美国国家公共电台 NPR The Rise Of The Well-Read Black Girl Book Club

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Glory Edim loves to read, and she loves to talk, so she started a book club. And then she started inviting¹ authors to come and discuss their books. She set up an Instagram account and began publishing a newsletter. Soon, she'd created a genuine phenomenon known as the Well-Read Black Girl book club. It also spawned² an annual literary festival, which is being held today in Brooklyn. The festival coincides with the publication of an anthology of essays that were edited by Glory Edim and written by other well-read black girls. NPR's Lynn Neary has the story.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: The way Glory Edim tells it, it all began with a T-shirt. It was a birthday present from her partner.

GLORY EDIM: And it had that simple statement on it, well-read black girl.

NEARY: The shirt was also embellished⁴ with names of some of Edim's favorite authors, from Toni Morrison to Gloria Naylor. It attracted a lot of attention.

EDIM: I would be wearing the T-shirt in public spaces in New York City. And, as you know, we tend to be in close proximity⁵ to one another all the time. So sitting on the subway talking to people, and black women coming up to me and asking me about where I got the T-shirt, who my favorite author was - it just started these very natural conversations.

NEARY: Edim wanted those conversations to continue, so she decided⁶ to start a book club that would focus on black women, both readers and writers.

EDIM: So if you want to come and join and talk about black women writers, you're more than welcome. If you want to talk about Ernest Hemingway, this might not be the book club for you.

NEARY: Carla Bruce-Eddings heard about the book club from a friend and attended one of the early meetings.

CARLA BRUCE-EDDINGS: It really feels like taking a long exhale⁷. They're very informal. We sit in a circle. And it's just such a comforting and welcoming space.

NEARY: Author Stephanie Powell Watts⁸ was invited to discuss her book "No One Is Coming To Save Us." She loved the energy of the group.

STEPHANIE POWELL WATTS: It feels like a found thing. You know how when you're listening to your radio and a song you love comes on, and it just feels like it's so - it was just meant for you that day? It feels like you've discovered something amazing and wonderful that was designed for your good.

NEARY: Both Powell Watts and Bruce-Eddings contributed to the Well-Read Black Girl anthology. Other writers in the collection include Jesmyn Ward⁹, Tayari Jones and Jacqueline Woodson. Everyone was asked to answer the question, when did you first see yourself in literature? Edim posed that question even though she had a slight reservation about it.

EDIM: Originally, I thought that everyone would have a different story about Toni Morrison, which would've been incredible, but that was a little bit of the fear. Like, will everyone write the same story about "The Bluest Eye"? Will it sound repetitive? And that was not the case at all.

NEARY: Edim says the collection really tells the story of how these women became writers. Some did first see themselves in well-known authors like Zora Neale Hurston or, yes, Toni Morrison. But the inspirations were wide-ranging, from James Baldwin to books about witches and magic.

Stephanie Powell Watts, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, wrote about the Bible stories she learned as a child. Here, she reads an excerpt¹⁰ from her essay.

POWELL WATTS: (Reading) I wanted to write stories that spoke¹¹ to my time in the world of the people I know. I wanted to tell about their extraordinary lives, their attempts to maintain dignity in a hostile world, their dreams for their children and grandchildren that would come after them. The stories of the people I lived with, was related to by blood and law, knew in the neighborhoods and communities of the New South sounded much like those stories I'd loved from Scripture¹².

NEARY: Carla Bruce-Eddings loved the children's book "Amazing Grace" about a girl named Grace who was told she could not play Peter Pan in a school play because she was black and a girl. Grace wouldn't let anyone impose those limitations on her. And Bruce-Eddings says that made her unforgettable.

BRUCE-EDDINGS: Grace is, ultimately, who I landed on, but it wasn't so much because I saw myself in her completely. It was because she was someone I aspired¹³ to be.

NEARY: Bruce-Eddings says she always comes back to Grace when she's assessing her life and thinking about who she wants to be.

BRUCE-EDDINGS: I have a 3-year-old daughter right now. And when I was building her library, I realized that I'd lost my old copy of "Amazing Grace," so I immediately ran out and bought another one. And as I was reading it to my daughter for the first time, tears came to my eyes because it just felt like I was home in a way, and I was realizing all of these things about myself that I had made peace with. And now I was able to pass her on to my daughter.

NEARY: Bruce-Eddings will be at the Well-Read Black Girl Festival today, surrounded by people like her, who love to read and write and talk about books. And presiding over it all will be Glory Edim, the original well-read black girl. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

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1 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

2 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 embellished   

v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色

参考例句：

• The door of the old church was embellished with decorations. 老教堂的门是用雕饰美化的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The stern was embellished with carvings in red and blue. 船尾饰有红色和蓝色的雕刻图案。 来自辞典例句

5 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 exhale   

v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发

参考例句：

• Sweet odours exhale from flowers.花儿散发出花香。
• Wade exhaled a cloud of smoke and coughed.韦德吐出一口烟，然后咳嗽起来。

8 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

9 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

10 excerpt   

n.摘录，选录，节录

参考例句：

• This is an excerpt from a novel.这是一部小说的摘录。
• Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗？

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 scripture   

n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段

参考例句：

• The scripture states that God did not want us to be alone.圣经指出上帝并不是想让我们独身一人生活。
• They invoked Hindu scripture to justify their position.他们援引印度教的经文为他们的立场辩护。

13 aspired   

v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She aspired to a scientific career. 她有志于科学事业。
• Britain,France,the United States and Japan all aspired to hegemony after the end of World War I. 第一次世界大战后，英、法、美、日都想争夺霸权。 来自《简明英汉词典》