to the D.C. area. However, after living in France for several years, she still felt like she was “always an outsider, always a foreigner. I needed that feeling of not being a stranger anymore. I wanted to understand what I was seeing, the roots of people. I started to miss that comfort of being around a community where you’re not making mistakes every time you speak. When I came back to D.C. it wasn’t the city that I left. I started missing the place where I grew up. There’s a little nostalgia in that story.” Johnson began to explore her nostalgic connections to D.C. in this story when she returned to the area. “The Cigar Box Collector ” blends moments of familiar memories, the unfamiliar present, and the ever present creative mind of Trasi Johnson. 

While Johnson is already on the trail of being an incredible writer, I am just at the beginning of this chapter. I expressed my intimidation to Johnson about my entry into the competitive literary world and appreciated her advice on how to approach my dreams in this field. Johnson reminded me that,“Being able to write and express yourself coherently, creatively, and organize your thoughts and words on a page is an amazing skill. Writing touches everything.” While there are many challenges that both new and experienced writers face, the importance of self-improvement and inner confidence are nothing to be ignored. 

Johnson’s insights about writing accentuated how important the way that we communicate with others is. Creative writing is just as significant as professional writing in that we are able to share our knowledge while also opening our minds to understand what others have to say. Johnson’s “The Cigar Box Collector,” is truly a representation of hardship, memory, and how a talented author can recreate something really special in her past using the elements of literature she loves most. It is a window into her soul and how her life experiences artfully intertwine with her internal creative universe and I feel so grateful to have had this opportunity to introduce Trasi Johnson and her amazing story. 

The following is a selection from Defying Gravity, pages 117-120.