Guest Blog: Winsphere Jones
BIO: Winsphere Jones is the creator of Winsphere Jones Productions, LLC, a theatre company created to explore new forms of artistic expression. Jones is a graduate of Valdosta State University where he received his B.A. degree in history with a minor in African American Studies and Philosophy.
During his time in college he gained experience in writing while producing nearly 25 plays, skits and historical learning programs. Jones received the Who’s Who Among College Students, and received an award for Most Distinguished Alumni in the Bachelors of Science in 2012. He eventually moved back to his home town of Macon, Georgia and opened his own place of creativity called, Real Drama Theatre. For a year he cultivated young actors and brought theatre to many that would not have seen it otherwise the community. He would now use the writing to move towards elevating his craft and find his voice. Admiring such writers as William Faulkner, Shakespeare and Mary Shelly, Jones would transform his style for a more classical tone, calling his writing Neo-Classical Theatre. From 2010 to 2012, he was a resident artist for the famous Douglas Theatre, gaining notoriety and making alliances throughout the local theatre circles with 5 original stage productions. In 2013, Jones won the award for Best Overall Production at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival for the play, Thy Kingdom Come and in 2015 won for Best Director for The Red Spider. In 2017, he published a book of monologues, Tongues That Move To Ears That Eat, and his first novel, Legends of the Black Crow, a murder mystery that takes place in his new, alternate universe of fantastic stories. Winsphere Jones hopes to bolster appreciation for theatre, uplift actors who are serious about their craft. As a writer Jones hopes to give new experiences for those looking enjoy something new in the world of literature.
Q: Who is your greatest literary influence?
"No talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man's heart one day beats its final beat; his lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit will be immortalized by the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory."
-Ultimate Warrior-
This quote is an example of knowing your soul and what that soul will mean for the world. It's about knowing your destiny and knowing what you must do in order to reach it. When a writer writes, it is with the idea that his work could one day be pulled from the ashes of a dying planet and some left over civilization decides that this writer's work could be the cornerstone of their society; or that the work could give meaning to their existence. It may even be just a peek into why the society destroyed itself in the first place. When I decided to be a writer, it was because I felt the need to tell the stories that were forming in my heart since I was a child. I wanted to give the world some piece of me that could only be shared through the written word. Shakespeare drew me in when I was in high school because of his complexity in his time, but that complexity still has a place in the world. Mary Shelly captured me because her incredible vocabulary and her deep themes that shaped an entire genre. Oscar Wilde intrigued me with his ability to have beautiful conversational pieces with characters that become protagonist and antagonist within the story. And when I read James Baldwin I was risen to a level of consciousness that gives the freedom to words, and tells truth about America from a writer's perspective. I love the challenge of different genres and different styles, however, in the creation of my own voice, I prefer to take from the writers that evoke thought, beauty and determination. I consider my creation of the alternate American Universe the first step in trying to write without thinking of who I am as an African American first. In truth, I could never really write without this fact on my mind, but to write stories that pull on the human condition, and not the highlighted jabbering of how black a writer has to be in order to be taken serious. My destiny as writer is not the follow, but to lead. My destiny as writer is not to stay the course, but to take the turns that others will not. That is what writers do. That is why we are the most dangerous weapons on the Earth.
Legends of the Black Crow by Winsphere Jones
In the later part of the 1600s there was an uprising by African slaves. This event was called the Great Awakening, which changed the course of our history. Because of this massive and calculated revolt, slavery was abolished before it could make roots in America. Winsphere Jones takes you on this journey into a new alternative universe where slavery never took shape in a country that shed the chains of bigotry and racism before they took hold.
Legends of the Black Crow is just one story told from this very unique, altered history. Legends of the Black Crow begins as a rich winemaker, Simon Constantine is accused of killing his wife, but there is more to this case than meets the naked eye. The police calls upon Josephia Blackstone, a detective with a supernatural gift of seeing the last moments of a murder victim's life in order to solve the most hideous crimes in the Victorian-American city of New Amsterdam. Some years ago, Josephia's wife, Juliana was also murdered, but he was never able to find her killer and bring him to justice. This murder mystery will push Blackstone to the edge of his sanity and shake the very foundations of what holds this new world together. This story will bring to light the secrets of the black crow and the origins of the most diabolical evil ever unleashed. While uncovering the truth, Josephia Blackstone will learn that sometimes the world needs a hero and sometimes the hero will need the world.
