He is as controversial as he is cool and it’s why the world loves him 10 times over. Omar Tyree has empowered us to turn his pages for close to 3 decades. Transferring from the University of Pittsburgh to the Chocolate City territory of Howard University in Washington, DC, Tyree changed his major from Pharmacy—his mother’s field—to print journalism, which would increase his skills in reporting and writing. Discovering this fascinated me even more because my own mom was a Pharmacist.
As a confident hustler with an independent Aries mind, instead of waiting around to find a publisher who agreed to publish his work, Tyree started his own publishing company, MARS Productions from his one-bedroom apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland, and published his first three books; Colored, On a White Campus in October of 1992, loosely based on his college years at Pittsburgh, Flyy Girl in April 1993, the urban classic all about the 1980s era of Uptown Philadelphia teenagers, and Capital City in April 1994, detailing the drug culture of Washington, DC, during its most treacherous “murder capital” years of the early 1990s.
His story in itself is a novel waiting to be written and its why I had to have him here at the gallery for an exclusive sit down. You know why its so exclusive.. ? HE REFUSED TO MOVE!!!! Normally I interview guest on an entirely different angle but in his classic Omar fashion… He wanted to be different.
I thank him because now it’s the LipServiceInk “ Reading Room “ and nobody will ever be able to sit anywhere at my big little gallery and not be ready to film. “ Iron sharpens Iron “ is the take away you’ll have after watching this interview. Its unedited and a bit painful to watch but I held my own and he was an entertaining guest. Never a dull moment. TRUST ME!
It was the weekend of the BET Awards and Omar was in town to promote his Entertainment Omni, LAVA Entertainment. I was his first interview once arriving in Atlanta from South Carolina and boyyyyyyyy did he make me WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK (in my best Rihanna voice). Leaves me speechless to this day just thinking about having one of the most powerful Black Male Authors in my gallery watching him sign his famous book that survived Hurricane Katrina all live during our interview you’re about to see.
