On the Shelf
Libertie
By Kaitlyn GreenidgeAlgonquin: 336 pages, $27
If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
Kaitlyn Greenidges explosive 2016 debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, approached American racism through the perspective of a Black family hired by a scientific institute to teach American Sign Language to a chimpanzee. In Libertie, Greenidge takes a more international approach. Her second novel is loosely based on the life of Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black woman doctor in the state of New York. In Greenidges version of the story, Dr. Catherine Sampson has skin as light as her daughter Liberties is dark; the pair have plenty of other differences too. Cathy would have Libertie follow her path in medicine, while Libertie feels drawn to music.
From her early life in Brooklyn to her brief schooling in Ohio and on to married life in Haiti, Libertie seeks a way of life that will allow her to use her intellect and celebrate her femininity. Unfortunately, when she and her new husband arrive at his family home in Haitis Jacmel, she discovers that even a society without white slaveholders has layers of caste and privilege, none of which are to her advantage. Greenidges immersive story asks many questions, answers few and heralds a blossoming literary career.
Greenidge spoke with The Times via video from her screened back porch in New England, about colorism, Meghan and Harry, and the Song of Solomon, the WAP of the Bible.
We have to talk about Meghan Markle and your reactions to her recent interview with Oprah.
I love that Oprah brought every bit of herself to it, and I loved how unguarded Meghan and Harry were. But I dont think there was anything in there that a person of color would be surprised by. Oprah knows racism exists, but in asking Meghan and Harry to walk her through why things happened, she set things up to walk multiple viewers from multiple different experiences through Meghans words about her own experience.
You have a billion-dollar press corps dedicated to telling you: Your dysfunctional extended family is fine. You should be able to deal with it. What gets lost in there is the question of Archies skin color. Those questions happen all the time, for anyone who has had a biracial child. Those questions were happening at the same time as the questions about his future security. Thats not poetics. Thats not a metaphor. Thats Colonialism 101.
Like Harry and Meghan, Liberties 19th century protagonist refuses to follow anyone elses script.
Its a little heavy-handed, but I did love using the name Libertie. It allowed me to play with the idea: What does freedom actually look like? In the United States our understanding of freedom is often intricately tied with domination. We measure freedom with what we can get away with doing to people who have less power, whether that means I have the freedom to dictate my childs life or to take over lands that belong to Indigenous people, or I have the freedom to carry a gun as I please.
Libertie is a dark-skinned Black girl in Civil War and Reconstruction society. Shes at the bottom of all the power structures by race, gender, age and color. I set the book during Reconstruction because, as a lot of people have pointed out, that era mirrors our own. Its a time where Black people and abolitionists were coming up with definitions of freedom and personhood that had never been thought of in this country.
Because there were gaps, or even contradictions, in the work of the group known as the Founding Fathers.
Libertie, in her personal life, is trying to hold all these truths at once. That shes born into a country where people are fighting for freedom, but also into a time when Black people are making the argument that we have made over and over again for generations. Some people argue that if Black people had a space of our own, an all-Black country, all these issues would be solved. Libertie attempts to find that when she moves to Haiti and learns that the oppression has not disappeared in that country. Instead, its changed, due to a different power dynamic.
Its also a utopia that doesnt work out. Her husband, Emmanuel, tries to lead Haiti into a new era, but quickly loses control.
Right, and also when you try to name the main perpetrator of the oppression, you can lose sight of the internalized oppression that goes with it. Oftentimes people think we will keep the power structure, well just get rid of the person at the top. To do the hard work of re-imagining what an equitable structure would look like can be something we think we dont have time to do. So lets just lop off the head and everything else will figure itself out.
I think that is what were experiencing right now. Some people are saying we can imagine something better. Other people are saying, No, this structure we have is all I can imagine, so it must be good enough.
Libertie finally realizes what she has to do, not just for herself but for her children.
My daughter was born while I was writing this book. I found out I was pregnant on the day I finished the first draft. I handed in the second draft and went into the hospital six hours later. But when I was drafting, I hadnt yet had children. In literary novels, motherhood is often this really depressed and contested place. It can be that, there is drudgery in parenting, but I also know women who are both artists and mothers and find motherhood creative and generative. I wanted to explore that alternative version of motherhood, in which youre not necessarily confined to the dust heap of history once you give birth.
How else is Libertie different from Charlie Freeman?
This book challenged me to write about things with, I guess, a certain gentleness and reverence a little bit different tone than my first novel, which had a more ironic and detached tone. That was a real challenge for me because I find it easiest to write in the ironic voice.
One of the things that cracked it open for me was, when I got to the romantic relationship, I started to read the biblical Song of Solomon. One of my wonderful poet friends is currently working on a translation of it, and she gave me insight into how much of that part of Scripture is about womens bodies and womens pleasures, and its about colorism as well. Its about a dark-skinned woman talking about her sexual desires. Its basically the WAP of the Bible.
A Black writer depicting a Black character has be writing about race, but to me this book seemed to transcend it. Theres no white gaze.
The intellectual and philosophical challenge for me was to write a book set in the 19th century without any major white characters in it. Of course, whiteness is going to be on the periphery for these characters. How are they going to talk about the world that they live in and how they move through that world? This book is about Blackness, and freedom, and where they intersect. Even in an incredibly repressive white supremacist society like 1860s New York state, people are still going to attempt to make a way of life for themselves.
Thats the beauty of Reconstruction-era America. There was intense, racialized violence but also an incredible flowering of Black communities and culture. When you think about people two and three years out of enslavement founding colleges and hospitals and more, its mind-boggling. The spirit I wanted to explore in Libertie is that a person in a limited environment can still make a deep, strange, wonderful world for herself, a world that is not really in conversation with an oppressive structure that thinks it knows everything about her.
Patrick is a freelance critic who tweets @TheBookMaven.
Continued here:
Kaitlyn Greenidge: Song of Solomon is "WAP" of the Bible' - Los Angeles Times
- Travel & Resources: DELHI / NEW DELHI - Utopia [Last Updated On: June 15th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 15th, 2016]
- Travel & Resources: DELHI / NEW DELHI - Utopia [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Utopia - New World Encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Utopia (book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Chanel Mirage, Utopia, New Moon Illusion d'Ombre ... [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2016]
- New Utopia Design Build - Los Angeles, CA, US 90012 [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2016] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2016]
- THE NEW UTOPIA - Libertarian [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2016]
- NEW TOWN UTOPIA by Christopher Ian Smith Kickstarter [Last Updated On: October 20th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 20th, 2016]
- Travel & Resources: HONG KONG - Gay Asia and... - Utopia [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2016]
- THE NEW CHAIN REACTION - Game Show Utopia [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2016]
- DELHI / NEW DELHI: Massage and Spas - Utopia [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2016]
- First Listen: Sinkane, 'Life & Livin' It' - NPR [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Who is authorized to bind your family business to contracts? - Lexology (registration) [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Meanwhile in Canada Things Are Just as Bad - New York Times [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Stellaris: Utopia expansion lets you craft megastructural ringworlds - PC Gamer [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- 'Stellaris' Utopia DLC Gets First Trailer; Will Introduce New Buildings And Perks - iDigitalTimes.com [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Utopia Pipeline project to bring 300 temporary jobs to New Philadelphia - New Philadelphia Times Reporter [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- With violin in hand, Mark Menzies finds hope for the future in the past - Los Angeles Times [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Revolution: Russian Art review from utopia to the gulag, via ... - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Brooklyn's A/D/O Co-Working Space Is Building a Utopia for Creatives of All Kinds - Artsy [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Austra encourages listeners to imagine new, bolder futures - San Francisco Chronicle [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Michael Loong Proposes New, Sustainable Ideology to Achieve Utopia in China - Satellite PR News (press release) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- French photographer builds supernatural Astana, calls it Utopia of the 21st Century - Astana Times [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- The village aiming to create a white utopia - BBC News [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- A notable show BAMPFA's 'Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for ... - Berkeleyside [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- British Airways Concorde 'Alpha Foxtrot' Arrives at New Bristol Home - AirlineGeeks.com (blog) [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- In praise of utopias, not dystopias: Salutin - Toronto Star [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- The Bannon-Trump Arc of History - American Spectator [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Everybody's Pop-Up Shop Throws a Wild AntiFashion Week Party With Adwoa Aboah - Vogue.com [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Plotting 'No-Place' in 'Utopia Neighborhood Club' - Seattle Weekly [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Utopia releases its next version of master data governance solution ... - SDTimes.com [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Bruno Ganz on New Film About Last Days of East Germany: 'This Is a Subject That Will Never Let Me Go' - Variety [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- New Barbarians: Inside Rolling Stones' Wild Seventies Spin-Off - RollingStone.com [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- Drought-crazed utopia flushes away common sense - NewHampshire.com [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- Lenkom Theater: From Soviet utopia to post-modern dystopia - Russia Beyond the Headlines [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- GHOST To Record "Darker" New Album This Summer, Tease Completely New Lineup - Metal Injection.net [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Protest Cabaret: Ithaca's Resistance - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Fighting for Utopia in Tough Times - AlterNet [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Mardi Gras brings on the fun - Tullahoma News and Guardian [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Angela Henderson-Bentley: New take on Jack the Ripper an idea whose 'Time' has come - Huntington Herald Dispatch [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Knowledge can fight ignorance: New speakers series will shed light on Yemen - Detroit Metro Times [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Hygge Is Where the Heart Is - New York Times [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Utopia is coming, with a basic income for all - The Times (subscription) [Last Updated On: February 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 26th, 2017]
- Government shakeups and political unrest are coming to Stellaris in its Utopia expansion - PCGamesN [Last Updated On: February 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 26th, 2017]
- Rutger Bregman: 'We could cut the working week by a third' - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- The board hoard: your guide to the best new board games - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Tempted To Move Out Of The US? New Zealand Wants To Help You Escape - Forbes [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- THE SOUND OF MUSIC to Welcome New 'Georg von Trapp' on Tour in Hershey - Broadway World [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Stellaris Utopia Gameplay Expansion Out In April - Attack of the Fanboy [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- At BAMPFA, 'Hippie Modernism' Proves the Fight for Utopia is Far from Over - KQED [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Stellaris Utopia Set To Launch April 6th - One Angry Gamer (blog) [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Railcar derailment in Utopia due to vandalism: Cando Rail Services - Simcoe.com [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Stellaris: Utopia Path to Ascension release date trailer - Gameplanet [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- JUSTIN JOHNSON: It's a TRAP! - SCNow [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Watch brutal Xenomorph attack in new 'Alien: Covenant' trailer - CNET [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Dr. John to headline Utopia Fest in final year at Four Sisters Ranch - austin360 (blog) [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Want utopia? Start with universal basic income and a 15-hour work week - Wired.co.uk [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Extreme Channel 4 reality challenge Mutiny makes its sailors suffer - iNews [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- Utopia Frozen Yogurt and Coffee House | Ellensburg, WA [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- March 4, 2017 - EDP Foundation - Utopia/Dystopia / Hctor Zamora: Order and Progress - E-Flux [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- Utopia for Realists and How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman digested read - The Guardian [Last Updated On: March 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 5th, 2017]
- A taste of 'Utopia' - Otago Daily Times [Last Updated On: March 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 5th, 2017]
- Father John Misty references Taylor Swift in new song, 'Total Entertainment Forever' - EW.com [Last Updated On: March 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 5th, 2017]
- Time After Time May Be Your New Bad TV Obsession - Gizmodo [Last Updated On: March 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 6th, 2017]
- 'Time After Time' delivers Jack the Ripper to modern-day New York - Long Beach Press Telegram [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]
- Why everyone hates the GOP's new health plan - The Week Magazine [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- A modern utopia: Inside the UK's first women-only housing community - International Business Times UK [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- Utopia Now! - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies [Last Updated On: March 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 11th, 2017]
- Hello Cuba, Adios Utopia: Cuban Art in Texas - Observer [Last Updated On: March 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 11th, 2017]
- Whole of It: 'Free Cake at the Top' - Scottsbluff Star Herald [Last Updated On: March 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2017]
- Utopia in the Time of Trump - lareviewofbooks [Last Updated On: March 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2017]
- The Nature of Robots - Film School Rejects [Last Updated On: March 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 17th, 2017]
- Utopia Multimedia Festival brings artistic talents together in one place - Taranaki Daily News [Last Updated On: March 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 17th, 2017]
- The Electoral College is right for New Mexico - Albuquerque Journal [Last Updated On: March 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 19th, 2017]
- Equal writes and the best new women fiction: Book reviews - Express.co.uk [Last Updated On: March 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 19th, 2017]
- Liberal America Has A Sweden Fetish - GOOD Magazine [Last Updated On: March 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 21st, 2017]
- Utopia Creations travels to Florida - Journalism.co.uk [Last Updated On: March 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 21st, 2017]
- A Well-Ventilated Utopia - The New York Review of Books [Last Updated On: March 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 21st, 2017]
- 500 years after Sir Thomas More's Utopia, what have we learned? - The Sydney Morning Herald [Last Updated On: March 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 21st, 2017]
- This Swiss Startup Is Bringing AI to the Music Label Business - Bloomberg [Last Updated On: March 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 23rd, 2017]