Need help with Xmonad setup and login from tty

[Disseminate Dissent]

To whom this may concern,

Hello, I have a relatively good understand of GNU/Linux. Just moved from Arch 
after using it for several months, looking for more GNU. However, I'm having 
some serious difficult with two things that I imagine are simple.

During installation I opted out of setting up the default DEs and display 
managers since I prefer to login through TTY. I'm also using xmonad but am 
having trouble with getting it up and running. When invoking `startx` the 
screen goes black and then I'm unable to back out or even switch to another 
TTY. How would I go back solving these two issues?

Thanks for any help in advance.
All the best