Remember

Remember ?
by Alice Walker

I am the woman: Dark,
repaired, healed
Listening to you.
I would give
to the human race
only hope.
I am the woman
offering two flowers
whose roots
are twin
Justice and Hope
Hope and Justice
Let us begin.

(c) Alice Walker

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” Anais Nin

Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” was the first book I ever read by her. I remember how it felt. It was like encountering a new friend who transported me safely across the threshold of another world full of possibilities. Little did I know then that one day she would be a friend beyond those pages.

I am here today making this film but the roots travel back to 1990 when our mutual friend, the sorely missed, highly acclaimed writer/poet June Jordan arranged for me to interview Alice Walker at her home in San Francisco. Alice Walker had just published her novel “The Temple Of My Familiar” and a magazine in the UK commissioned me to interview her.

Decades have passed since that momentous meeting when June Jordan and her friend and another awe inspiring woman Angela Davis drove me across the Bay Bridge to Alice’s house. Over these years Alice and I have shared life changing adventures and travels–far too many to know even where to begin.

For now, I just want to say (for the record) that it is an honor to be making this film – to continually discover the moving, poignant history of an exceptional woman who I deeply respect as a writer, a human rights activist and a collaborator.

Beauty In Truth has brought me in contact with an incredible and surprising cast of people each one of whom deserves an individual post, coming in the future.

This film is coming together like the quilts Alice Walker has written so eloquently about in her essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South” (1974) Over time we have gathered images, words, archive material and interviews that we will edit and weave into one story, holding multiple stories.