After the recent realese of the documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth directed by Pratibha Parmar, Alice Walker has just published two new books: The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm’s Way and a collection of her poetry, The World Will Follow Joy Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems) She has just been interviewed on these books on TV. Interview and transcript can be viewed here.
Another interesting interview to Walker on Activism, Gay Marriage, Angela Davis, Obama and Turning 70 Years Old. An excerpt from this interview that also includes whole script, on Walker’s art of writing:
“AARON MATÉ: Alice, I want to talk to about your—the art of writing. Do you remember when you started? And do you consider yourself foremost an author of prose or a poet?
ALICE WALKER: I started when I was crawling, according to my mother. And I started by writing in the dirt with a twig. So it’s been a very long journey. I started writing poetry because it’s cheaper. You know, if you have limited money and limited—I mean, in a way, you can be so poor that people can’t even imagine how poor you can be. But pencils cost money, and paper also, so I could write poetry and afford to do that. When I was, oh, nine or 10, I started doing that. And then I started writing stories. And I have no real sense of trying to prefer one over the other. It’s just that it seems to me that the times will call for what is needed. And these times right now really are calling for poetry. And that’s because poetry, by its truthfulness and by its connection to soul, can lead us much more directly and clearly and cleanly than almost any other expression in art.”
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