Local News
Alice Walker: The ‘Beauty in Truth’ Interview
A
lice Walker has been
defined as one of the key
international writers of the
20th Century. She made history as
the first African-American woman
to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
as well as the National Book
Award in 1983 for her novel The
Color Purple — one of the few lit-
erary books to capture the popular
imagination and leave a perma-
nent imprint. The award-winning
novel served as the inspiration for
Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film and
was adapted for the stage, opening
at New York City’s Broadway
Theatre in 2005, and capturing a
Tony Award for best leading
actress in a musical in 2006.
An internationally celebrated
author, poet and activist, Alice’s
books include seven novels, four
collections of short stories, four
children’s books, and volumes of
essays and poetry. She has written
many other best sellers, too,
among them, Possessing the
Secret of Joy (1992), which
detailed the devastating
effects of female genital
mutilation and led to the
1993 documentary Warrior
Marks, a collaboration
with the British-Indian
filmmaker Pratibha Par-
mar, with Walker as execu-
tive producer.
In 2001, Alice was
inducted into the Georgia
Writers Hall of Fame and,
in 2006, she was honored
as one of the inaugural
inductees into the Califor-
nia Hall of Fame. In 2007,
her archives were opened
to the public at Emory
University.
In 2010, she presented the
keynote address at The 11th Annu-
al Steve Biko Lecture at the Uni-
versity of Cape Town in South
Africa, and was awarded the
Lennon/Ono Grant for Peace, in
Reykjavik, Iceland. Alice donated
the financial award to an orphan-
age for the children of AIDS vic-
tims in Kenya.
oh, that was a long time ago.
C ELEBRITY
I NTERVIEW
by Kam
Williams
She has served as a jurist for two
sessions of the Russell Tribunal on
Palestine, and writes a regular
blog on her website: www.alice-
walkersgardens.com. Here, she
talks about her career and about
the documentary “Alice Walker:
Beauty in Truth” which premieres
on PBS on Friday, February 7th at
9 p.m. ET/PT (check local list-
ings)
Kam Williams: Hi Alice. I’m so
honored to have this opportunity
to interview you.
Alice Walker: Oh, I’m so glad
to be talking with you, too, Kam.
KW: I’ll be mixing in my ques-
tions with some from readers.
Harriet Pakula-Teweles asks: how
do you feel about having the
biopic coming out about you?
AW: Well, it’s very interesting
because I almost never do any-
thing for Black History Month,
because I feel it’s just another way
to separate us. It’s amusing to me
that it would be coming out as a
Black History presentation on
PBS. But on the level of the film,
I like it. And I love the producer
[Shaheen Haq] and the filmmaker
[Pratibha Parmar]. I think they
were incredibly devoted. They did
it on a hope and a prayer, and at
one point had to rely on crowd-
sourcing because of the huge
expenses.
KW: I learned so much about
you from the film. For instance, I
was surprised to hear that Howard
Zinn had been a professor of yours
in college.
AW: He was already
teaching at Spelman when I
arrived as a freshperson.
Then, I took his class the
following year, because I
had gone to the Soviet
Union and wanted to learn
more about Russia, and I
think he was the only per-
son in all of Atlanta who
knew anything about Russ-
ian literature, which I
loved. He was teaching
Russian literature, the lan-
guage, and some of the pol-
itics. We became really
good friend when I took his
class, but then he was fired.
No matter who’s in charge
of the corporation that the
United States is, the
direction in which it is
taken seems to be
inexorable. So the
President just gets the job
of being the front man for
four or eight years.
C
O
KW: The only time I came close
to meeting you before now was
back in the Eighties one summer,
when I was invited to a party out
in the Hamptons that you were
rumored to be attending.
AW: Oh, I did have a few
friends near there, one in Mon-
tauk, another on Fire Island. But
M
M
U
N
KW: For doing more than just
teaching.
AW: He helped us desegregate
Atlanta. That was moving because
he took a lot of abuse for that. He
and Staughton Lynd, a fellow pro-
fessor who was also from the
North, stood with us. They were
certainly behind us. In fact, they
I
T
Y
C
Alice Walker
often stood in front of us. This had
a huge impact on me. But one of
the reasons I was very careful
about speaking about the relation-
ship I had with him and Staughton
was because, in a racist society, if
you acknowledge a deep love for
and a deep debt owed to white
teachers, they tend to discredit
your own parents and your own
community. And I was very
unhappy about that because I
come from somewhere and from
specific black people in the South,
including my parents, who built
our first school, and rebuilt it after
it was burned to the ground. And
they used to bake pies and cakes to
raise money to keep it going. So, I
learned to struggle from a very
early way in a way that was truly
indigenous to the South. You have
to keep at it! [Chuckles]
KW: The film also left me with
an appreciation of your deep con-
nection to nature. I have that, too.
I go for a walk in the woods every
day. It’s very spiritual to me.
AW: The forest is the first cathe-
dral. I felt that from the time I was
a child. I credit my mother with
that. I used to think it came from
her
Native-American
side.
Whichever it was, she instinctive-
A
L
E
N
D
ly connected with nature, and
taught me that. Church just could
not hold my spirit. It was a beauti-
ful, little church, too. As sweet as
could be. It was at a bend in the
road, with a big, oak tree shelter-
ing it. Still, I wandered right out
the window, mentally and emo-
tionally, got into the trees, and
never left.
KW: Kate Newell says: I'm
more than awestruck about this
opportunity to ask you a question.
How did you feel about the screen
adaptation of The Color Purple?
AW: I was worried about the
film at first, because I’d never had
a movie made of any of my work
on a big scale like that. There had
only been a couple of small, stu-
dent efforts before that. The Color
Purple was so overwhelming that I
actually brought a magic wand to
New York City for the premiere,
and pointed it at the screen in the
hope that movie didn’t embarrass
all of us. Lo and behold, it turned
out to be a beautiful picture. The
audience was so into it, gracious
and emotional, laughing when
they should be laughing, crying
when they should be crying. I got
See WALKER on page 6
A
R
S EATTLE 2014
Saturday February 1
If you have an event you want to share
with the community, email it two weeks
in advance to The Skanner at
info@theskanner.com
Thursday January 30
SWEETHEART BOUNCEFEST. Bring your little
sweetheart to Bouncefest. Carnival games, face
painting, carnival tickets .50 ea. Or you may
purchase an unlimited wristband. 5:30 – 7:30
p.m. Loyal Heights Community Center, 2101 NW
7th St. Seattle, WA 98117
Page 2 The Seattle Skanner
January 29, 2014
HANDS ON SKILLS FAIR. Folks from our
neighborhoods have stepped up to share skills
such as food preservation, gluten-free and much
more. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Meadowbrook
Community Center, 10517 35th Ave. NE Seattle,
WA 98125
Wednesday February 5
FREE TAX PREPARATION. Out teen computer lab
will have tax experts who are ready and willing
to help you file your taxes for free. 10 a.m. – 1
p.m. Rainier Community Center, 4600 38th Ave.
S. Seattle, WA 98118
Sunday February 9
SUPERBOWL FUN 5K RUN/WALK. Come out and
support the Seahawks with fellow fans. Free for all
to take part in. 10 a.m. Greenlake, 7201 E.
Greenlake Dr. N. Seattle, WA 98115
Tuesday February 4
HER VISION, HER VOICE. Do you want a change
and be heard? Check-out Her Vision, Her voice –
it’s an all-new, free group for girls who want to
change their world and have fun along the way.
For ages 5 – 18. 4 p.m. NewHolly Library, 7058
32nd Ave. S. Seattle
THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY CELEBRATES BLACK
HISTORY MONTH WITH AFRICAN AMERICAN
ODYSSEY. Join NW Tap Connection and Color
Lines Dance Ensemble for a celebration of
cultural heritage through dance, song, and
spoken word. 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Central Library,
1000 Fourth Ave. Seattle, WA
KIDS CLUB: VALENTINE’S SWEETS & CRAFTS. Kids
ages 7 – 12 are invited to decorate Valentine’s
cookies and create some cards. 2 p.m. Whole
Foods Market Lynnwood, 2800 196th St. SW.
Lynwood, WA 98036 Contact store to register.