Aurora: What was your inspiration behind your most recent novel?
Randi Pink: Before the world shut down, my favorite writing nook was the third floor private room in the best library in my town. I’d pour myself a cup of coffee, sign in for my promised few hours and write in the quiet comfort of the best. The best sidewalks. The best restaurants. The best homes. And certainly, the best schools. That private room boasted floor to ceiling windows giving a panoramic view of the best of the best.
But the town was not built for me. Actually, when the town was built, I wouldn’t have been allowed there unless it was my intention to clean someone’s home, as my beloved grandmother did.
A frustration began to boil. So, I did the only thing that I knew how to do – I started writing. Creating for myself and my children a place such as this, even if it existed in my imagination. I wrote a Black community so special that people would come from far and wide to witness it. In the beginning, I wrote for calm, but when a librarian told me about the Greenwood Race Massacre, the essence of that work became Angel of Greenwood.
But the more I researched the Massacre, the more angry I became. Mostly toward those unacceptable things that, collectively, society has deemed too hard to fix and given up on. One of the most glaring things for me, a Black mother, is the intentional destruction of the post Reconstruction Era Black community.
I’d always been angry about such injustices in our history, but Black motherhood brought forward an intensity toward those unacceptable things.
I’d known it was there, but as I’d been taught, no southern woman should be that intense about anything. But along came a daughter, and then a son, and they blew that up as soon as they took their first breaths of free air.
If I had to choose a single thing that inspired Angel of Greenwood, and kept me writing through a global pandemic, it’d be motherhood. Without a single doubt.
What character in this novel do you most relate to and why?
I relate to each one in different ways but if I had to choose, it’d be Isaiah. In the beginning of the novel, he’s hiding in the same ways that I once did.
Hiding used to be my specialty, but like Isaiah, I did so in plain sight. I was a peacock putting on a show. I’d tucked away my words and opinions in order to present myself as something acceptable to society’s standards. Everything real and true about what made me myself was shielded behind the feathers for its own protection.
Isaiah does the same. And strangely, I didn’t even realize our similarities until I was reading through a final draft of a scene of him walking. He’s only walking, but even setting one foot in front of the other, he’s playing a character of something that he believes better than himself. I cried when I read that back because I’ve done it so many times myself.
Why do you feel novels with powerful and unique characters and themes are so popular and have such a voice right now?
People are drawn to unique characters because most of us are too terrified to show ourselves as we actually are. We envy their resolve, and wish we too could strip ourselves down without fear, or even better, with fear. That is what makes a powerful character too actually.
Years ago, my friends and I would go out to dance clubs. As soon as we’d cross the threshold, without fail, one of my friends would peel off from the group and dance all night long by herself. To me, she was a vision of power and individuality.
As a reader, that’s what I’m drawn to and always have been. Also, that’s what I aspire to capture in my own writing – the perfect power of a girl dancing alone at a club.
Please describe the content of your latest read and what can readers expect from it.
Angel of Greenwood, at its core, is a simple story of two Black teenagers, Angel and Isaiah, falling in love surrounded by the brilliance and ingenuity of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK.
But if you dig deeper, it’s about the unbreakable spirit of those living and thriving on the heels of Reconstruction. Rising up and building something as precious as the Greenwood District so that Angel and Isaiah may freely fall in love in peace.
But on May 31, 1921, a vicious white mob stormed the community of Greenwood leading to the Greenwood Race Massacre.
Readers can expect a story of unyielding hope, love and resiliency in the ugly face of hate.
What’s next for you in the bookish world?
My hope is to continue to write without fear or doubt. Or, even better with fear and doubt. It is what I was born to do.
Who is your current favorite writer? Why?
Kelly Quindlen writes friendship beautifully and Late to the Party carried me through an especially lonely period in this pandemic. Kelly is also a phenomenal human being and it shows in the writing.
Any writing advice for aspiring writers?
I’d give the same advice to a group of investment bankers or doctors or lawyers: This race is too long to run around burning bridges. In other words, simply, treat people well.
Up next, Kateřina Tučková!