Actor Blair Underwood
has expressed interest in turning Tananarive Due's second
novel, My Soul to Keep, into a film.
She looks and talks like a lawyer or college professor
or any 30-something urban professional. It's hard to believe
Tananarive Due, a former Miami Herald reporter, now
makes her living writing scary horror novels in Longview,
Wash. But recently, she took a break from the supernatural
to complete The Black Rose, a historical novel
that Alex Haley planned to write before he died in 1992.
The Haley estate handpicked her to write the fictionalized
story of Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919), the first black
female millionaire, who started a beauty school and hair-care
product empire that reigned until the 1980s. Walker's life
captured Due's imagination and reinforced her belief in
the strength of black women and culture. Due stopped in
Portland last week to promote The Black Rose.
Willamette Week: Does your first name have any
special meaning?
Tananarive Due: It's long, isn't it? My mother took a college
course in contemporary Africa--it was the capital city of
Madagascar. She said, 'I'm going to name my firstborn Tananarive,'
but by the time I was born, she forgot how to spell it and
had to call her professor. On my birth certificate, it's
crossed-out and corrected.
What did you do for the Miami Herald?
I started in news, but the last five years I was there,
in addition to writing features, I wrote a dating column.
Basically, I'd have a nightmare date--maybe answer a personal
ad and it's a disaster--then write about it in the paper.
Is that how you met your husband?
Oh my God, no. I met him at a writers' conference. I write
horror novels and he writes science fiction novels--talk
about pre-selection. We were both invited to Clark Atlanta
University to participate in a conference on the African-American
Fantastic Imagination. Our hotel rooms were right next to
each other.
Why do you live in Longview?
It's all Steven's--well, I won't say fault. His ex-wife
moved there with his daughter. He's a dad, and I wouldn't
have married someone who wouldn't want to be in the same
town as his daughter. We're pretty much there until she
graduates, unless we move to Vancouver for her 10th-grade
year, where we're trying to get her into a school.
What is life in Longview like?
Quiet. Rainy. Uhhh, that about covers it. I'm from Miami,
you know--I'm used to South Beach and rollerblading. Now
it's just a lot quieter, but it's really, really pretty.
People are really nice. I've made some friends there. But
I still need my Seattle and Portland fixes sometimes.
Why did the Haley estate feel so compelled to get this
novel written? And why the tight deadline?
Haley had intended to write the book; he had it under contract
when he died. According to the estate, Haley had an agreement
with A'Lelia Bundles, his great-great granddaughter who
did most of his research, that she could write a nonfiction
book that's coming out next year. They wanted some separation
between the two--otherwise, you're paired up wherever you
go.
How many millionaire black women are there?
Other than Oprah and Madam Walker, I really don't know.
I just heard about this woman in San Francisco long ago
who might have made a lot of money with whorehouses. At
present day, there are certainly many black woman millionaires;
I'm sure some of them are in the entertainment industry,
and there are businesswomen who are self-made millionaires.
I just don't know who they are.
Is the hair thing still an important part of black culture?
Black women and their hair is a touchy subject--well, maybe
not touchy, but there's a lot of interest. There's so much:
not wanting to get your hair wet if you have a certain style,
not wanting your hair touched under certain circumstances,
to weave or not to weave. A lot of hair conversations that
were going on in Madam Walker's days are still going on
today.
Such as?
Such as accusing people who used hair straighteners of
trying to look or act white. I looked at those issues and
finally decided Madam Walker was not about trying to make
black women look white. It was about learning different
grooming techniques and broadening options. She envisioned
a time when black women's hair wasn't all kinky or all straight
but something in between. That's what it looks like to me:
natural, braids, cornrows, dreads. She was on the forefront
of helping black women learn of that sense of beauty and
variety in their hairstyles.
Have Madame Walker's efforts directly affected your
life?
My father's mother was a Madam C.J. Walker graduate. At
the time, when she was newly divorced in the 1940s with
a young child, she was able to go to school, learn skills
and open her own beauty parlor. That was the magic of what
Madam C.J. Walker did for so many women--empowerment.
|
