This interview originally appeared in the January/February 2022 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Diverse Books Spotlight, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.

Sponsored by

Levine Querido

In Freedom!: The Story of the Black Panther Party, the Black revolutionary party founded in the 1960s gets a comprehensive history.

1. What can Black Lives Matter learn from the Black Panthers?

Instead of a lesson, I’d like to offer encouragement. Though they are different in many ways, their essential struggles and many of their core goals are the same. The pursuit of Black freedom and liberation. An end to police brutality. Eradicating structural and systemic racism. The work is located in a long struggle that is far from over. Though the road is rocky, though it can come at great costs, the goal is worth striving for. Fighting, agitating, and organizing for personal and group liberation is both inspiring and necessary.

2. You are also a professional dancer and choreographer. What does dance teach you about writing?

I had a wonderful dance teacher, Marcia Singman, who taught me that choreography isn’t just about putting steps together. The same is true of writing. It is more than just a collection of words. The art is in the nuance. What word and what step does the artist choose? Where is the motion and where is the stillness? How might she create both moments of surprise and instances of poetry?

3. Which Panther were you most gratified to learn more about?

Every one. The more I learned, the more interested I was in each individual’s story.

4. What myth about the Black Panthers are you happiest to correct?

That it was an organization made up of men. From the beginning, women were active, important members. Women held leadership positions, ran Party branches, agitated, and organized at every level. At the Party’s height, over sixty percent were women.

5. Would teenage you have wanted to join the Panthers?

Yes. I would like to have been involved in one of the community survival programs, either working for the Free Breakfast for Children program or the Oakland Community School. I also would have enjoyed writing for the Black Panther newspaper.

Sponsored by

Levine Querido

Photo courtesy of Jetta Grace Martin.