EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Yellowhammer, camellia, southern longleaf pine - these are all symbols of Alabama, the home state of Alexis Okeowo, a staff writer at The New Yorker and daughter of Nigerian immigrants, who wanted to write a book about what it means to love the place where she's from while still acknowledging its sins. That book is called "Blessings And Disasters: A Story Of Alabama." Alexis Okeowo joins me now. Hi. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
ALEXIS OKEOWO: Hi. Thank you for having me.
KWONG: You know, a relationship to your home state is a very personal thing. Can you tell us the story of what happened that made you want to write this?
OKEOWO: Yeah. So Alabama, to me, has always been home. It's the place I've known best. It's where I spent my childhood. But it wasn't until I left for college in the Northeast that I realized how people outside of Alabama held such strong convictions and stereotypes about...
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: ...A place that they, in my opinion, didn't really know. Alabama is often defined by its worst events, its worst characteristics, its history. And I wanted to tell an alternate history of the state. I wanted to talk about the things that are left out of the state's story and the experiences of people who decide to stay there despite so many people writing Alabama off.
KWONG: Yeah. The approach you take to depicting a multifaceted view of Alabama is so brilliant. And you write about how so much of Alabama is a battle over who gets to tell the story. And the first sentence of the book is - and I underlined this, and I was like, wow, this is such a good first sentence of a book - it depends on who is doing the looking. And as the book goes along, we look at Alabama through different eyes. Why did you choose to do it this way and to weave your story in with these half a dozen others?
OKEOWO: Yeah, because to me, Alabama, and the South in general, has always been most interesting because of the people who make it home. And I think those people and their visions of what Alabama could be is what has pushed the state forward, whether it's wanted to go or not - the Native Americans who managed to stay, the Black people who decided to stay, the white Alabamians, the Latino migrants who are - who've been coming and are still coming...
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: ...Immigrants like my parents from Nigeria. These are the people that are shaping Alabama and making it what it is. And a lot of those perspectives I found are not included in Alabama's official story or what people think Alabama's official story is.
KWONG: Some of the most riveting passages to me in the book are about the Poarch Creek Indians, this community that is Southern and Indian. And this tribe, their ancestors managed to escape the Trail of Tears and hold onto their land in Alabama. You write - (reading) the Poarch Creek were kin and country, the survivors of the worst events that can befall a people, from displacement to near eradication, and for over a century, the federal government had treated them alternatively, like an extra finger or a phantom limb.
You didn't mingle, it seems, a ton with the Poarch Creek tribe growing up. So how did writing about the first Alabamians change how you saw the state?
OKEOWO: Their experience was not something that was included in the story of Alabama that I was taught growing up.
KWONG: Wow.
OKEOWO: And that, to me, is...
KWONG: Like, at all?
OKEOWO: ...Remarkable - at all, at all. And now I've seen mentions of their story more in historical markers downtown in Montgomery, but that's a more recent occurrence. And yet, here is a small group of people that, as you said, managed to avoid getting onto the Trail of Tears, have become incredibly prosperous and consider themselves deeply Alabamian and Native American. And I was fascinated by their experience because they're still in a tricky situation where they still battle with the state of Alabama over their sovereignty and their businesses, but they're not going anywhere.
KWONG: Growing up, I learned about Alabama primarily through the lens of relationships between Black and white Alabamians. But you complicate that picture in sharing your personal story. Your family is from Nigeria, and you talk about the Black immigrant community in Alabama being a whole other layer. Can you paint us that picture?
OKEOWO: Yes. I mean, people are still always shocked when I tell them, yeah, my parents have a whole West African community. The mini - I'm calling it sort of an Africa town, in a way, 'cause that hearkens to another Africa...
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: ...Town in Alabama, where the last enslaved people brought to Alabama illegally after the slave trade ended made a home in Alabama after the Civil War. And I compare that experience a little bit to West African immigrants who came willingly for school and then found themselves in a bit of an odd racial limbo...
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: ...Not Black American, but Black, and how they made their way...
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: ...And made a home in Alabama.
KWONG: Yeah. I love how you write about your aunties and auntie style. These West African women - these Black women who you grew up with being so kind of colorful in their style and expressive in their style. Have they weighed in on your press tour outfits, what you should be wearing to represent Alabama fashion as you share this book with the world?
OKEOWO: Well, I'm already thinking about the outfit I will be wearing at my book event in Montgomery next week. I know it has to meet certain standards because all...
KWONG: Oh.
OKEOWO: ...My aunties are coming.
KWONG: Yeah.
OKEOWO: My mom is coming.
KWONG: What are you going to wear?
OKEOWO: Very good question - I haven't decided yet. This is a very big decision I have to make (laughter).
KWONG: For those who have not read the book, what would you say about why Alabama is a great place to be from and a place worth returning to?
OKEOWO: First of all, I think it's physically beautiful. It's a beautiful place. I think that it produces...
KWONG: You talking (ph) about the green land?
OKEOWO: Yeah, the green - the green is magnificent, and I'll always be drawn to that. I think it also produces some of the best people I've ever met in my life. I think the kind of warmth and honesty and generosity I find there is unlike any other I've found in this country. And I think there's a certain feeling in the air and walking around and being with people that is just really valuable and meaningful. And I think that also it really shaped me to who I am. I think it taught me how to be around people I don't agree with but who I can talk to. I think I can talk to almost anybody because I'm from Alabama.
KWONG: Alexis Okeowo is the author of "Blessings And Disasters: A Story Of Alabama," which is available now. Thank you so much for coming on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED to talk about your book.
OKEOWO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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