Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 91

so hood? so what?

Thanks to everyone who came out to Bard High School Early College last night!  I delivered the inaugural Peterson Lecture in the Humanities and it was warmly received.  A lovely librarian gave me a ride home and I then had time to mull over an article my agent clipped from the New York Times.  Did you know the author of the Bluford High series was a white man from New Jersey?  You can read the article here.  Part of my talk focused on the evolution of my own urban aesthetic, and I insisted that,

For me, the greatest challenge in developing an urban aesthetic is…representing the varied realities of urban children without echoing and thereby reinforcing philanthropic or sociological narratives that figure urban children as pitiful, powerless, and/or pathological.

You can write about "the gritty reality" of urban life without glorifying violence and dysfunction.  I haven't read any of the Bluford books but that article didn't sit well with me.  One of the questions that came up last night was around giving kids books that are not simple mirrors—if you live in a neighborhood that's plagued with violence and drugs, then you deserve a book that reflects that reality but you might NEED a book that offers some alternatives…art should reveal what's POSSIBLE, not only what's real.

Books like the Bluford High series have undeniable appeal, though, and maybe they can serve as a "gateway" to other kinds of books.  Edi over at Crazy Quilts has posted a great list of spring releases, including some adult titles that might appeal to teens.  Fans of urban fiction have plenty of options…

If you want to learn more about the RANGE of fiction by women writers of color, make sure you subscribe to Color Online.  And stop by Multiculturalism Rocks! because Nathalie's running a series of interviews with CO's contributors.  And have you seen Nathalie's new logo?  She designed it herself and it's beautiful…

 

 

 

Who's Who in Black Canada

I know I spend a lot of time moaning about my time in Canada, but there are *many* black people who chose to tough it out and managed to excel in their chosen fields.  Who's Who in Black Canada is a fantastic project that highlights the contributions of African Canadians, and today they've put the spotlight on me!  You can see my complete profile here, and this is an example of the questions they ask:

Favourite book? It's impossible to pick just one, but Ezra Jack Keats' Snowy Day was important for me; it was the first book I read as a child that featured a Black protagonist, and Keats' books continue to inform my scholarship on multicultural children's literature.

Favourite quote? "Bear but a touch of my hand and you shall be upheld in more than this." – from Dickens' A Christmas Carol

Given the chance, what would you love to do that you haven't done yet? Publish books for children IN Canada! I'm working on developing a conference to discuss the lack of diversity in Canada's publishing industry.

Colleagues at York University have since taken on that conference, so all I have to do now is find a Canadian press willing to give my work a chance…

Triangle Fire

If you've ever complained about conditions at your job, you might want to take a moment today to recognize the dozens of young women who died 100 years ago in the horrific fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.  When people ask why we need unions, it soon becomes clear that they don't know much about labor history in the US.  As Frederick Douglass famously asserted, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."  And when demands are dismissed, disaster often follows, as was the case here in NYC in 1911—and workers STILL have to fight for fair and safe working conditions.  PBS has a great interactive site for their recent film on the Triangle Fire; you can watch the complete film here.

unpacking the past

I've got a new essay up at Hunger Mountain—here's a short excerpt:

Canada is a former British colony, and so I grew up reading (and loving) British "classics."  Looking back on it now, I am not at all surprised that my fifth-grade teacher would select a seventy-five year old book for her students.  What I cannot forgive is the book's appalling depiction of "dirty" (yet "shiny") "savages" who—with their "brown coppery" skin and Afros—just happen to match a description of me at age nine.  Did the video include this tropical scene with drum-beating, wildly dancing natives whose language sounds to the white children like "Oo goggery bag-wag"?

(illustration by HR Millar, from The Phoenix & the Carpet)

Roots & Blues

I'm so pleased to share this interview with you!  Arnold Adoff has been a friend and mentor to me for some time now, and we can all benefit from his wisdom, insight, and experience in the publishing industry.  Stay tuned because illustrator R. Greg Christie will be featured soon.  Arnold's words and Greg's images are perfectly paired in this beautiful book—a wonderful gift for a child, teen, or adult.

I once had another children's book author mock the reference to Charlie Parker in my picture book, Bird.  His point was that kids listen to hip hop, not jazz.  Talk about your decision to write about the blues—a musical genre, a time, and place (the rural South) seemingly far removed from today's youth.

the blues is the foundation stone for all of our "popular" music(s)….

and think of that solid rock so powerful it can propel into the air and float and spin

through decades and geographies:

from robert johnson and itta bena, mississippi …

to nina simone and tupak and (even) the beatles….

this is always known and always understood….

what

is more difficult to discern…to have registered on developing sensibilities…

is that sense of history…the movements from the rural south(s) to the town and cities

of the north…

(and my riff on the george santaya philosophical line: those who not study their histories

are inevitably doomed to repeat and repeat the mistakes (and meaningless

mediocrities) which weaken into self-destruction and marginalization….)

a people grows and moves and reaches beyond itself/selves

in all forms of communication…all forms of art….

if we are aware…if we teach our young…

if we remain rooted in this moment and are able

to also trace backwards….

all the trails remain:

from baraka to langston backwards to blues….

from clapton to big joe turner and backwards…to blues….

from malcolm and martin backwards to garvey and tubman to blues….

from fifty cents to muddy waters to bessie smith to the blues….

these geographies should be part of required curriculum in every school (black and white and

in-between….)

and yes, it is always a continuing struggle…to go backwards when vast media machines

pull us forward into something new to buy….

so blues and jazz always require the active energies of one generation onto/into the next….

the blues lifts the listeners and heightens feelings and thought(s)

and

the blues is a s u r v i v a l  music…a tool…a weapon of self and self love(s)….

Technology is changing the way many people write.  As a poet, tell me what you think of Twitter and other platforms that require concise communication.  Is this a promising moment for poetry?

my thumbs are too old to (even) text…let along tweet….but i remain open to all forms

of communication from all generations of readers and listeners and friends….

pesonally: i have been poeting "seriously" since around 1946…and the math tells me

thats almost 65 years…or loving language and respecting the music as well as the meaning of the language made into the pieces of poems and "poet's prose…." i work out an idosyncratic "shaped colloquial

speech" style which requires the space and spaces on a page…to mean something…and to sing….

this is a time of wonderful poetry… and performing crap…as in all  art forms…and in all times….

marketing and promotion and self-promotion strategies like facebook and twitter do what they were designed to do….babely communicating the bare bones of thought or piece of information…all the juice of language removed…the nuances…the conflicting and parallel meanings….

and in the end…there is only convenience…a taco in the car…moving forward again…but to w h e r e….

and in my darker moments…i can't help wondering what will be left of the tree when the bark (and bite) is gone…and the juice is gone…and shaving down humane human communication to its thinnest

stalk…leaves only the vulnerabilities….

be controlled or be destroyed….

[image error]

outside child

Have you been following the great posts over at Women Doing Literary Things?  It's my turn today, and I borrowed Audre Lorde's term—"sister outsider"—to express both the acceptance and exclusion I've experienced within the publishing industry.  Here's an excerpt:

When I learned that the goal of this blog was to "celebrate and reaffirm the depth and breadth of women's involvement in literature," I knew I wanted to participate. Yet when I reflect upon my involvement in the literary world, I find that little of my time and energy has gone toward addressing "the fundamental wrongness of gender disparities." When everyone in your world is female, gender tends not to be the focus. For me, the main problem isn't that men are impeding my progress as a writer. The truth is, behind every door that has been closed in my face…there's another woman.

Sometimes that woman looks like me, but more often than not, she doesn't. She belongs to a different race, a different class, and a different culture.

day's end

Today's the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which sounds sort of ridiculous since we all know that battle's been going on for CENTURIES. But it can't hurt to draw attention to this issue, and 2011 *is* the International Year for People of African descent. I like this essay posted on the FEDCan blog:

Very few people feel comfortable talking directly about discrimination, unless in very abstract terms. I expect that most Canadians would agree with the statement: "Racists are bad, and I'm definitely not racist." In fact, lots of people choose to wear Racism: Stop It! buttons on March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. A large part of the problem is Canadians' self-understanding of our identity; we are nice people. So how could we allow bad things like racism to exist here?

That's a huge hurdle to overcome—Canadians thinking they're too nice to be racist.  I'm excited about my upcoming trip to Toronto in April, and look forward to introducing Canadian children to my books.  Jill at Rhapsody in Books recently posted a really nice review of Bird; it's so gratifying to know my first book still resonates with readers.

Lastly, you won't want to miss Doret's fabulous guest post at Kidlit Celebrates Women's History—she's got lots of great recommendations if you're looking for books about the important contributions made by women of color.

signs of spring

Since I can't take a picture of how easily distracted I am and prone to procrastinate…

small world

I often tell people that part of what makes me Canadian is knowing how to live a small life in a big place.  I live in NYC but really, I live in Brooklyn.  I was in the Village last night (after seeing Jane Eyre, which was spectacularly slow and irredeemably dull) and I could feel myself sliding into HSP overload—too many people, almost all of them young and loud and wearing lots of make-up.  I felt like such an old lady and I kept marveling at the fact that I was out on a Friday night—in Manhattan!  When I write, I shut down as much as I can; that enables me to focus on the world I'm building for my characters.  Trouble is, once I finish writing I'm left with my own reduced reality.  People stop calling when you stop answering the phone, and I'm *so* grateful that my friends stand by me whether I'm writing or not.  They wait for me, and I appreciate that more than they'll ever know.  I talked to my editor yesterday and he loves Ship of Souls, even calling it "better than Wish."  I'm still tinkering with it, but feel good knowing that my next book has a home.  Today I went to the park for a power walk and then ambled over to the boathouse.  The last time I was there, I found a pile of paving stones that wound up being a major part of the most dramatic scene in SOS.  The time before that, I sat beside the water after a long walk and was joined by two swans—one of the most magical days ever.  I get quiet when I'm in the park and that's why so many story ideas come to me then.  Today the pile of paving stones was circled by a makeshift fence.  I feel like I need to write these things down now so I don't forget about them later.  I found two cowrie shells on the sidewalk near my home—that was what pushed me to write last winter, but SOS started a year ago just as spring was beginning.  I was walking outside the park and looked through the fence and saw D, and Nyla, and Keem.  They didn't have names then, but it was clear that the younger boy felt excluded by the older teens.  And something invisible was stirring up the dead leaves on the ground.  I can't really pin it down—isn't a story always in process, always growing in your mind?  There's something about trees and rocks—they're solid, silent witnesses to so many things.  I walked around the lake today and made myself look more closely at things I ordinarily ignore.  Small as my world is, there's still a lot left undiscovered and unrecorded.  Which is why I'm still tinkering with SOS, adding all the details that get lost when you focus on drama or conflict or the safety of your characters.  I remember telling a friend about the book and she said, "Don't kill him at the end, Z—let him live."  That wasn't my original intention, but she got her way and that means the book has a "to be continued" feel to it.  For now, I'll settle for a manuscript that feels complete.  I want the reader to see Brooklyn through D's eyes, which are really my eyes, of course…

magnet

I don't know about you, but when I start thinking about a certain subject, I often find that my mind turns into a sort of magnet—suddenly everything I'm reading, watching, or talking about leads me back to that particular topic.  Right now, that topic is slavery; I'm teaching a new course on neo-slave narratives and realizing that the course design is in some ways insufficient.  Not a good feeling to have when you're standing in front of a group of students who expect you to have all your ducks in a row.  Yesterday I started talking about slavery in England and the British empire, and I kept throwing out titles—"Who's read Jane Eyre?  How about Thackeray—Vanity Fair?  What's that Jane Austen novel about slavery—Mansfield Park?"  And all I got were blank stares.  So then I asked, "How many of you are English majors?"  Half the students raised their hands, but then I realized that these are American students; there's no reason they should be familiar with the British literary tradition.  A couple of them had read Wide Sargasso Sea, but how do I teach a book set in the Caribbean when most of the students know nothing about slavery outside the US?  That's when the magnet mind actually helps…on Monday I came home from class with a headache, turned on the TV fully expecting to fall asleep on the couch, and instead found myself riveted by an episode of Globe Trekker—the travel show—that was on…the trans-Atlantic slave trade!  Great concept: most of the big tourist destinations on the globe are in some way tied to the slave trade.  Think about that…

[image error]

Next week we're reading The Book of Night Women by Marlon James; I hoped to find a video of James reading from the book but only found this podcast interview (#199) and this video interview on You Tube.  But while I was on You Tube, I came across this fascinating BBC series, Slavery in Jamaica.  It follows the fortunes of one British family, the Beckfords, who migrated to the Caribbean and built an astonishing fortune by exploiting slave labor on various sugar plantations.  Unfortunately, only 4 excerpts are on You Tube and so I've emailed the BBC to find out about acquiring the entire program.  Basically, I'm reconciled to the fact that this course will be much better the next time I teach it.  The first time is always about trial and error, with students serving as guinea pigs, in a way.  Sometimes I feel like I really want to teach a history course with novels rather than a literature course with historical content.  I need some sort of hybrid!  Today is all about grading and then going to see Jane Eyre…in between those two things, I'll be speaking with my editor about Ship of Souls.