wonderful and inspiring long interview with radiant, real author Alice Walker: Rich Murray 2010.04.24

[Rich Murray]

wonderful and inspiring long interview with radiant, real author Alice
Walker: Rich Murray 2010.04.24
Rich Murray 2010.04.24
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.htm
Saturday, April 24, 2010
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/96
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http://www.alternet.org/story/146561/alice_walker:_obama_may_never_realize_how_profound_his_election_was_for_black_southerners?page=entire

"...
Rudolph P. Byrd:
In an earlier period in your career, you stated that your preoccupations
as a writer centered on two overlapping areas:
"I am preoccupied with the spiritual survival, the survival whole of my
people.
But beyond that, I am committed to exploring the oppressions, the
insanities, the loyalties, and the triumphs of black women."
What are your preoccupations at this stage in your life as a writer?

Alice Walker:
What could it be but to be of assistance to the world in its dire hour of
need?
We've turned a scary corner, as humans.
We may have ruined our nest.
If I write about Palestinians being deprived of water and land, of Aung
San Suu Kyi and the precious instruction she is capable of giving us --
not only about democracy but also about morality -- if I write about
violence and war, collards and chickens, I can connect with others who
care about these things.
Hopefully, together we can move the discussion of survival, with grace
and justice and dignity, forward.
We will need to know many different kinds of things to survive as a
species worth surviving.

Rudolph P. Byrd:
In 1976, you and your friend and fellow writer the late June Jordan
established the Sisterhood.
Could you recall the origins of this group?
How often did you meet?
Were the meetings structured in a particular way?
Did you imagine at the time that the writers of the Sisterhood --
June Jordan, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange -- would have such a
deep and wide impact upon American and world literature?

Alice Walker:
June and I were rebels of the first order against ranking of any kind
imposed from beyond ourselves.
We thought we must create a space for black women writers to
honor each other, to know each other, so that nothing from outside
could make us fight over anything.
Or even feel competitive.
This was the sisterhood's purpose.
We met only a few times while I was still in New York.
I moved to California, and later so did June.
My connection with women's circles continued.
I have been a member of an African American women's sangha for ten
years and was part of a racially diverse Women's Council (now on
break) for about seven years.
Circles are crucial for human advancement in the time we are now in.
In a safe place, where people can express their sorrows and fears
without worry, we can shift the world's thinking, as these circles,
millions of them, join together to usher in solid and useful thought that
has emerged in the patience and safety of our homes.

Rudolph P. Byrd:
In In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens, you provide us with your
widely cited definition of womanism, which has led to the creation of
new fields of study in literature, religion, and black feminism.
The final definition reads: "Womanist is to feminist as purple to
lavender."
In this formulation, you suggest that womanism is more radical than
feminism.
What is your current thinking on womanism and its relationship to
feminism?

Alice Walker:
As long as the world is dominated by racial ideology that places whites
above people of color, the angle of vision of the womanist, coming from
a culture of color, will be of a deeper, more radical penetration.
This is only logical.
Generally speaking, for instance, white feminists are dealing with the
oppression they receive from white men, while women of color are
oppressed by men of color as well as white men, as well as by many
white women.
But on the joyful side, which we must insist on honoring, the womanist
is, like the creator of the word, intent on connecting with the earth and
cosmos, with dance and song.
With roundness.
With thankfulness and joy.
Given a fighting chance at living her own life, under oppression that she
resists, the womanist has no or few complaints.
Her history has been so rough -- captured from her home, centuries of
enslavement, apartheid, etc. -- she honors Harriet Tubman by daily
choosing freedom over the fetters of any internalized slavery she might
find still lurking within herself.
Whatever women's liberation is called, it is about freedom.
This she knows.
Having said this, I have no problem being called "feminist" or
"womanist."
In coining the term, I was simply trying myself to see more clearly what
sets women of color apart in the rainbow that is a world movement of
women who've had enough of being second- and third-class citizens
of the earth.
One day, if earth and our species survive, we will again be called
sacred and free.
Our proper names.

Rudolph P. Byrd:
As you argue in We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, we
live in a world that is increasingly interdependent, and also a world in
which fragmentation and isolation remain predominant.
What are the practices that have been most helpful to you in
maintaining a sense of purpose and balance in this changing world?

Alice Walker:
Meditation has been a mainstay in my life.
It has helped me more than I could have imagined prior to learning how
to meditate.
I don't meditate the same way I did earlier in my life, when the pressure
to write, to mother, to travel, to be an activist, and to pay the bills was
intense.
Now I just live more meditatively, and it is very helpful that,
understanding my nature and its needs for flourishing, I've created
retreat spaces that help me keep my sanity and, quite often, my
serenity.
I discovered Mexico while I was pregnant with my daughter;
we went there during my second trimester.
I loved it and have gone there to rest in the sweetness of the Mexican
people, in the kindness and courtesy of friends, every year for over
twenty-five years.
I also fell in love years ago with a Hawaiian musician who had the
most delightful house on a beach in Molokai.
The relationship ended, but we share the house still.
I can go there when I'm dragging in spirit and sit and look at the
moonlight on the water until I know all is well.
That whether this small being is at peace or not, the tides will still do
their thing: rise and fall and bring some boats to shore and refuse to let
others land.
With a complete and splendid indifference...."
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Rich Murray, MA
Boston University Graduate School 1967 psychology,
BS MIT 1964, history and physics,
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
505-501-2298  [hidden email]

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