“We Troubled the Waters”-A picture book by Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown
“We Troubled the Waters” * is a picture book about the struggle for civil rights in the US. It is a book filled with the powerful voice of author/poet Ntozake Shange who paints pictures of both pain and triumph with her words. Her poems are accompanied by the also powerful and moving paintings of Rod Brown, who depicts the unspeakable horrors of how Black people were treated in our country during this time with simplicity and beauty, honoring those who struggled.
This book is recommended for ages 9 and up. As a parent and teacher, I would certainly look at it first before sharing it with my child–the words and images are powerful and disturbing, as well as beautiful and honest. It’s a wonderful book for a child who is ready to deal with it and will probably spark further investigation into what happened during the civil rights era–and what’s happening today.
Ntozake Shange–the author
Ntozake Shange is one of my favorite authors. She is best known, I think, for her play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. She’s also written other books for children, which I haven’t read yet, including “Coretta Scott” and “Ellington Was Not A Street.” But her book that touched me most deeply is “Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo,” which is a novel for adults, originally published in the early 1980’s. I found it when I was in my 20’s and just re-discovering my own artistic self. It’s a story of three sisters and their mother. They’re from Charleston, South Carolina. All of them are artists–the mother and eldest are weavers and poets, the middle sister is a dancer and the youngest is a poet who stills sees the magic that is all around her. She was the one I related to the most. But it’s a wonderful story about relationships and art and self-discovery.
Anyhow, when I was wandering around the library and saw this book written by Shange, I knew I wanted to read it.
Rod Brown–the artist
I was not familiar with Rod Brown’s work either as an illustrator or fine artist. But certainly, the cover illustration made me want to see more of the book. And his paintings are amazing. He deals with some very painful subjects–from the painting on the title page of a Black man floating face down in a river, to lynchings, the KKK, freedom marches and more–with grace and clarity. The paintings look like they were done with acrylic on canvas, but he might have used oil paints. Anyhow, wanting to know more about him, I looked him up. I found this old article that tells about how he came to painting as a way of healing himself and others. Here is his website, which has some of his art and a short bio.
Troubling the Waters
The other thing that caught my attention when I saw this book–ok, everything about it caught my attention, including the fact that it was facing out on the shelf and easy to see–is the title. It made me think of the song, “Wade in the Waters,” which I’ve included here as sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock—
And it made me think–what does it mean to trouble the waters? It comes from the Book of John in the New Testament: “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” (5:4) You can read more about what this phrase on–where else–Wikipedia.I will tell you, though that it was one of the songs used to communicate to escaping slaves on the underground railroad, letting them know to get off the trail. It was also part of the civil rights movement, which is probably why they used it as a title.
Capturing the humanity of trouble moments
To me, the beauty of this book is that the author and illustrator both capture the humanity, the depth of emotion, of these moments.
For example, here’s a part of the poem, “Crying Trees”:
…/some mothers’ sons peek through the landscape of cruelty and vibrant green confusin us/playin tricks with our senses/how can our boys be some decorations in the forest/never to kiss good night again/never to hold other sons in their arms again/…
This is accompanied by a painting of a summer green forest, with lush leaves everywhere and black men, eight of them, hanging by their necks from nooses in those trees.
But for me, one of the most troubling images is the last one in the book, the one that’s meant to be a poem and painting of hope, the one that is supposed to show that all that suffering led to healing and redemption. The painting shows a multitude of people holding placards–with no words visible–around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And the poem, titled, “Heah Y’all Come” talks about children of all colors running freely and without fear.
“…now America welcomes all the babies
sí sí/todos los niños are ours
yes yes/wa alaikum salaam…
I worry about our children–and do not believe that all our children are equally welcome and cherished at this time in our history. Maybe it was truer in 2009 when this book was published.
At any rate, I do highly recommend this book–with the caution that the words and images are very strong, so look at it first before sharing it with a child age 9 or older.
As always, thanks for stopping by.
xoxo
*By the way, the above link is an affiliate link. So if you follow it and buy the book (or something else), I will get a little bit of money, but it won’t cost you any extra. Thanks–it’s something new that I’m trying.
