December II, 2002
Page A 7
e
con tin u ed
fro m F ront
for her m other to find.
“ S h e n e v e r r e a d th e m ,”
D o u g la s s-A n d re w s sa id . “ S he
d id n ’t w ant to violate my privacy.”
W hen her attem pts to discretely
clue her family into her secret failed,
D ouglass-A ndrew s began w riting
m ore and m ore as a w ay to distance
h erself from reality. She said w rit
ing w as therapeutic in that it gave
her an arena w here she could co n
trol the situations.
A fter she graduated from M ount
H ood C om m unity C ollege w ith a
degree in journalism , she w anted to
w rite books. But people told her
she w ould have to support her habit
until it could support her. So she
w orked at a local new spaper in
W ashington before getting a jo b at
theSeattle-T im es.
“I never did m ake it into the ed i
torial departm ent there,” D ouglass-
A ndrew s said. “ But I w as on my
w ay to the top, starting at the very
bottom .”
She w anted to be a reporter, so
she started by selling new spapers,
w orking in the S eattle-T im es cu s
tom er service departm ent and even
tually in ad sales, but decided to
w rite ‘From G hetto to G lo ry ’ in
stead.
“It’s a good thing I quit the
T im es,” she said. “B ecause w riting
this book has been the key to my
sanity. L iving w ith m ultiple p er
sonalities is a trip.”
In the end, though, D ouglass-
A ndrew s has the strength to look
h er past, straight in the eye. She
puts the seven other parts o f her
c o n s c io u s n e s s in th e ir p ro p e r
place, finds it in her heart to forgive
her brother for the incest and learns
to love, respect and trust herself,
f
T hat, said D ouglass-A ndrew s,
is w hat ‘From G hetto to G lory’ is all
about - the strength to go on and
the ability to take som ething n ega
tive and turn it into a positive.
“People say I ’m a survivor b u t I
d o n ’t like that w ord,” she said. “The
w ord survivor sounds pitiful, like
people should feel sorry for me. I
Author Monique
Douglass-Andrews is
seen through a wooden
fence that once held
her neighbors barking
dogs as she stares in
discomfort at her
childhood home and
the place of her abuse.
“Oh my god, its still
the same - it never
changes," she said.
“My mama's curtains
are still in the window
and I bet there is still
blood on the rug."
PHOTO BY W YNDF. D Y F.R /
T he P ortland
O bserver
A STORY TO TELL
w anted som ething stronger, so I
chose to call m yself an ‘overcom er.’
T his book isn ’t about ju st surviv
ing - it’s about overcom ing.”
D o u g la s s-A n d re w s said she
d id n ’t w rite a book to have it sit on
a shelf and collect dust. She w ants
‘From G hetto to G lo ry ’ to m ake a
difference. She said she w anted
people to read her experiences and
to learn from them.
“I decided if I could help ju st one
person - 1 know that m ay seem like
a sm all num ber -b y sharing my
story,” she said. “T h en its alm ost
like I d id n 't go through the abuse in
vain.”
So in betw een local and national
book signing obligations, like a
speaking engagem ent in the Bronx
for as m any as 50,000 in attendance
at the N ational C ouncil o f N egro
W om en annual book conference,
D ouglass-A ndrew s makes it a point
to go w here she thinks people can
m ost benefit from her story.
™ People say I ’m a survivor
but I don’t like that word. I
wanted something stronger,
so I chose to call myself an
‘overcomer. ’
— Monique Douglass-Andrews, author o f‘From Ghetto to Glory. Ik
O ne o f those stops happened to
be a m eeting for Project N etw ork, a
non-profit group in Portland that
helps w om en recover from d om es
tic abuse and drug and alcohol
addiction.
W hile in tow n visiting fam ily for
Thanksgiving, she m ade an appear
ance during a group therapy ses
sion and was overw helm ed by the
response to her story.
“O ne w om an said, ‘Y o u ’re sav
ing liv es,’ and I alm ost cried,”
D ouglass-A ndrew s said. “T h at’s
pretty pow erful. You never know
how you are going to touch som e
on e.”
,,
The m ajor focus o f her speaking
engagem ents is to let people who
have been abused know that they
are not alone. D ouglass-A ndrew s b ers’ will continue w here ‘From
said the self-hatred and feelings o f G hetto to G lory’ left o ff with the
w orthlessness are com m on sym p second half o f Sookie’s life. The
tom s for all victims, not ju st victims book will cross over from the auto
o f incest. She said many people biographical style into the fiction
d o n ’t have the courage to go on side o f literature. Inside S ookie’s
and she likes to m otivate them to be head are millions of doors with what
brave by relating her experiences to D ouglass-A ndrew s calls big chains
theirs.
and locks holding them shut. In
“I have a lot in com m on with order to truly learn to love and trust
these w om en,” she said. “They may herself, Sookie will have to open
have turned to drug or alcohol abuse each door and explore the cham ber
as a coping m echanism and I never inside.
“It will be very powerful," Douglass-
did that, but 1 abused my body by
Andrews
said. “I’m very excitedforthe
sleeping with a lot o f m en.”
D ouglass-A ndrew s likes to en new things ahead of me.”
‘From G hetto to G lory’ is avail
courage people to go on - no m atter
w hat - and to overcom e the situa able at all large national chain book
tions in life that w ould rather hold stores and Reflections, on the cor
ner o f K illingsw orth and M artin
a person back.
In her case, w riting has enabled L u th e r K in g Jr. B o u le v a rd .
her to m ove forw ard and out o f the D ouglass-A ndrew s will be signing
books at the Lloyd C enter Barnes
darkness o f her past.
D ouglass-A ndrew s, w ho now and N obles on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. and
lives in A rlington, W ash., is also at the Jantzen Beach Barnes and
w orking on a new book. ‘Cham - N obles on M arch 13 at 7:30 p.m.
$5 Cover
con tin u ed
fro m F ront
m iddle son, takes to a life o f crim e
and the youngest, D addy Bubba,
tries his hardest to hold the fam ily
together w ith sm iles and laughter.
But even D addy B ubba c o u ld n 't
save Sookie from D addy C h a z’s
gravest crim e - repeated rape, m o
lestation and em otional abuse that
sent her into a dow nw ard spiral and
opened the doors for the spirits - or
dissociative identities - to com e in.
The hom e that was once filled
with fond m em ories o f Christm as
tim e with pogo-sticks, drum sets,
science kits and doll houses now fills
up with darkness and what Sookie
calls ‘The Ugly.’ The walls move like
a pair o f breathing lungs. W hen they
stand still, Sookie says they sweat.
No am ount o f scrubbing can erase
the bloodstains left by a dead dog
under Daddy C haz'sbed. Little black
fingerprints leave scratch m arks on
the walls in the basem ent coal room.
The house is alive.
W hat lived inside that house
m akes its hom e in S ookie’s mind.
T he ghost o f an old w om an nam ed
N ellie tells her that children had
been m urdered and buried in the
hom e. She tells S ookie that she can
save the girls by sharing her body
w ith them . So the floodgates open,
and in com e seven girls - M oan,
M ona, T he T w ins, T he M om m y
Part, Blue and T he M ean Part.
T h ese seven g irls stay w ith
S ookie through her childhood, as
she m akes friends from other fam i
lies broken by abuse, alcoholism
and addiction. T hey form a tight
clo th es w earing a ll-g irls’ gang
called T he T uff Cookies and Sookie
explores juvenile lesbian tenancies.
A fter adolescence, she becom es
prom iscuous, graduates from high
school and has a child.
S ookie gets a degree in jo u rn al
ism from M ount H ood C om m unity
C ollege and m oves aw ay from O r
egon, virtually cutting o ff all co n
tact w ith her fam ily.
But no m atter how far she runs,
S ookie cannot escape her past. In
her daughter she sees al 1 the i tnper-
fections in her self. The M ean Part
o f S ookie’s m ind tries to drow n her
daughter in the bathtub one night,
other tim es she ju st locks herself in
her room and cries.
In her quest to cleanse herself o f
the pain, Sookie unknow inglyjoins
a cult and m arries a m em ber o f the
church. He m akes her throw away
all o f her belongings because he
said the devil was in all of them. The
church com m ands them toquit their
jo b s, utilities get turned o ff and
S ookie’s husband tells the m ort
gage com pany he c a n 't pay his
hom e loan because h e 's w aiting on
a check from his father - m eaning
his Father, G od in heaven.
She returns to the
house that haunted
her childhood and
confronts each room
and the memories that
fill them, symbolically
putting each of the
seven girls in her head
back where they came
■»
tjk
from.
A fter she leaves her husband,
Sookie gets hooked up with a small
fam ily-run new spaper. S h e’s w rit
ing, doing w hat she loves and for
several years it seem s like a good
jo b until her publisher seduces her.
Faced with setback after setback,
S ookie decides to reconcile with
her m other w ho she had pushed
aw ay for so long. W ith the help o f
her m om , m any prayers, lots of
Donations Save ‘Harlem Song’
(A P)— More than $.300,000from
a variety o f public and private
sources has com e through for the
N ew Y ork m usical revue “H arlem
Song,” allow ing the production to
com plete its engagem ent this year
at the historic A pollo T heater and
return next fall for a three-m onth
season.
“ Happily, n o w ‘ H arlem S ong' is
paying for itself, or close to paying
for itself,” producer John S chreiber
said.
f » e r e 'X '° U
6S'
Show Time: 9 pm
L a st m o n th , S c h r e ib e r a n
nounced the show , a history of
H arlem told in song and dance,
w ould have to close unless more
m oney w as forthcom ing to keep it
running. E ven though “H arlem
Song" has been seen by over 70, (MM)
theatergoers, it suffered substan
tial financial losses since opening
last A ugust.
T he producer said the new infu
sion o f cash cam e prim arily from
tw o sources — the U pper M anhat
tan Em pow erm ent Zone and the
N ew York City Investm ent Fund, a
private fund.
T he E m pow erm ent Zone, a co l
laborative effort by city, state and
the federal governm ent to provide
funding to business enterprises and
cultural institutions, cam e aboard
first, S chreiber said.
“W e hope Harlem Song' will be
the first resident com pany at the
A pollo T heater for the Perform ing
A rts," Schreiber said.
therapy and a m an w ho loves and
marries her, she is finally able to
disclose the truth about Daddy Chaz
to her shocked fam ily.
Sookie then does w hat many
abuse victim s cannot do - she lets
her brother back into her heart for
the good she know s is in him and
not ‘The U gly’ that caused him to
violate her.
She returns to the house that
haunted her childhood and co n
fronts each room and the m em ories
that fill them , sym bolically putting
each o f the seven girls in her head
back w here they cam e from.
In terestin g ly en o u g h , S o o k ie
and her d a u g h te r S h u g a m ake a
trip to the M u ltn o m ah C o u n ty
L ibrary to rese arch h e r hom e on
N o rth east 19lh A v en u e. She fin d s
a 1947 copy o f T h e O reg o n ian
w ith an obituary and picture o f
N ellie, a w om an born in 1859 w ho
had lived in the house for 37 years.
N ellieattended the H ighland B ap
tist C hurch and m em b ers told
S ookie the o ld w om an had seven
g ran d ch ild ren - all g irls.
W ritten with a fresh narrative
and the help o f a ‘loving g h o st’
who coaxes Sookie to keep telling
her story w hen she would rather
close the book, w hat From G hetto
to G lory' does best is show readers
no m atter how bad life may seem,
there is alw ays a reason to go on.
Doors Open at 8pm
Every Thursday
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Featuring the live di:
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December 31st
Tickets
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This is a benefit for the
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