“when she does hit it, she hits it out of the park”: An Interview with Exquisite Armantè, author of “Ulta Receipt”

Angel Scales, one of BWR’s talented undergraduate interns, interviews the equally talented Exquisite Armantè, author of “Ulta Receipt,” forthcoming in issue 51.1! Read the entirety of the fabulous and experimental “Ulta Receipt” here. 

ANGEL SCALES: So to get started, this piece is very unique. Where did you get the idea from?

EXQUISITE ARMANTÈ: I got the idea because—okay, so this is kind of silly—but I was practicing new forms, and I had heard of the hermit crab form, but I didn’t entirely understand it at that moment. So I was like, ‘I think it will be fun to scribble on my receipt,’ because my grandmother and my mom used to write all over their receipts. So I was like, I’m gonna write on my receipt as well.

ANGEL: I see that the word “Stillwater” on the piece is crossed out and replaced with the word “hell.” Is there a reason for that? Was there a hidden meaning? This is just me being nosy, by the way.

EXQUISITE: This was written the first year I moved to Stillwater, and I was adjusting really hard. It was before I got a car, so I was a lot of times just in my room or in class, and it was very hard. I had never been to Oklahoma before then. So, I was like, I’m in hell. This place is terrible. I’ve adjusted, but it was a struggle.

ANGEL: I really enjoyed how the receipt was annotated. It’s very humorous, very realistic. Can I ask, was that a real receipt?

EXQUISITE: Yeah! So, part of what I was struggling with when I moved to Stillwater is that there aren’t a lot of black people in town around me, or at least not ones where I could find easily, and I didn’t have a car, so it wasn’t easy for me to just drive to Tulsa or Oklahoma City, and I was worried about being a burden on the new friends I was making. So I was like, I’m gonna teach myself how to give myself a silk press. I’m gonna go to this Ulta—because there was no other beauty supply store other than like, Sally’s—I’m gonna go to this Ulta, and I’m gonna figure out how to silk press my hair. So it is an entirely literal experience.

ANGEL: As I was reading the piece, and I read through the item bought, I was wondering  if one of the things you were trying to convey was maybe insecurity coming from the narrator. Was that a goal to expose this narrator’s insecurities? And if it was, why was that important to you?

EXQUISITE: A little bit, I don’t know how much I was doing it—well actually, let me backtrack. It was definitely one of the quests, because I was trying to show that not only was she insecure about this place she was in, but it’s hard being in a new place and also being insecure about how you look and how others are perceiving you. So, it was like a bunch of compounded things that all come out to what she needs to buy to kind of try to self mediate it right.

ANGEL: Again, as I was reading and I was picking up on this theme of insecurity, I was also picking up on the narrator’s frustration. So besides frustration, what other emotions did you want to express in this piece?

EXQUISITE: Definitely frustration, tiredness, kind of an othering as well. The narrator feels very othered by what she was getting into, where she was at and I was also trying to bring forth this feeling of sadness, because it is like, if I have to do this all on my own, it’s quite sad. A lot of hair care and hair things are very communal, especially for black women, and when you’re alone in having to do it, it’s very sad. I was also trying to get across some loneliness, as well.

ANGEL: To kind of get away from the piece a little bit to learn more about you, I would like to know, how do you describe your writing style, is there a usual central theme in your writing?

EXQUISITE: In my writing, I write a lot about grief in all its forms. Even this piece itself is also like, the narrative is grieving that community, I think she misses being able to find someone nearby to do her hair, or just to have someone talk through her as she does her hair. A lot of my work is grief based, or transitory based, being in places I probably shouldn’t be at, or the narrator probably shouldn’t be at, getting put in situations that maybe shouldn’t be there, because she’s trying to. I say “she” because I found I write a lot about women, and if I’m writing about men, it’s kind of rare that I write about a male main character in any of my pieces. It’s actually pretty rare. I’ve tried, and when I do, the men are typically the main character, but it’s still a woman’s story, if that makes sense. But it is a lot of grief work, a lot of history, or passed down tales in lineage, especially matrilineal, passed down things. I think a lot about family, a lot of family work, but that is where I find a lot of my inspiration. A lot of where my writing takes me is that loss in contemplating it.

ANGEL: Kind of building on that question, if you were looking at yourself from the outside, how would you describe yourself as a writer? How would you categorize your work, and do you have a telltale sign of you as an author?

EXQUISITE: From the outside, I would see my work kind of as eccentric. I’d be like, “Oh, that person’s always trying something new.” Maybe I’m swinging, she’s swinging, and she may miss sometimes, but when she does hit it, she hits it out of the park. You know, as a telltale sign, again, I would have to say, one thing my mom has said is that a lot of things I write make her sad. Even if I’m writing something funny, she’s like: “I feel a bit sad reading this.” So, even if I’m writing something that I think is sensual, there’s something sad in there. Like, this girl needs assistance. I do think a telltale sign is that there’s probably something being worked through, even if it’s underlying. Also, I like to think that I bring in a lot of humor, but maybe a weird humor that comes in from the side that is almost situational, because I think I’m only funny when it’s situational humor. I could never be a comedian, but I could be very funny, yes.

ANGEL: Going back to the piece for just one second, how would you describe it using just one word?

EXQUISITE: This is so difficult. Okay, part of me really wants to say nappy, but I don’t know if I want to say nappy, because you know, when your hair is nappy, you actually have to work through it to get it right, where you can just comb through and get it. So, I feel like this piece particularly lends itself to being re-read a couple times, to pick up things that you miss, and to go through and get out the kinks, to unwork all the kinks, maybe coily is better.

ANGEL: Coily, I actually really like that word! The very last question, why did you want to work with BWR?

EXQUISITE: I’ve read some of the pieces [from BWR], and I thought it was very interesting. I thought maybe you guys would be really open to this kind of weird little poem, slash, CNF, slash, maybe fiction piece that kind of really doesn’t fit anywhere. I was worried about it fitting somewhere. I thought they could maybe make it fit, like they would understand where it was going, and I was pleased that I was right.