Interview with Jewell Parker Rhodes at Little, Brown
Transcribed from the original audio, which can be found at Little, Brown’s site for Ninth Ward.
Jennifer Hunt: Hello, this is Jennifer Hunt, editorial director for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and I have the distinct pleasure of being here with Jewell Parker Rhodes, author of Ninth Ward. Jewell, I’d love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a writer.
Jewell Parker Rhodes: When I was growing up as a child I read books all the time. I just loved books. And though I wrote all the time as well, I never could see that I could be a writer. It wasn’t until I was a junior in college that I read a book by Gail Jones and I thought oh, I can do this, I can tell a story, and in particular tell stories about the African American community. And that’s when I switched my major from theater to English, and I was lucky enough to have a creative writing teacher who didn’t say I was terrible! So I just started writing, and I’ve been writing ever since.
Jennifer: How did the idea come to you for Ninth Ward, and can you tell us a little bit about the story?
Jewell: I’ve always been attracted to New Orleans and I’ve been writing about New Orleans for many, many years. I almost feel as though it was like my spiritual home or maybe in another life I lived there, I don’t know, that there’s just something special between me and New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina happened I was actually promoting an adult book and I was just overwhelmed with the thought of us losing this wonderful city, overwhelmed with the threat of destruction to the people and the community that I’d known for so long and loved. Afterwards, once the levees broke, once they had the Superdome, the Red Cross rescues, and the way that the tragedy seemed to go on, and linger on and on and on, I thought even more about the children and what they were going through, the hardships, and the resilience they needed. So I wanted to write a book about a wonderful black girl named Lanesha and a boy named TaShon, and how the two of them, through friendship, love, and community, survive not only the hurricane, but they survive the levees breaking-they survive to become stronger individuals all because of the faith they have in themselves, and faith that was given to them because of Mama Ya-Ya, who is the best pretend grandmother anybody could ever have. Mama Ya-Ya is the person who will always give you a hug, Mama Ya-Ya knows what you need, Mama Ya-Ya even sees you before you’re coming. Mama Ya-Ya just feels the beauty of these children, and she honors them, and they in turn survive and honor her.
Jennifer: As you mentioned before, you are generally known for writing books for adults, specifically historical fiction, Douglas’ Women and Voodoo Dreams, which is how I knew your work when it first came to me. So I want to know a little bit about why you decided to write a children’s book, and what this process has been like, how it differs from your work for adults.
Jewell: Writing this children’s book has been a wonderful adventure, and Jennifer, you know better than anyone because you were there with me every step of the way, helping, guiding, and teaching me, for which I will always remain grateful! I always felt that children’s literature was sacred; I think that growing up, if I hadn’t had some of the stories I’d had, from Heidi to Mary Poppins to Black Beauty, I think my spirit would have been crushed. Books opened up a way for me to live in this world, to feel hope, to know that there were different ways of living in the world, and it really kept my imagination and my sense of horizons open. So all my life I’ve wanted to write a book for children that might have the same impact that some of these great books had upon me when I was young. But I think what happens for me as a writer is I write from voice, and one morning-and this was several years after Hurricane Katrina-I was reading about Hurricane Ike, which was threatening the Gulf of Mexico and threatening New Orleans, and I thought, oh my, here we go again. At that moment, Lanesha’s voice came to me and the first line of the novel- “I was born with a caul” -came to me and I started writing. So I was just lucky to have you say that you liked it too and for us to have an adventure together!
Jennifer: That’s one of the things that I really loved about it and I think is actually a really difficult thing to do but something that we agree upon, is really writing from the perspective as if you walked up to a window and peeked inside and saw a child in her most intimate moment of just sitting with her family or playing by herself; who is she in that moment? And one of the things I think you did so, so beautifully is to honor that child, and when we think about different kids, I know that you and I both feel that every single one of them has a wonderful story to tell, and I just appreciate how beautifully you were able to render a story about a child who lived through this incredible experience of Hurricane Katrina.
Jewell: Well, you know, of course, you helped a great deal with that. But I think that sense in writing a children’s book it’s even more important to stay close, as you said, to the experience. And so the times when I would think like an adult or add in commentary, those were the things that I had to take out because I think children are the most visceral beings; they feel, they sense that they are really in life and engaged in ways that sometimes as adults we become much more dulled by, or we put a distance between ourselves and experiences. So staying close to Lanesha, seeing the world as she saw it, tasting, hearing, feeling, sensing, was all magical for me. So Lanesha, maybe she’s a little child in me, or she’s some child we’ve given birth to, but she’s a special child and she’s meant to connect with all the world’s children.
Jennifer: One of the things that I would love to hear you talk a little bit about is how family and spirituality both play a major role in Ninth Ward, and I wondered why you chose to explore these topics, when it could have been a straight adventure story, but instead turned out to be so multilayered.
Jewell: When I think about my life’s adventure I think of how my family, in particular my grandmother, gave me the strength, the self-love, the nurturance to carry on; and I think that in terms of surviving and in terms of being resilient and in terms of making life better post-Katrina, that that’s what all those children would have needed in order to thrive. And knowing the African American community and knowing mothers love their children and fathers love their children, grandmothers nurture, I just felt as though I know these people and they give each other strength, they give each other love to go on. So family and spirituality, they’re entwined for me. My grandmother I think was a kind of spirit woman. If I had left out the spirituality I think there’s ways in which Lanesha might not have been able to go on, just based on her own sense of self. So it’s not just being part of family, it’s also having family carried with you like a spiritual cloak, so when they’re not there to help you, you draw on their sustenance, their love, in order to still thrive.
Jennifer: Which scene of the book was your favorite, and which one was the most difficult to write?
Jewell: I think one of my favorite scenes is when TaShon and Lanesha are playing with Spot. Spot is this mongrel that they’ve rescued, and Spot is dirty and frisky and bouncy. And they have the hose out and they’re trying to give the dog a bath, and it’s just for me a lovely sense of joy. All the people in the community stop and they too are enamored. Sometimes life is just that wonderful: giving a dog a bath, getting wet underneath the hose. So I loved writing about that; that was so much fun. And I love animals. I don’t think I could write a book for children without an animal. So that was the most fun.
The most difficult scene to write was when the water is rising. They’ve survived the hurricane and everybody seems to be okay, and then Lanesha starts noticing the water’s coming in, not draining out, and not only that, it’s rising up the attic steps. And that’s when she realizes that something else has gone wrong, that potentially the levees have broken, and so that the danger is not over. And I think in that sense we all expect, you go through this great adventure, you have the danger, you thrive, you survive, okay, I did it, I made it! And then for it to be, not yet-that was very tough to write emotionally.
Jennifer: Well, Jewell, I just want to say that I couldn’t be more proud or honored by this book and I have absolutely loved working with you, and I just wanted to say thank you. And thank you everybody for listening.
Jewell: Oh, thank you, and thank you everyone! Enjoy Ninth Ward.
Filed under Interviews.