Interview with the Weatherfords about KIN: ROOTED IN HOPE

Anne: Hello, Carole and Jeffery! For years I’ve enjoyed your many books for young readers, and today I’m honored for this opportunity to interview you about your latest release. KIN is a powerful book! Carole, would you please give readers a brief summary of what it’s all about?

Carole: KIN: Rooted in Hope is a verse novel inspired by our family’s history in enslavement and after emancipation. Multi-voiced poems and dramatic scratchboard illustrations conjure the voices, vistas and visages of our ancestors and reclaim their lost narratives. KIN affirms that family lineage, lore and land memory contribute to generational wealth, and the book encourages readers to mine their own families’ roots and stories.

Anne: Thank you. Mining one’s roots can be really powerful. Jeffery, in your Illustrator’s Note, you say that you hope the book will inspire others to explore their roots; you see KIN as “a call to future artists to stay dedicated to the [creative] process and stay in tune with their ‘why.’” I really like that line. How old were you when you first took an interest in your family’s history? How did this project help you “stay in tune with your ‘why’”?

Jeffery: I think I was unconsciously interested in my family history from a very young age. We have been traveling to my family’s ancestral land for as long as I can remember. This project required an immense amount of work to complete, and knowing the purpose behind the project fueled the fire to complete it. This story HAD to be complete.

Anne: I’m so glad you completed it. KIN is all about truth, about telling the truth, about revealing parts of our country’s history of enslaving people—a history that some have tried to erase. Carole, what did it feel like, bringing to light truths that had been kept in the dark?

Carole: In conjuring ancestral voices and reclaiming lost narratives, I felt a responsibility to past and future generations. The poems give voice to the ancestors while also echoing my response to the discoveries that I wove into stories. As a result, KIN is a bit meta sometimes.

Anne: Meta, yes, and it works. You reveal in the book that during a trip to Africa, you tried and failed to sense your ancestors, writing early in KIN, 

Like a curious child, I quiz Mother Africa.
She offers no answers; only her embrace.

Near the end of KIN, you wrote these lines:

This grove is halfway between
the riverbank and the Long Green…
Kneeling in the shade, I touch the grass.
The number buried here is unknown;
their names, lost but for ledgers
of the Lloyds’ property and possessions.
No more proof needed.
Here, I feel the spirits.

This moment is really powerful. What was it like for you to write this section—to feel these spirits? 

Carole: Standing in the burial grove was one of the most moving experiences on this historical quest. When I visited Africa and the plantation, I kept wondering whether the ancestors would speak to me, how I should feel standing on that earth and when emotions would overcome me. In that grove, I got my answers in the most visceral way. I could almost feel the ancestors’ breath. 

Anne: I love that. Burial groves can be incredibly powerful places.

Jeffery, your illustrations bring your mom’s verses to life. Some of your art depicts details up close—a perspective that at times made me pause, wondering what I was seeing. Then I’d get it—an outstretched arm, a baby in an embrace, a gnarled hand on a hickory stick. So engaging! Tell us a bit about how you set out to illustrate a moment.

Jeffery: I begin by reading the poem and letting the words take me on a journey through my mind. I allow my mind to give me the answer. And once I have an image in my mind of how I want it to look, I match that to a suitable reference photo from the library of congress website, or if I can’t find it there, I’ll use a model from life.

Anne: Nice. Carole, I want to ask you about perspective, too. I love the story’s many points of view, alternating between your own thoughts and voices you imagined—for instance, the voice of the Chesapeake Bay, then a house, a ship, an ancestor, an historical figure, etc. Tell me about your decision to write multiple points of view. 

Carole: The dozen or so farms owned the Lloyd family made them the state’s largest slaveholders. At one time, the Lloyds held more than 900 African descendants captive. At Wye House alone—the seat of a succession of Edward Lloyds—more than 300 enslaved people inhabited a community called the Long Green. Those few hundred represent countless stories begging to be told. Instead of focusing KIN on my own ancestral line, I give voice to the many subjects and objects that spoke to me. This paints a fuller picture of the setting and of enslavement.

Anne: Yes, a really full picture. Now, Jeffery, this isn’t the first time you’ve collaborated with your mom. What’s it like to work together professionally? How is your collaboration with Mom different from the way you might approach illustrations for a writer who isn’t a family member? (Do you call her Mom? If not, what do you call her?)

Jeffery: I do indeed call her Mom. Working with my mom is a humbling and rewarding experience. Collaboration with her is fun and pretty awesome. I have actually never worked with any other authors as of yet but I’ll surely find out soon enough.

Anne: Agreed. I can feel your career taking off. Carole, do you and Jeffery live near each other? How often do you meet up? Tell us a bit about how you work together. Are you planning another collaboration? What are you working on now?

Carole: When we work together, Jeffery becomes my muse (who under normal circumstances is Billie Holiday. Yes!).

Anne: Awesome!

Carole: We live in different states and rarely work side by side, but we do put our heads together by phone or on Google Meets. I share works in progress with Jeffery and he creates art for our mother-son packages. After that, we collaborate much like any other unrelated author-illustrator team. No sneak peeks ahead of the publisher. I do share my picture research with Jeffery, though. Next up from us is a picture book biography of Dutch artist, M. C. Escher.

Anne: Oh, excellent! I look forward to reading your Escher book. Now, let’s end with your social media links. Where can readers go to learn more about both of you and your work?

Carole and Jeffery: We’re together at the website cbweatherford.com.

Carole: In addition, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram as @caroleweatherford, and on Twitter as @poetweatherford. Feel free to contact us at cbwpoet@gmail.com.

Jeffery: I’m on both Instagram and Facebook as @triiibechief.

Anne: Thank you so much for stopping by MG Book Village and giving us the opportunity to feature you and your work!

Carole and Jeffery: Great to be here!

Carole Boston Weatherford (she/her/hers) has written many award-winning books for children, including Box, which won a Newbery Honor, Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King award, a Caldecott honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award finalist; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in Maryland. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com.

Jeffery Boston Weatherford (he/him/his) has a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Howard University. He uses his signature scratchboard technique for the illustrations in this book and in his previous collaboration with his mother, You Can Fly.

Anne (A.B.) Westrick (she/her) is the author of the older-MG novel Brotherhood. You can learn more about Anne at the MG Book Village “About” page.