A Word on Words; 3209; Pearl Cleage

so you know once again welcome also today is pro clegg and the book is something as i never thought i'd do what a title but you know i do you are you have the interesting titles all the time i was at a red dress and what was it like what looks like crazy on an ordinary day in those huge a novel yet in nonfiction books as well but welcome to work ordinance is your first visit here in idaho have missed in the bath i know you're for the years of the book festival and that's an exciting as an exciting time but the book girl from the words in it exciting reason because it blend in are all the problems of society and then fall in them into a political contest and i mean there is addiction there is

that madeline penelope there is roth wrote crazy aligned very visionary and the lucrative andrews not crazy at all that's a he they have a heroine was a strong black woman who is so was confused but able to find her way and really emerged as their own story now did you know at the outset she i did i always start with the characters i learned an activist as well as an artist so that i always had issues in my head i'm always thinking about the real world that i'm going to put these people in iran so that i'm always trying to find a character who is flawed but who is at the moment where she's been stronger which is getting ready to look at what he's done and try to move forward so regina was was the one i was with joe humans also known as gina and is the way drug rehab

and has made it back ryan is on solid ground and she comes home and iran and he is there waiting on her an emmy as vision has absolutely an emmy and ever tell your chin or our full at the thirty she says to her there's a man wouldn't you crossed a man looking for you across town blackmon and june or so so that you know maybe she is great <unk> a little skeptical so odd and so she's taking this job in atlanta she's worried about that job in atlanta the courtyard had conflict would a woman want to import exactly that's really the the one that drove her into drones in the first place she's got to go back and work for her because the job is such a good job and she's really trying to

rebuild some of those bridges that she burned she mortgaged her family house and she really needs to make some money quickly to save the house at the size to go back and work with that they can which is a big risk is that there's a very strong very opinionated woman let's begin talking on a bungee ride what about this i know from the outset this was trying to in some way mr connor the men come to me and a new audience that was a really interesting character for me she is really a person who grows out of my own interest in very charismatic people and to look at someone like an oprah winfrey or like some of the politicians that we see who are extraordinarily charismatic they can move us they can make us feel things that is like that but i am often unconcerned about what if this person is it really a good person what if the person really has another agenda that isn't that good agenda that we

see when we look at them and we hear them talk to us and that is like that she's done good work she's a single mother who raised a son and her whole life is based on that sunny yet son having been a perfect man she raised a perfect child all by herself so that her work is really with other single mothers and her reputation has been made on the fact that her son is a perfect man and when she realizes after her son dies tragically that perhaps her son was not the perfect man that she thought he was her main concern her only concern is to make sure that no one else knows that in her book son shaun in this bus on where i really saw a projected her in today on a national role there is the mother of single mothers right time and she is the dominant party in the nation on single mothers and me and son in her mind and in her book sunshine is indeed perfection

he is the mail boy to become adult who was as perfect as a child could be you know child is that perfect and it turns out that song was not that perfect now gina within days to sell and the conflict between gina and beth now that sounds good the conflict was the jena wanted to take some away and be her and betty moore give him up exactly it really it was time for him to to be apart from his mother to a half a mile down to do his own work he really was a person who could see the value in his mother's work and had been working with her and had actually invested the money for her to publish that book in the first place that he wanted to work more with them and he did not want to continue to work with his mother with single mothers because his idea was it doesn't make sense to have all of these wonderful enlightened strong brave courageous single mothers if there is not also a pool a strong courageous sensible man for them to

find entered fall in love with and to have their own their relationships with so he really wanted to move into his own work and his mother was not prepared to let go you know he headed in the game up to death and no shoes get a lawyer and it's called a legacy project engineer so says you know some hundreds of chanel no object orange guess they're what he really wants is a batteries wants her to dig through the files and find in a dirt in there and a damage son and give these papers to morehouse school of produce more decaying great leaders only a great day of celebration which son is really gonna shine in perpetuity and the us wants it to be perfect and she doesn't want any dirt in the

fall to come out and so she's got this young woman jane needs money badly and she compare well it'd been there in three installments says it's a very badly that i got you and i would keep your answer either that you two thousand ad that mystery that's right well she can sit down and you need a place to say and tell us about what wish you were here was his interested in finding a place near at morehouse college because she wants to be able to walk back and forth to work so she's walking around the neighborhood around morehouse which is the west end neighborhood in atlanta which is really the community that i've lived in for many years and she is struck by how different it is and that it was last time she was there last time she was there it had all of the problems that are african american urban communities have unemployment angry young people predatory man trash in the streets all of those things and when she comes that this time she finds it's completely different people are walking safely in the street and there's a twenty four hour beauty shots of women can either at four in the morning were common in

liberia no danger all of el vacant lots that have been rubbish strewn are now a beautiful community gardens growing color green eggs and tomatoes and all of that and she wonders what happened to this neighborhood what is the difference that has made his transformation and she is walking down a quiet street looking for a place in hears bob marley voice coming out of an apartment window and she stops and for the apartment says this would be the perfect place i love this music and i just wish that i could live here and a man opens the door and comes out and introduces himself and that's boo hamilton who is her landlord after she does rent the apartment but it's also the that really galvanizing force behind the change in his neighborhood he's a former argentine singer who realized that he was saying these beautiful love songs to women who couldn't walk home from the concert without getting mugged so he came off the road but a lot of property in the neighborhood and decided to say within this small area women will be safe i will make this zone a safe zone for women as beth had been a dominant figure and one for you

in her initial irritation a blue heron his own racial repetition and he was hot and one that and they went and when i when he sang it resonated i mean you were touched by the moon by the end the game all add up rich is he was game home and sentiment change with james's voice and really we learned on track outs and put the crack dealers across the lawn and therein lies another conflict goes they're bad guys on the other side a lion was to do nothing and i was trying to encroach on the nato allies and they i think they what they'd like to do well rest among the volunteer events and i think that the men until a

spoiled blues perfect world on me now talk to me a little bit about the legacy of war was proposing to me that you don't really understand the full impact of what's about to happen when the issue on sale the predominance of the prominence of that screwed in the black commuting or more houses up are the headline oversee center which is several black colleges group together spelman college is also they are and ham morehouse really points to the legacy of wonderful black man that have come through that school macho thinking as certainly their most famous graduate but part of that and the legacy of the school which is we have trained so many wonderful black man we've put out into the world so many productive young man is really in contrast to what the neighborhood around that school actually is

so part of what i wanted to raise was how do you have a place that is famous for raising responsible good black man in a neighborhood where the real problem is the black man in that neighborhood were preying on each other who are preying on the women and children that live there so they bloom who is very unconventional and means he chooses to go about changing this neighborhood and reclaiming this neighborhood are certainly not the kinds of things that they're teaching at morehouse college but he doesn't make them in in that area behave in a way that morehouse could certainly claim if they chose to for those huge justin dehn about her new book some things i never thought i would do in his own it's a terrific agrees it is falling the money it is serious it's it's served as someone for trivia it's a great tragedy now so now we know what more house

is understand what beth really has in mind let's talk again about yet another conflict i mean blues candidate for governor as a black woman named precious margaret win and precious are the real paul tough poll and i know the way around the streets are bummed but as a high vision then is going and is in the process of pushing his candidacy while gina i heroine is working in the files to make sure that sun is presented a morehouse in a clean way turns out that precious is on the program for that day and you really weak he really

and seductively we talk about talk about that political conflict i mean i never had the slightest idea that better than any interest in the holy god i thought she just wanted to make some it's funny because she doesn't seem to be a person who would have political ambitions but then when you think about her she is a person who loves to stand in front of rooms full of people and have been cheering screaming week which is what people do because she's such a charismatic speaker so that when people come to her and say you know you could do this on a much bigger scale your ego arm could take you much further than you are you could be that only the first female governor of georgia but you can be the first black female governor of georgia and her ego really gets in the way of her understanding that this is not her role she doesn't know anything about politics she doesn't know anything about government in terms of being able to get a bill through in terms of being able to actually do the things that a governor should do precious is a wonderful politician goes to the meetings of the little people as

really and a great community based politician but he's not very charismatic on people love her but they love her one on one she is and confesses that she's not very charismatic in the way that bet that she can't move tremendous rooms full of people to scream and holler and throw their hats in the year but she knows how to get the legislation passed that will help them live their lives and those women writing about those women and about politics is a direct outgrowth of the fact that we have a black female mayor in atlanta now was a wonderful progressive person and it really changed my idea about politics because i'm used to when i get mad at the mare marched down to city hall to a picket sign how shake my finger in his face all of that but this woman is a woman just like me a woman that i've known for thirty years so that i had to really look at what is the role of those of us who put these women forward and want from them a new style of leadership we want them to do things in a really different way how can we help them do it happen we'd be involved in doing it as a part of that effort rather than what we used to do which is to go pick them and fuss

was she comes and really odd out of my real admiration for me or i work a lot in politics or nine i really think that women have a different ways to bring we have a different style of leadership to bring in i wanna precious to be a part of that and that she is a person who really does care about her constituents they knew clearly did not want to knock on their behalf is almost like the anti oprah to me because then the thought occurred to me i'm watching oprah winfrey what if she was really a person who had political ambitions but she wasn't a good hearted person so many people respond to what she says that if she was a person like bear who could be swayed because of ego who could be encouraged to do those kinds of things then she would almost certainly get elected and i'm i think we can look at the politics and california and you know that as an actor was just elected because he was charismatic people responded to him personally in the same way that they do to bear so that whole question of electing people to office because they are charismatic celebrities is is very

present i think in my mind look inadequate and understanding who back isn't water peel it and look at our precious and on sending water appeal isn't water appeal isn't i have no doubt that beth probably would have cleaned or plow huge huge you give assistance give us a sense of that now it's now let's get to the very loosely grouped up his own head viewership and he had another family here and he had a child he had a woman that he loved it but he knew that his mother was not gonna like this woman we do not riots right in at very detectable compared to the woman that he fell in love with who used to make her living as a stripper and then fell in love with him and stop doing that kind of work and had a beautiful child and all of that but he had not worked up his nerve to tell his mother before he died so that he ended up with a whole secret life and that his mother knew nothing about

so she has a grandchild that she knows nothing about until the woman comes to her and says this is science child and i think you would want to know your grandson and that the course does not wanna know anything about an illegitimate grandson who's mother is a former stripper the fact that geno gets into the cigarettes and discovered bun puts her and the mother and the child at some risk at one point lou says to unearth something like this but one really only one world you have to talk into letting you protect them i didn't jump off the page and well i think that because of our history because of the because of the legacy of slavery because of the often acrimonious relationships between black women black women for all kinds of

reasons we don't expect to be taken care of we don't trust people to take care of us as black women so that were suspicious when someone offers to do that so the wind blew says i can take care of it we'll let me handle it and she resists at is reacting today at around to what she's bringing which is no i don't think so and also i think because what were always afraid of is that we will begin to expect that if you find someone who says i'll take care of you and then they do it you kind of relax into being taken care of and most of us don't believe that that's going to last even if it happens once even if it happens twice were so suspicious of absolute love and care and protection that we tend to reject it because we don't want to hurt that comes when he goes away did you know when you started the book that death this role model this shining personality

then had contacts on the dark shadow oh sure absolutely arm seizing names and to do or place in this book to be used by death at the moment you wanted to create a tension well no they live in that world they live in that neighborhood who has only been able to secure a very small part of avid latter and right across the line as you were saying before they're all of these bad guys still circling still waiting for we dig at and so that death is a person who has risen who has become wealthy and famous and is doing all of this work the bet there's also a person who lives in the real world and who used to live in the neighborhoods that were not safe who knew all kinds of people so that it's not so much that they were placed in the book for them to be used when she got really those people are always in that world are always in those neighborhoods they are always they are to be asked to you know to be invited in to do the nefarious things that they're trying to do and when it came time for that to

need someone to do those things she knew exactly where to go it's not hard to find me and you know is on to it in on cian o'driscoll and then the question is even though she's got blue protector they shouldn't have the courage and can she find a way to do and also what as she prepared to do to secure the safety of this young woman who has sons child what she prepared to do because it was not a person who was going to ask you do you want me to do this or do you want to do this was a person who has already made a decision about what he's going to do so that the the question also that i'm trying to raise is even those of us who say we want to be safe we wanna walk in the moonlight we don't wanna look over our shoulders in our own communities what are we prepared to trade in order to have that are we really prepared to have some of my boo hamilton say i can make these bad guys go away because she knew what he meant when he said he could make the bad guys go away and was she ready to say ok do it i want you to do that or does that mean something about

her to say ok we're not gonna call the police were not gonna call the sheriff we're gonna handle this within our own little group and blue is certainly a person who has decided that he wants to be the one who handled it now let's talk about the final scenario in a minute precious is on the program and bess take control that would like to like to keep or off on the economy to honor her son and she's going to use this occasion to sort of springboard for that the republican candidate for governor and believe me she is admired in the white community a white conservative just love everything she's been able to do it partly why to help black woman pulling sales of valor own bootstraps and make something of their lives and she doesn't want precious get in the way that she is really

thinking about running and now we've gone to the point of listen and gauging the underworld the helper inner improv live tell me you what i mean i never felt more excited about in a chapter book and i did when i saw how you pulled off just that they did talk about a little bit about the process or it goes through to create a dramatic climax big sitting there really isn't oh well i was so i wanted to have of a crime really from there that would be just really a terrible thing where we would say how could this woman do this how that she reject her grandson and we've seen the grandson has a beautiful little child has a new baby he's just walking all of that so that i wanted to have her reject this childish in a way were we would not want her to do that we want her to do the right thing we want her to embrace this child so then in the last scene what we have

is the mother of the baby had a scene from his first birthday party which was right before his father was killed and she gives it to jena who then takes this videotape and bet doesn't know it and she gives it a precious so that when precious is time on the programme comes forward she puts this video on which is a big surprise to bear but it son at his baby's first birthday party and he's happy and he's human and he's so alive and he is all of that day instead she wanted him to be as a man and this is her grandchild and then when they turn the lights back on of course that the audiences we love the family and then the little boy and his mother are coming from the back of the auditorium and then have to look at them and realize that this is all she has left of her son and i love i'm a new grandmother so the idea that anyone could reject their grandbaby was just inconceivable at all we but so that i was able to have a building great music heroin and you know it's a grand rounds or will relate to that site and it's a grabber that you have do you have when i'm in the grand baby any runs into

our arms how can you resist very thing and i'll let her in your heart well i've given away the yoga the secret of the story but i don't feel bad about it because i think there are people out there and loaded story even though they got the bare outlines of adults alike big city well look i know i know your work and i absolutely had just about a minute the next book would sit in the same neighborhood it's two sisters two more black women one who has lived abroad for the last twenty years i'm really interested in kind of expanding where my characters can move around sly got one sister who's been living in italy for twenty years and now she's coming back to live with her younger sister who has lived in the same western community for a long time and they're working with you know what that means and what its like to come back and can you ever go back and all of those things so it's come along well when it comes along i hope you'll come back along here and others see once again

we've been talking to provide we've run out of time thank you for coming to hang all of you for watching and they were those on oregon oregon john see a dollar