On Topic: Nina Sharma’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” (Interracial Relationships)

Our On Topic series continues with a book talk celebrating author Nina Sharma’s debut memoir in essays, The Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black and Brown. Packed with humor, love, and anecdotes in allyship, the work traverses the Asian and Black interracial relationship between Nina and her husband, Quincy. 

In a series of sensual and sparkling essays, Nina Sharma chronicles her and Quincy’s love story, examining how their Black and Asian relationship becomes the lens through which she moves through and understands the world. Nina reckons with caste, race, colorism, and mental health, moving from her seemingly idyllic suburban childhood to her and Quincy’s early sweeping romance and onward to their marriage.

Growing up, she hears her parents talk about the racism they experienced at the hands of white America. As an adult, she confronts the complexities of American racism and the paradox of her family’s disappointment when she starts dating a Black man. While watching The Walking Dead, Nina dives into the eerie parallels between the brutal death of Steven Yeun’s character and the murder of Vincent Chin. She examines the trailblazing Mira Nair film Mississippi Masala, revolutionary in its time for depicting a love story between an Indian woman and a Black man on screen, and considers why interracial relationships are so often assumed to include white people. And as she and Quincy decide whether to start a family, they imagine a universe in which Vice President Kamala Harris could be their time-traveling daughter.

Written with a keen critical eye and seamlessly weaving in history, pop culture, and politics, The Way You Make Me Feel reaffirms the idea that allyship is an act of true love.

You can purchase a copy of Nina’s book, The Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black and Brown, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

About the Author:

Nina Sharma’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Electric Literature, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Longreads, and The Margins, among other publications. She received her MFA in writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and has been awarded residencies from Vermont Studio Center and St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency.

Nina is the former Programs Director at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. With Quincy Scott Jones, she co-created Blackshop, a column that thinks about allyship between BIPOC people, featured on Anomaly. A two-time Asian Women Giving Circle grantee for her workshop, “No Name Mind: Stories of Mental Health from Asian America,” she currently teaches at Barnard College and Columbia University.

About the Moderator:

Abeer Y. Hoque is a Nigerian-born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer. She likes rusted industry, pierogies, and love stories. Her books include a coffee table book (The Long Way Home), a linked collection of stories, poems, and photographs (The Lovers and the Leavers), and a memoir (Olive Witch). See more at olivewitch.com.

About Your Visit: 

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