The Color Purple

It's not noise, it's music in your writing.

Well, there is the most beautiful music in the writing of your fourth book shelf book, which is The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

In rural Georgia, sisters Celie and Nettie share the pain and struggle of growing up as African American women at this time.

At least when she's forced into an abusive marriage, Celie can offer Nettie refuge from their violent father in her new home, until Nettie catch the attention of Celie's husband and is forced to leave and forge her own journey.

Through a series of letters spanning 20 years, the sisters sustain their hope in each other across time, distance, and silence in a triumph of resilience, bravery, and ultimately love.

Now, you've actually described The Color Purple as an instrumental book for your, your writing and your work.

What impact did it have on you?

Well, Alice Walker is from Georgia.

Stamp.

The Color Purple.

Yep, there's your nudity right there.

Get rid of them.

Her work explored what happened when a Black woman spoke with authority, defended herself, or refused to accept someone else's control, and why that confidence so often was treated as a problem.

In a paper about Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Taisha was particularly drawn to Sophia, a character who fought to maintain her independence.

Her professor remembered that willingness to stand up for herself as something that Taisha valued and something that she recognized in her own life.

But college was also a time for friendship, dancing, and bringing people together.

You know how it went? We went to school together.

There was one time we had to read The Color Purple.

I didn't even open the book, and we had a 20-question pop quiz.

And I just sat there going, well, there's no point in trying to fill this out.

Um, there's...

I remember, um, in, uh, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, her dedication was, "I thank all these characters for showing up."

Mm-hmm.

You know what? I read that and said, "Nope.

And that thing that comes, and you say, "Where did that come from?" [laughs] And I know Alice Walker, with notwithstanding, I know it came from inside me, you know, a dream or something.

But, um-

But when Alice thinks, I remember that obviously, The Color Purple.

I have the first edition.

Maybe the way it's written, yeah.

Have you ever read The Color Purple?

No.

No, I have not.

Sorry, car salesman.

But I think part of where that feeling comes from is that the justification for that being a usage or a redemption of that storyline is that it somehow says books and platforms and preaching and, you know, leadership in the These things are the most impactful way to use your story.

Instead of saying sometimes after you've abused leadership positions, you've abused authority, the most impactful way that you can continue to, you know, of course, God can redeem and he can use your story is through the everyday ways that you're serving, is through, you know, the small acts of service in your life that you're building into.

Those things have enormous kingdom impact, right? They're just not things that are going to give you money.

Very helpful analysis as always, Wade.

If people wanted to learn more about these topics and how to think critically about a host of the issues you've discussed today, what sort of resources or literature would you recommend for a deeper dive?

Well, I talk about the score and acronym in my books, Something's Not Right.

And then I've written about institutional apologies on my Substack, wademullin.substack.com. And then there are plenty of good books on these topics.

She then moved to a welfare home in St. Lucie County, Florida and lived there until she died in poverty in 1960.

Hurston's work was almost forgotten, but in 1973, Alice Walker, a prominent Black American author who was best known for her novel, The Color Purple, read Hurston's novels and was inspired.

Walker said that she felt a personal relationship to Hurston's work and considered her the matriarch of Black literature.

After Walker found Hurston's unmarked burial place in Fort Pierce, Florida, Walker bought a headstone for the grave and had it inscribed with the words, a genius of the South.

Toni Morrison is a legend.

She published everything from plays to children's books.

Her novels earn many prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She also was the first Black American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.