The eve of the opening night of the Broadway debut of 'the Color Purple,' Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, poet, womanist and activist Alice Walker spoke at the New York Public Library on her masterwork and what it means, all these years later.
ON CRITICISM OF THE COLOR PURPLE
There's nothing in that book but love. Even the people who are hating each other are coming out of love. Because it takes love to create people, clearly, who are doing self-hating things. Takes a lot of love to do that. And I like to, I sort of think about Che Guevera who said that Revolution comes out of love. It's the same with creativity.
ON AIRING OUR DIRTY LAUNDRYI cannot understand this feeling that, if you attempt to heal yourself, there's something about that that's going to make you sick. So when I'm writing about these several generation of men who've done this, that and the other thing, what's really different I think is that I was showing what that behavior looked like from the perspective of the women to whom it was happening. Who matter to me. You cannot batter and abuse and stand on half of your population and expect them to thrive. So I accept all the criticism. I'm so thankful that my ancestors made me really strong. I'm really strong and I understand that strength having suffered a lot. But I am strong enough to take it because we're worth it. And not only are the men worth it, but the women are worth it.
HOW CELIE CAME TO BEI have a step-grandmother named Rachel and all I knew about her was that she had these two children and nobody ever knew what happened to them. She had married my grandfather who was not the sweetest husband you could imagine. She was this loving, servile kind of person. I wanted to honor her and I decided to write in her voice but I could never remember her actual voice other than an expression that she used to use, 'Sho do.' And I was able to construct an entire book out of her 'Sho do.' And so that was a kind of start and it was a way of honoring also, the people, my grandfather, her, my grandfather's lover. All these people. It was a way to spend time with them.
ON THE CHARACTER NETTIE TRAVELING FAR AND WIDENettie was my grandmother. She died when I was two. She never went anywhere. Now here is where the slave thing just goes right into what followed slavery. During slavery you could not leave the plantation. The women never left. The men might get a pass to do something but the women were there. So this Nettie after slavery, not very long after slavery, also never went anywhere. And this is what my mother always used to say: My mother never went anywhere. So I said you know what? This woman is going to be named Nettie and she's going to go everywhere.
ON WRITING THE COLOR PURPLEWhen I was writing 'The Color Purple' I was just in service. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of knowingly putting yourself in service to whatever it is. And so I was like a priest - not the kind of priest you hear about in the news these days but you know, a priest priest where you really know what you're supposed to be doing and you're there. You're on the job. You give up everything else to do that. So I was serving these ancestors basically. And I did it as well as I could do it. It was like prayer.
