[ Music ]
>> Sponsored by the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.
>> Naomi Coquillon:
Good afternoon,
and welcome to the 2021 Library
of Congress National
Book Festival.
My name is Naomi
Coquillon, and I'm the chief
of informal learning
at the Library.
I'm here today interviewing
Kekla Magoon,
author of Revolution
in Our Time:
The Black Panther Party's
Promise to the People.
To our online audience,
thank you for joining.
We'll take your questions
during this interview,
so please add them to the Q
and A feature on the page.
Kekla, thanks so
much for being here.
Very excited to have you.
To get us started, I'd
love to talk with you
about the festival's
theme this year,
which is Open a Book,
Open the World.
And I wonder if there were any
books that you read growing
up that opened the world to
you or new worlds to you,
and also what you hope your book
will open up for your readers.
>> Kekla Magoon: Yeah.
Absolutely.
I loved reading as a kid,
and it was the most exciting,
most important thing
that I did, I think,
for myself as a young person in
preparation for being a writer.
And one of my favorite
books, one of the books
that definitely stands
out in my memory
from middle school
was Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry by Mildred
D. Taylor.
And that is a historical novel.
It was one of the first
novels I remember encountering
that had a Black girl
protagonist, and, you know,
it illuminated something
about Black history
that I hadn't really understood
or hadn't really been taught.
And it still stands out in my
mind as, you know, a book --
I see images from that book just
when I mention the
title or talk about it.
And so it was a really
powerful experience to me.
It showed me myself in a book
the way we talk about, you know,
books being windows and
mirrors and sliding glass doors,
as Dr. Rudine Sims
Bishop wrote about it
in an article some years ago.
It was definitely a mirror book
for me, but also a windows book
because it opened up new ideas
and new pieces of history to me.
And when I became an author,
my first novel, The Rock
and the River, was
a historical novel.
And I remember thinking, I
would love for any reader
to have the same experience
with The Rock and the River
that I had with Roll of
Thunder, Hear my Cry.
And I hoped that I could
do that with my work.
And my new novel --
or it's not a novel.
It's a nonfiction book.
My new nonfiction book,
Revolution in Our Time, is,
you know, also sort of
in that same tradition.
This is a nonfiction book
about the Black Panther Party
which offers background
on the party.
It offers a lot of information
about Black American history.
And for me, this book has the
potential to open people's minds
to different sides of
history, different perspectives
on history, different
aspects of history
that don't normally
get explored in the way
that we've been teaching
history for a long time.
And so I think it's particularly
exciting to get to talk
about those things and
particularly exciting to get
to share a different
perspective on history
of Black American history
with a young audience.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Yeah.
That's really wonderful.
And your recorded interview
had a great exchange
about women in the party.
Not the role of women,
but the importance of them
and your discovery of that.
And we might have to
come back to that.
But we have a question
from Sienna who says,
I'm a Girl Scout and
was excited to read
that you used to work with us.
Did any of your experiences
with the Scouts make
it into your books?
>> Kekla Magoon: Ooh.
That's a great question.
Well, I was a Girl
Scout as a child.
So I was a, you know, Daisy Girl
Scout and a Brownie Girl Scout,
and I think briefly
a Junior Girl Scout.
I didn't make it all
the way to Senior.
But as a college
student I worked
at a Girl Scout camp
for the summer.
And when I moved to New York
after I graduated from college,
I worked with the
Girl Scout Council
of Greater New York running Girl
Scout programs around the city.
And, you know, definitely
the experience of working
with the Girl Scouts has, you
know, helped me as an author
because that was the first
-- you know, working at camp
and then working for the
Girl Scout Council were some
of the first times that I had
the opportunity to present
in front of huge groups of
kids, which is something
that I do routinely now.
And so that experience
definitely prepared me
for what it feels like to be up
in front of an audience talking
about anything, but talking
about my work, right?
In terms of making it into the
books, I think that the sense
of empowerment and
the sense of adventure
that Girl Scouting
can, you know,
imbue in young people is
something that I write
about a lot, and that
sense that you now today,
no matter how young you think
you are or how old you are,
you can be somebody who makes
a difference in the world.
You can be somebody who figures
out, well, what am I good at?
What are my skills?
How can I change the world in
a way that is important to me?
And so the idea that as a young
person you have that power,
that's something I
write about a lot.
And I do think that that
connects really strongly
to my background with the Girl
Scouts, both as a Girl Scout
and working with
the Girl Scouts.
So shout out to all the
fellow Girl Scouts out there.
>> Naomi Coquillon: All right.
Well, and I'm curious,
too, if, you know,
in addition to making it
into your books if your work
with Girl Scouts had any
influence on your decision
to write for middle grade
or young adult audiences,
or what makes you want to
write for this age group?
>> Kekla Magoon: Yeah.
You know, I suspect that it
does in a sort of chicken
and egg kind of way
where, you know,
I gravitated toward youth work
long before I knew I was going
to be a writer.
You know, back when I
wanted to be a doctor,
which I did for a while.
I wanted to be a pediatrician.
And when I wanted to, you
know, be a camp counselor.
I wanted to work
at a youth camp.
And when I, you know,
moved to New York
and I was doing nonprofit
development work
and grant writing, I
gravitated toward fundraising
for youth programs.
And, you know, I think that
it's always been important to me
to write for young audiences,
to work with young audiences.
I mean, I have been regarded
as young for the majority
of my life and even the
majority of my career,
even as I'm becoming
middle-aged, right?
I'm often looked at, oh,
you're so young, you know,
to have written all these books.
Oh, you're so young to,
you know, have done x, y,
and z. And I guess so.
But I also -- you know, like I
said before, I feel like there's
so much power in young people.
There's so much potential there
that we often try
to put on hold.
We say, well, what do you
want to be when you grow up?
And I want to say, what do
you want to be now, right?
And so that drive, that
excitement about what we can do
as young people is what keeps
me writing for this age group,
what keeps me wanting to
interact with kids and teens
and help them see what the world
sometimes wants them not to see,
which is their own power
and their own ability
to do things in the moment.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Well,
and so you talked about sort
of gravitating to youth work.
But how did you come into
writing and become a writer,
and when did you sort of
see yourself as a writer?
>> Kekla Magoon: Well, if you
ask my mother she will tell you
that I've been a writer
since I was very small.
I recently had a Facebook post
from my third grade teacher
who -- or my fourth grade
teacher, actually, who said, oh,
I just remember, you know, you
writing in your journal so much,
you know, and loving to
write in your journals.
And I have no memory
of any of that.
I think of myself as
coming to writing later.
I mean, I definitely kept
kind of a journal-ish thing
under my pillow as a kid and in
middle school and high school.
I wrote a novella at the end
of my high school
time just for fun.
And I loved reading, and
I wanted to explore that.
But at that time I wouldn't
have called myself a writer.
I went to college.
I was pre-med.
You know, it took me a
little while to figure
out that I wanted to do
something different than that.
And so by the time I graduated
from college I kind of was
in a I don't know what I want
to do, but I know I want to work
with kids and I want
to go to New York.
So I moved to New York,
and I lived in Manhattan.
And while I there was, that was
really when I got into writing
because -- and I think
part of it stemmed
from not knowing
anybody in the city.
It was a, you know, big city,
and I was trying to make friends
and meet people, and it
takes time to do that.
And, you know, so I would go
to work, I would come home,
and I would write stories.
And I think that
it was comforting
because stories have
always been a comfort to me.
I think that it was a way of
kind of giving myself friends
when I didn't have any, right?
I could create some characters
and put them on the page,
and that was satisfying in
a number of different ways.
And I found that I was rushing
home every day from work
at the Girl Scouts and
then other places I worked
to write my stories
and to tell my stories.
And that, you know, suddenly
sort of made me realize, hey,
you know, you're spending a
lot of time doing this thing.
Maybe you should see what it is.
Like, what it really is.
Like, maybe it's not a hobby.
Maybe it's more than that.
Maybe it's something you're
really passionate about.
And so I started
taking writing classes,
and I got a master's
degree in writing.
And, you know, it just kind
of all snowballed from there.
But I think it came from a place
of loneliness a lot of the time,
you know, in terms
of writing fiction.
Like, wanting to -- wanting to
understand the world better,
wanting to find my
place in the world.
And those are themes that
I still write about, right?
Identity and belonging
and trying
to make a difference
in the world.
Those are things that I want
to do as a person and things
that I write about and things
that I let my characters explore
in a lot of different
ways, no matter what genre
or type of story I'm telling.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Well,
and so can you speak to us
about what your writing
life looks like now?
So it used to be you'd
rush home and write.
But now that you're a full-time
writer, what does it look like?
How do you do it?
Where do you do it?
How long each day?
That sort of thing.
Can you give us a
window into that?
>> Kekla Magoon: Sure.
Yeah. I mean, my process
is pretty variable.
It's kind of fluid
in a lot of ways.
Before the pandemic I was
doing a lot of travel and a lot
of school visits and
presentations and conferences,
and so I would be
writing anywhere I could.
On a plane.
In an airport.
In a hotel.
In a coffee shop.
You know, curled
up in the corner
on the convention
center floor, you know,
at some massive conference.
And writing at home I have a
big chair that I like to sit in.
I have this.
You know, this is my dining
room table, which has a quilt
that my mother has made.
This is where I do a lot of my
professional events and a lot
of my e-mails and
things like that.
But for creative stuff I like
to sit in my hammock sometimes.
I like to sit on
my porch sometimes.
I like to go down to the coffee
shop and write with my friends
when I could do that
safely and comfortably.
So lately it's been I've been
writing in the mornings as much
as I can and then trying to do
other things in the afternoon.
Work things like e-mail,
and then house things
like taking care of my yard,
you know, and things like that,
and trying to have some balance.
Because as somebody who does not
have a nine to five job anymore,
right, I don't go to the office
at nine and come home at five
like I used to, I
have to find ways
to put boundaries on the work.
Because it would
be very easy for me
to work almost 24
hours a day, right,
except for when I am sleeping.
And so I try not to do that.
I try to write in the morning
and then do other kinds of work
in the afternoon, and then
be relaxed in the evening
and watch TV or see my
friends or anything like that
that I can do for fun.
Read books.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Well,
thank you for giving us
that peek into your life.
We've got some good
questions coming
in from the online audience,
so I'll go to them now.
Billy asks, What do you
like to read for fun?
Anyone you're reading
right now as either a break
from the work reading or
just as a guilty pleasure?
>> Kekla Magoon: Yeah.
So I currently have
a specific list
of nine books that I'm reading.
Because Revolution in
Our Time was just --
was named a National Book Award
Longlist title, and I had heard
of but hadn't read most of the
other books on the Longlist.
So I rushed to the store to buy
the ones I didn't already own
and started reading the
ones I already owned.
So I'm reading those.
At this moment I'm reading
Anna-Marie McLemore's The
Mirror Season.
Right before that I read Me
(Moth) and -- by Amber McBride.
And then I had already
read Unspeakable
by Carole Boston Weatherford,
which is a picture book
about the Tulsa race massacre
illustrated by Floyd Cooper.
So those are some of the books
that I've been diving
into recently.
And I'm super excited
about that for a number
of reasons, as you can imagine.
But they're all really beautiful
books and really different
and amazing, and so I'm
really enjoying that process.
So that's what I've been up to.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Great.
Well, and congratulations
on that honor.
That's really wonderful.
>> Kekla Magoon: Thank you.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Elizabeth
asks, Are the characters
from Rock and the River and
Fire in the Streets inspired
by people you know in real life?
>> Kekla Magoon: Generally,
I don't base my characters
on actual people that I know,
but there's definitely some
influence and inspiration
that comes from people
that I know.
My brother -- so I have
one brother, and The Rock
and the River and Fire
in the Streets are both
about relationships
with a brother, right?
So in The Rock and
the River, it's --
the main character is Sam, who's
a boy, and his brother is Stick.
And then Fire in the Streets
there's also a brother-sister
relationship between Maxie
and her brother Raheem.
And so I think that the
sibling dynamics are really,
really different in
those two relationships.
But, you know, like,
Stick has some qualities
and characteristics that
are kind of like my brother.
He is tall and thin and very
charismatic and energetic
and perhaps, in some ways, more
certain about things than I am.
And that's kind of how Stick is
compared to Sam in that book.
You know, there are always
little things that pop up.
You know, like, my dad sort
of has the quality of, well,
he's not a minister, but
people sometimes think he is
because he kind of has
this sort of aura to him.
And so, like, Sam's dad is like
that in The Rock and the River.
But, like, my dad's
not a lawyer,
and his dad is a lawyer, right?
You know, so there's just little
kind of shades that come in.
I often will find, you
know, mother characters
in my books saying things that
my mother would say and things
like that, that are just --
it's not that that character
is anything like my mother.
It's just that those are, like,
kind of little brushstrokes
that get worked into the novel.
And the same thing with things
that my friends have said
or things that friends
have done in some cases.
You know, you just get
ideas from the experiences
and interactions that you have,
and all of that informs
the characters in really,
really complicated ways.
But there's no, like, sort of
direct one-to-one correlation
between somebody being
deliberately based on anybody.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Well,
to follow up to that,
do you have a process for
developing your characters?
How do they come to life on the
page for you if you're pulling
from -- you know, from
different parts of your life
or different inspiration?
>> Kekla Magoon: Yeah.
So I teach writing, and
the hardest thing for me
to teach is character
because it's the thing
that comes most naturally to me.
I don't really have a process
for teaching character.
I don't have a process
for creating them.
They just sort of
come and they are.
And I find it really fascinating
to hear other people talk
about all the things
that they sort of go
through to design
their characters.
I mean, I have one
friend who's like, well,
I figure out their birthday,
and I look up their astrological
sign, and, like, that's a whole,
like, way of figuring out,
like, somebody's personality.
And I'm just like, what?
I have no idea what any of
my characters' birthdays are.
Like, I don't know
any of those kinds
of really personal
details, right?
Some people sort of have, like,
almost like a whole
questionnaire they can fill out.
What's your favorite color?
What does their room look like?
I love that as an
exercise, though.
If you're a writer, figuring out
what your character's room looks
like is a pretty great
writing exercise.
Which I have done
sometimes, right?
When I'm, like, figuring
out the layout of the room
and what kinds of things are
on the wall, it gives you kind
of a glimpse into
who a person is.
So that's kind of a way
that I kind of backdoor
into character creation
or character development.
But for the most part
they feel very real to me.
They feel like people that
are kind of just hanging
out in the back of my mind,
and I kind of watch them
doing things and think
about how they would
move through the world.
And that's -- that's
the aspect of writing
that comes most naturally to me.
I work much harder on things
like plot and, you know,
line by line writing, the way a
sentence sounds and, you know,
like, transitions
between scenes.
I love writing in
vignettes because, you know,
it can just be short chunks.
And, you know, a lot of times
you have to make things --
I don't know -- make sense
and tie together in a novel.
So those are things I struggle
with more than character.
Character comes pretty
naturally to me,
which I consider myself
fortunate that that is true.
>> Naomi Coquillon: We have
another question from Sienna,
who asks, How have libraries
influenced your life?
>> Kekla Magoon: Oh, wow.
Oh, my gosh.
How have libraries
influenced my life?
That is a huge question
with a big answer.
I would say that they've
influenced everything
about my life in a
lot of different ways.
I mean, I loved going
to the library as a kid.
My mom used to take us
to the library ever week.
We would go at least
on Wednesday,
sometimes also on Sunday.
Just because it was, like, right
next to our church where we used
to go, and so, like,
you could just go back
and forth and stuff.
And so we used to go right
there to the library,
and I would check out as
many books as I could carry.
You know, from my hand to my
chin I would have a little stack
of books coming out of the door.
I don't know why I never
put stuff in a bag.
Like, that would
have been logical.
But I just remember carrying,
like, these huge stacks
of paperbacks that I got
off the racks and stuff.
And so definitely I read so
much more in my life, you know,
as a young person
because I was able to go
to the library regularly.
You know, as an adult I
feel like libraries continue
to influence my life,
partly because librarians
are the people who are able
to share my books with other
readers, and they're really,
really passionate
about doing that.
I have been fortunate
to be recognized
by a few American Library
Association awards,
and I feel like librarians --
the librarians who do that kind
of work within the
organization around education
and around advocacy, like, they
do so much to lift up my work
and the work of other authors,
and that that has allowed me
to have the type of
career that I have.
So I feel like librarians are
very much the engine behind the
success of many, many
authors, such as myself.
And then for writing something
like Revolution in Our Time,
this book was a massive
research project.
I worked on it for almost ten
years, collecting information
about the Black Panthers
and collecting information
about the Civil Rights
Movement and traveling
to different places that
were important in the life
of the Panthers to study,
you know, their history
and to visit archives
and all kinds
of exciting things that I did.
And through all of that
librarians were supporting me
in that process.
I went to the public library
in Oakland, California.
I went to the -- like, libraries
all over the country, honestly.
The New York Public Library
because I lived in New York.
I went to Chicago
Public Library.
My local libraries
here in Vermont,
the Kellogg-Hubbard Library
right here in Montpelier as well
as the Vermont College
of Fine Arts Library,
which is where I teach.
So librarians in all of these
places have helped me do the
research that I'm doing.
And, you know, it's
-- it's something --
like, I'm a very
self-sufficient person.
I'm somebody who sometimes
is afraid to ask for help
or to get somebody
to support me.
But the really cool
thing about librarians is
that they love helping people.
Like, that's their whole job,
and they're so excited to do it.
And like, so I would go
up to the counter, like,
really nervously
to be like, Okay.
I'm going to need some
help with this project.
And I would invariably be
greeted by an enthusiastic,
like, Oh, here's how I can help
you can that, and here's more
that you didn't even
ask for, right?
And it was this incredibly
powerful --
I found the research to be an
incredibly powerful experience
because I can't do things
like that by myself.
And it has really taught me
that there are people out there
who want to help, love to
help, and love to advocate
and share information
and knowledge
and resources and books.
And so for me, libraries
are just the lifeblood
of so much of my existence.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Well,
that's a really wonderful
message to share.
And I just want to say,
you know, that is also true
of the Library of Congress.
We have an Ask a
Librarian service.
I think people -- especially,
you know, younger researchers --
might be afraid to
ask, but please ask.
That's why we're here, to help.
And actually, it goes to one
of the questions in the chat.
Oop. Go ahead.
>> Kekla Magoon: Well, I should
have also mentioned the Library
of Congress because I come there
often, or did pre-pandemic.
Like, I've been there often.
And I stay at a hotel
right around the corner,
and I come in with my library
card and I check out --
>> Naomi Coquillon: Oh, Nice.
>> Kekla Magoon: -- all these,
like, huge amounts of photos.
Like, I have many, many
photos from the Library
of Congress that
are in the book.
So I love the Library
of Congress.
I especially love
my little card.
The little card that has my --
my researcher card that
has my photo on it.
It's like, I don't know why.
It makes me feel very important.
>> Naomi Coquillon: I
mean, it's understandable.
And I will say for our audience
that anyone 16 and up can come
and register for one and
use the Main Reading Room,
so we hope that you
will at some point.
And Laura B. in our
chat had asked
about your research process
for Revolution in Our Time.
So you've talked
a bit about that.
I don't know if there's
anything that you wanted to say
about any sources that were
especially illuminating
for you or, you know,
valuable or important,
or anything about the
steps that might be helpful
for our audience to hear.
>> Kekla Magoon: Yeah.
I mean, I think the places I
spent the most time were the
Oakland Library and the
Oakland Museum of California,
which is -- also has
an immense resource.
But mostly the public
library there in Oakland.
And the Library of Congress.
And then the New York Public
Library Schomburg Center.
I did a lot of research there.
Those are, like, the places I
physically spent the most time.
And, you know, I love --
the thing I love about
archives is that, you know,
it's not just books
that you can get.
Because, you know, books
can be, you know, published
and reprinted and, you
know, moved around and all
of these things, but they
also have all of this ephemera
and just kind of stuff.
Ephemera is a fancy word
for saying stuff that just,
like, relates to the Party.
So you go in and you put on
these little white gloves, and,
you know, they bring you, like,
folders of photos
from the period.
They bring you, you know,
like, programs from, you know,
special events that happened
and flyers from special events
that happened and buttons,
you know, and all kinds
of things that are just there.
And so my favorite part of the
research process I think was,
you know, sort of just
going through those boxes
at the Oakland Museum
or the Oakland Library
and feeling like, you know,
in some way like
there's a tangible,
physical connection now
between me and this history
because I've had the
opportunity to touch, you know,
a funeral program, right,
from somebody whose life
story I've been telling, and,
you know, to touch
all of these --
you know, through the
little white gloves --
like, to touch all of these
objects and to actually read,
you know, a physical copy of
the old Black Panther newspaper.
You know, and they're sort
of ageing and brittling, and,
you know, so you have to be
really careful when you're,
like, making photocopies
and taking pictures
and things like that.
But it -- I don't know.
It sort of imbued me with a kind
of reverence for the minutia
of what this experience is.
You know, you think about I'm
telling a story about protests,
I'm telling a story about
revolution, but, like,
somebody made a lot
of photocopies, right,
in the office.
And somebody, you know,
punched all these buttons
out on the machine.
And somebody -- you know,
somebody was probably crying
when they folded this
funeral program, right?
Like, just all of these things
that, especially as someone
who also writes fiction it --
like, it sort of feeds this --
the imagination side of me when
I'm mostly sifting through fact
and looking for that sort of
narrative around the facts.
And so I felt like that part of
the process was really powerful.
I truly went a lot of places.
I mean, I look at
archives in Missouri.
I looked at St. Louis area.
I looked at archives in Seattle.
Pretty much any time I went
anywhere for a professional trip
to a conference I would look
at their library and see
if they had anything related
to the Black Panther Party
that was, you know,
something I could look at.
And so I did a lot of
that and a lot of museums.
I love the Smithsonian's
National Museum
of African American
History and Culture
that opened five years
ago I think today,
or five years ago this
week it was brand new.
So I got to go there and look
at their beautiful collections
and exhibits but also use their
archives as a research resource.
There was so much out there.
And there wasn't when I started
this project ten years ago.
It was really going to Oakland
and digging through
the archives.
And more and more is
becoming available online.
More and more is becoming more
understood and more accessible
to readers of all kinds.
And so that's been really
exciting to watch that unfold
and to see sort of how much
more resources there are.
How many more resources
there are today
than there were ten years ago.
Or how less hidden they are now.
>> Naomi Coquillon: Yeah.
Well, and I think it's really --
I mean, it's helpful for our
audience to hear the scope
of the work behind this
project and, you know,
the breadth of resources
you were trying
on over the ten years
that you took
to research and write the book.
Billy has another question.
He says, Besides the
critical acclaim,
have you gotten other reactions
to Revolution in Our Time.
The Black Panther Party hasn't
always been considered a
benevolent organization.
>> Kekla Magoon: I haven't
specifically, you know,
in response to this book,
partly because it's
just coming out, right?
It's brand new.
So, you know, there
hasn't been a lot of time
yet for people to criticize it.
I'm sure that that will happen,
especially in the specific
landscape we're in right now
where there is a sort of dynamic
and in many ways troubling
conversation about how we teach
about Black history, how we
teach about race and racism
and bias in -- you know, through
literature specifically, but,
right, in school in general.
So I anticipate that that will
happen and that I will be part
of those conversations,
and I am prepared to do
that because I've been doing
it throughout my career
on other books with The
Rock and the River and Fire
in the Streets, which
were also, again,
about the Black Panther Party.
When they came out, which
is now, you know, nine,
ten years ago, it -- for the
most part the criticism was more
like people being like, well,
that doesn't sound right.
You know? Wait.
What do you mean the
Black Panthers had a free
breakfast program?
That doesn't sound right.
And so I am going
into this project --
I went into this book with
the idea, the vision of trying
to help people understand
a deeper truth,
a broader understanding
of the Black Panthers.
You know, many people you say
Black Panthers, they think, oh,
bad, scary, violent, right?
Like, that's the
first impression,
and I want to help
people unpack that.
I want to people
to see behind that.
I want people to understand that
the Black Panthers carried guns
for self-defense, not because
they advocated violence.
That's a very different
proposition.
That they had free breakfast
programs for school children,
and they had health clinics
in cities around the country.
That they had food programs
for all kinds of people.
That they offered support
for tenants' rights,
for workers' rights,
for community organizing
in a whole bunch of different
ways because their vision was
to take care of the community.
Their vision was to help people
empower themselves, right?
They founded schools to teach
about Black history in a time
when Black history was
not being taught, right?
And so most people whose
immediate reaction is, no,
this is bad, we can't
talk about this,
just genuinely don't
know the history.
And many, many people
are open-minded enough
to be educated about
the history.
Some people are not, and then
that's a whole different thing.
But my experience has been
that people are more
curious than resistant.
Most people.
And so finding ways,
like through this book,
to kind of say, Okay.
Look, here's something
you didn't know.
Let's talk about it.
Let's think about it, right?
There's nothing I
can write or say
that would take away
the controversy
that surrounds the
Black Panthers Party.
But I don't think that because
something's controversial we
shouldn't talk about it.
I don't think that because it's
controversial it shouldn't be
explored and discussed and
tried to be understood.
You know, I'm not
someone who can imagine --
you know, even in the
1960s imagine, like,
picking up a gun, right?
Like, that's not who I am.
That's not my personality.
But when you look at
the historical context
that led the Panthers
to make that choice,
it's very understandable
why a group of Black people
in that place and in that time
would decide that self-defense
and arming themselves
was the best choice,
was the path, right?
And so that, to me, is what's
interesting about it is, like,
understanding why it happened,
understanding what
it was, right?
And how can we, especially as
young people, take what we learn
from this book, from this
story, from this history
and carve new paths for the same
kind of freedom, the same kind
of empowerment, the same kind
of education and so forth
that the Panthers
were advocating for.
Their goals were the same
as the traditional Civil Rights
Movement that we celebrate.
They wanted peace,
equality, freedom,
justice, housing, right?
Basic needs to be met for
people across racial identities
and across backgrounds, and they
wanted it to happen peacefully.
But, you know, it
wasn't the Panthers
who were saying this
can't happen peacefully;
it was the powers at be.
And it still is.
>> Naomi Coquillon:
Well, thank you.
And I think that is a good place
to end, and we'll also have
to end there because
we've come to time.
I see there are more
questions, including one
about how you came to this.
And I think actually your
recorded interview talks a bit
about that, so I encourage
Yulia to go and take a look
at the video on demand
that Kekla recorded earlier
to talk about her process.
And so thank so you much,
Kekla, for being here.
It was really wonderful
to talk with you.
I'm really excited
about this book.
And thank you to our
audience for listening
and for participating.
Again, we've been talking with
Kekla Magoon about her new book,
Revolution in Our Time:
The Black Panther Party's
Promise to the People.
And thank you again for joining,
and I hope you all enjoy
the rest of the festival.
>> Kekla Magoon: Thank you.
Thank you so much.
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