>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
>> My name is Rebecca Newland.
And I'm the teacher in residence
at the Library of Congress.
And I hope you'll excuse me,
I'm a little bid giddy today.
Because I'm here celebrating books
and reading and it's my birth day.
Thank you.
[ Cheer and Applause ]
But the real icing is
that I have the honor
of introducing Rita Williams-Garcia.
Some of you are here as
fans of "One Crazy Summer".
Which was selected for the
2011 Coretta Scott King Award
and the 2011 Scott O'Dell
Prize for Historical Fiction.
As well as being chosen as
a 2011 Newbery Honor Book
and 2010 National Book
Award finalist.
Perhaps you were drawn here to hear
about her most recent
book, "P.S. Be Eleven".
A sequel to "One Crazy Summer".
You might be here because
you loved "Jumped".
A 2009 National Book Award finalist.
Possibly, you have been wanting
to meet a PEN-Norma Klein Award
for a new children's
fiction writer honoree.
Maybe you've been following
her since her first novel
"Blue Tights," published in 1987.
And maybe you think if we ask nicely
she will tell us about "Gone Crazy
in Alabama" which is
due out in April.
Whatever else moved you,
you are here because Williams-Garcia
tells stories that engage us.
Stories that challenge us.
Stories that remind us of ourselves.
And stories that take us into the
lives of people unlike ourselves.
I'm most excited to hear
about Delphine, Vanetta,
and Fern [phonetic] who lived
in a time and place I have not.
However, by reading their
story, I was transported
to Oakland, California in 1968.
And back to Hercomer
Street [phonetic].
At a time in their lives
when historical events
such as the killing of Bobby Hutton.
And the election of Shirley
Chism bumped up against feelings
about their absent mother
and their father's new wife.
So without anymore delay, please
welcome Rita Williams-Garcia.
[ Applause ]
>> Well, hello.
Thank you all for being
here this Saturday morning.
I'm just really so thrilled.
Once upon a time, I would go out
to a signing and bring my knitting.
[ Laughter ]
Once upon a time, I would go to
a reading and practice reading
to the library pages and librarians.
So it is truly an honor
just to see so many faces
of all ages here celebrating books.
Not just mine but, oh,
the thousands of books
that are released to you every year.
So this is my life's dream
to be a part of this picture.
From the time I was, oh, I
see a young lady up front.
But I think I was even
younger than that.
I was actually in what I
refer to as the penitentiary.
I was on the inside.
Roslynd and Russell were
allowed to roam free.
Three years old, 4 years old.
I was doing time in the
wooden playpen 1 to 2.
Well one of the things my mother did
for me during those formative
years was she put building blocks,
alphabet blocked, in my playpen.
And she told me what each
letter was every morning.
Now my mother had a
very distinct voice.
All the Williams were great singers.
They sang doo wop, they
sang gospel, they sang R&B.
Miss Essie was a Cost and
she was not a Williams.
So she would sing to me in
her very distinct voice.
A, B, come on, C, let's get a
D and an E. Come on, F, oh, G!
H, I think I'm going to go
J, L, and K. L, M, N, O, P!
You got the P, you got
to pee, Rita [laughter]?
So I listened to my mother and
call her A, B, I don't have to pee,
P. So I just knew that letters came
together and they formed words.
They made song, they jumped.
They didn't just lay
flat, they danced.
And then my sister took over.
Now my sister was older,
but she did not talk.
She just looked at me,
she gave me a book,
she shoved it through
the penitentiary slats.
And stood there until I opened it.
I opened it because
that's what big sister said
when she wasn't talking,
open that book.
So I opened it, and I saw
the pictures, and the words.
And I began to actually
know what the words were.
So by the time I was 2, I
could read a little bit.
The rest I kind of made up
along with the pictures.
Thank goodness for
those illustrators.
So story became alive for
me as a very small child.
By the time I was in
kindergarten, I was writing
and making up my own stories.
Well, before the actual
writing came, the storytelling.
I don't know, my mother
would call it lying,
but I would say storytelling.
But I had a love of
just making it all up.
Making it all up.
Playing with words,
putting them together.
Writing a story.
And before you knew it
in kindergarten, I
had my own publisher.
I was an Army brat and so my
publisher was GI, Government Issue.
I had my own copyright
page and everything.
So it never occurred to me to
become a writer, I am an author.
Look at these pages and these words.
Some of them spelled correctly.
So it wasn't until I was about
12 years old that I started
to take my career seriously.
And I would write 500
words every night.
Type them up, pay my sister, the
same sister that sat over me.
Pay her a nickel to a quarter
to borrow her typewriter
that she did not use [laughter].
And I would type up my stories,
type up a query letter,
and send them out to.
Why are you laughing [laughter]?
Send them out to "McCall's
Magazine,"
"Ladies Home Journal," "Ebony".
Especially for those articles, can
this marriage be saved [laughter].
Well my parents, they kind of kept
things lively around the house.
So I thought I knew
a little something
about marriages going
through upheaval.
I would type up my
stories and send them out.
And wait for the money to come in.
Why are you laughing?
This was serious, I
was a desperate child.
The way that I got my clothing,
I'll bet you your mother goes
to the store for clothing, right?
She buys them?
Not Miss Essie.
Not, A, B. Oh, no,
no, no, no, no, no.
My mother went to funerals and
would walk up to the family and find
out where they lived
and would come by to see
if they had anything
for a 13 year old.
Now, unfortunately, back then
13 year olds were not dying.
It was their 93 year
old mother, sick.
My mother would take their
clothing, they would gladly give.
My mother would take,
she'd bring it home.
Rita! You're going to be looking
sharp in junior high school.
Come on, Miss Essie.
But on this dress.
All right.
Ain't no one going to
have a dress like this.
And if you're wondering, yes.
She snapped her fingers
when she talked.
So I went to one of the worst
junior high schools in Queens.
We had security on the inside
before there was security.
We had drop down cages.
And, sad to say, but this is true.
We had a murder my first
year in junior high.
And my mother wanted me to walk
down those hollow inner city,
cigarette filled halls
wearing something
that my grandmother would not wear.
So I learned to make up stories
about what happened
to that clothing.
Oh, Mommy, oh, Mommy,
there was an accident.
These stories were so good,
I started typing them.
I started typing them
every night, 500 words.
I had a novel.
Well it was like a 4,000 page
novel, but I had a novel.
I was getting ready to
send it out to the world.
And then I learned, oh, you
have to edit these things?
Hmm, all right.
Well, fast forward.
All of that writing and
lying and storytelling
and just mimicking
people and all of that.
It all kind of comes together now.
Now that I'm writing and I'm
writing for younger people.
And it's been my joy and my pleasure
to tell this story of the 3 sisters
from 1968ish, '9ish, '70ish.
Delphine, Vanetta, and
Fern in "One Crazy Summer".
When we find them in "P.S.
Be Eleven" which is the book
that follows them back to New
York after they have spent time
in Oakland with their estranged
mother and the Black Panthers.
We get to see them in
their own home environment.
But you know what happens
when you leave a place
and then you come back,
things change.
Things change.
You change.
You're suddenly taller than
you were when you left.
Your father is acting
strangely, why is that?
Why is he singing?
And wearing cologne?
He's acting like a teenager.
He's our father.
What is going on?
Everything is changing.
Even your relationship
with your grandmother.
You used to mind her all the time.
And now, suddenly, I don't
know infused with the spirit
of Black Power, you try
to stand up to Big Momma.
You're in the 6th grade,
and there will be a dance.
And you will be expected
to dance with a boy.
Hand to hand, hand to sweaty hand.
But they're all shorter
than you are.
And the only one you will look right
dancing with is your teacher, no!
But there's 1 silver lining.
There is Michael, Marlin,
Jermaine, Tito, and Jackie.
And you have discovered them.
And now all you have to do
is get your father to let
and your sisters go to the
concert at Madison Square Garden.
So I'm going to just read
very quickly a small segment
of an outing the girls.
The girls and their father
alone with Miss Marva Hendricks.
Yes, the soon to be stepmother.
Are going out and the
girls make a sighting.
"We were close to the Brooklyn
Bridge when Vanetta cried, look!
What, I asked convinced
it was nothing at all.
I have been staring
off into the blur
of Miss Marva Hendricks' curly Afro.
Look, look!
She cried out.
And then, I saw it.
We all saw what Vanetta could
see from hundreds of feet away.
A billboard of Jackie,
Jermaine, Tito, Marlin,
and Michael sporting big applejack
caps over their even bigger Afros.
We screamed.
The letters on the
billboard shouted at us.
The Jackson Five at
Madison Square Garden.
And underneath those
words, December.
The inside of the Wildcat became a
cage of screaming and seat jumping
until we finally heard Pa shouting,
all right, all right, back there!
Miss Marva Hendricks
laughed and laughed.
I screamed for Jackie whose
real name was Sigmund.
And I screamed for Tito
who had the best eyebrows.
And always looked cool and tough.
And Vanetta screamed for Jermaine
who was kind of good looking.
And she screamed for Marlin, who
she claimed was the best dancer.
The only Jackson Fern
screamed for was Michael.
Every chance we got, we'd
stand in the record department
of Corvette Store and study
every inch of their album cover.
Papa, can we go to Madison
Square Garden in December,
I asked, to see the Jackson Five?
We want to see the Jackson Five!
We sealed our wishes
together singing, please!
The Jackson who, Pa asked.
Sounds like a Mississippi
chain gang [laughter].
Vanetta asked, what's a chain gang?
They make chains, Fern answered.
Sounding every bit like me.
The two got on to arguing
about chain gangs
when I think Pa intended all
along that they would argue.
I wouldn't let go of our wishes.
If we learned anything from our
summer with the Black Panthers,
we learned to be clear
about what we wanted.
And to be willing to do what
was necessary to get it.
They are not a prison
chain gang, I threw in.
I threw in the prison part
to answer Vanetta's question
and for solidarity.
I needed my sisters to be united
with me and to go and stay focused.
The Jackson Five is the best
singing group in the world,
in the universe, Vanetta added.
And the milky way,
Jackson Five, Pa said.
Never heard of them.
Can't sing any better than Sam Cook.
Well, the Temptations.
And what about Smoky Robinson and
the Miracles, Miss Hendricks said?
Oh, and Marvin Gay.
I said, the Jackson
Five are better than all
of those singers and
groups put together.
They're Afros are bigger,
Vanetta said.
And they have Michael, Fern said.
He's better than best.
He is not, I said.
Jermaine is best, Vanetta said.
Jackie is the best looking,
I said, and then Tito.
Not hardly, Vanetta said.
Jermaine is and Marlin is
the best dancer like I am.
And before we knew it, our
solidarity had fallen apart".
Okay, so I will stop there.
[ Applause ]
And I will be happy to answer
almost any question you put to me.
Questions, anybody?
Yes?
[ Inaudible ]
>> Are any of.
Not only are any of my books here.
Not only are they here,
they are selling them.
And I'll be signing them
directly after this.
Thank you.
Oh, this is so easy.
Oh, yes?
[ Inaudible ]
>> Well, you know,
Big Ma is kind of.
Big Ma is kind of what
I see in the community.
Kind of a, someone that
so many of us know.
My grandmothers, both of my
grandmothers they're kind of.
You're going to see a little
bit more of my grandmothers
in the next book, "Gone Crazy".
And you'll see my grandmothers
in the girls' great grandmothers.
But Big Ma is someone who kind of
resonates in so many different ways.
She has fears that are legitimate.
She has aspirations for the girls.
She has, you know, she has hopes and
dreams for them in her kind of way.
And she is very traditional
in some ways.
And very familiar and very money.
But I think we can
all read that there's
so much in between the lines.
And I think a lot of what's
in between the lines will be
answered in the last book.
Thank you.
Yes?
[ Inaudible ]
>> I know!
[ Inaudible ]
>> I know!
[ Inaudible ]
>> Speak the truth.
>> Can you repeat the question?
I don't think most of us heard it.
>> Yes. The young lady
up front was asking,
where can we find those wonderful
books of Rita Williams-Garcia.
Because Barns and Noble is
falling down on the job.
One of the most things that you
all can do, not only for my books,
but for books that you want more of.
Go up to the managers.
Don't just stop at, oh,
they don't have them.
Ask for them.
Book stores are a business
and so they respond to demand.
But you can find my books online
Amazon, or Barns and Noble will,
they will actually ship my books.
But go to your local
book stores first.
Go to your local book
stores [applause].
They are in the community.
They are trying to tailor
their books to meet the needs
of people in the communities.
And diverse books for
diverse people.
So go to them first.
>> Do you have a website?
>> Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
And also don't forget
your public library.
Do not forget.
[ Applause ]
I've spent.
It was years before I could
really start owning books.
But I could own every book
in the world just from being
in the public library and
having that library card.
So as much as I'd love for you to
buy my books, but go to the library.
And find me there, too.
Thank you.
Yes?
>> First off, I want to say
I really have enjoyed both
"One Crazy Summer"
and "P.S. Be Eleven".
>> Yea!
>> And I was wondering, did you
get the inspiration for Delphine,
Vanetta, and Fern from
any real people?
Or did you just create
them in your mind?
>> Well, okay.
That's a very good question.
Did I get the sisters from actual
people or did I just create them?
Well what I had to do, I'll
give you one of my secrets.
I started with Delphine.
[ Audio Interruption ]
A person with a joyless
task of having to take care
of 2 bratty little sisters.
And so because she
was so responsible,
that meant the other
characters around her would have
to be opposite in some ways.
In different ways.
And so I began to sculpt
those characters around her.
So I had to make them up because I
was never a bratty little sister,
no, no [laughter].
Not me!
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you, yes?
>> Hi, I so enjoyed
reading "One Crazy Summer".
I actually read it with
a number of my colleagues
and considered it for our students.
>> Yea!
>> One thing that was so wonderful
about it is that you bring a history
that is so important to
life for our youngsters.
And so we commend you for
that [audio interruption].
We had lingering with just, why,
in the choices that you made
in creating the mother character.
>> Yes.
>> Why did you choose to create
a mother who was estranged
as opposed to, perhaps, a
father or another family figure?
>> Okay. Very good question.
I think that we're
finding a lot of different.
[ Audio Interruption ]
Everything is just up for grabs.
And so even though
maybe 40 years ago,
it would have been more traditional
for the father to be absent.
I think today women
are leaving households.
And there's a lot of
shared custody arrangements.
And so I consciously wanted to
do that for today's children
who are dealing with
an awful lot of that.
Thank you.
Yes?
>> What's your favorite
character in "One Crazy Summer"?
>> My favorite character
in "One Crazy Summer" is
Delphine, Delphine, Delphine.
She reminds me of my big sister.
Thank you.
Yes?
>> Where do you get the
ideas for your books?
>> Oh, I read a lot.
I read a lot of newspapers.
I look at people, and
I collect them.
I collect their faces and their
faces always suggest a story to me.
And I love history.
I read my own diary.
Yeah, I've got my diary
from way back when, yep!
And it just, you know,
everything is open.
Everything is open to write about.
And so I stay open
so I can receive it.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> I was wondering, I really like
your book "One Crazy Summer".
And it seems to like
really flow a lot.
So I was wondering if you
ever had any writer's block?
And if so, how do you overcome it?
>> Okay, writer's block.
What I do when I have writer's
block is I do something else.
I will write, I might
step away from that book
and I'll work on a different book.
Or I'll do something
like hit the gym
and go boxing or something
like that.
Or I'll jump rope.
But I always try to keep my
mind occupied but differently.
So that when I come back
to "One Crazy Summer"
or wherever I'm having a problem.
I'm seeing it with fresh eyes.
And then I see the thing that
has been giving me trouble.
Because it's very hard to
see it when you're like that.
When you're very close.
So I step away for a little bit.
Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> All right.
And the last lucky winner, yes?
>> In Arlington, we're doing
this thing at the library
where it's a movement
called hashtag,
we need diverse books, I think.
Yeah.
[ Applause ]
So I was wondering,
I think it's also
on some social media, I think so.
So I was wondering if you could
possibly join the movement?
>> Girl, I am the movement!
>> Oh!
[ Applause ]
>> First of all, thank you so much.
>> I do have one other.
>> Oh, yeah, go ahead.
>> I do love in your books how
you do use a lot of diversity.
But you don't and I've read
a lot of other diverse books.
But I feel like at some point
in the role of discrimination,
one particular race is just
like feeling really bad.
>> Yeah.
>> So like you don't,
there's not a lot of that.
It's like great.
It's very neutral with everybody.
>> Well, you know.
It's part of what we
have to do as writers.
>> Exactly.
>> We have to think about our
audience and who we're writing for.
But we also have to kind of create
the truth of the moment, you know.
So, you know, so all of those years
of writing those 4,000
pages and whatever have you.
I think all of that
really helped me to know
that there are more
words than just 4.
You know, and do use my
imagination and my vocabulary.
And I thank you so much.
And I thank you all.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.