Rosalyn Story

 

  There are few books that have affected me as much as Rosalyn Story's Sing Her Name. It has everything an excellent novel needs: compelling characters, inspirational story, fascinating history, and is oh so poignant and moving. I had tears in my eyes when I turned the last page so, if you love a good story that moves your heart, read this wonderful book.

Sing Her Name follows two musically gifted women whose lives overlap across the boundaries of time. Beautiful and brilliantly talented Celia DeMille is a nineteenth-century black concert artist who has garnered fame, sung all over the world, and amassed a fortune. But prejudice bars her from achieving her place in history as one of the world’s greatest singers, and she dies in poverty and obscurity.

In 21st-century New Orleans, Eden Malveaux, a thirty-something waitress with a beautiful but untutored voice, is the sole guardian of her 17-year-old brother. Motherless for most of their lives, she has struggled for years to make ends meet. After a hurricane displaces them to New York City, Eden seeks safe refuge for her and her brother.

Months into their New York stay, Eden’s estranged Great Aunt Julia summons her back to New Orleans for a brief visit, and the older woman gives Eden something that alters the course of her life: a box she found in the midst of flooded rubble containing a hundred-year-old scrapbook and a mysterious and valuable gold pendant necklace belonging to one of the greatest singers in history—Celia DeMille.

Rosalyn Story, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, has been playing the violin since the age of 10. She has been a proud member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra for 30 years.

In addition to her musical career, Rosalyn is a freelance journalist and fiction writer. Her first book And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert (Warner Books, 1990), inspired the nationally broadcast PBS documentary Aida's Brothers and Sisters, about the history of African-Americans in opera. Her second book, a work of fiction titled More Than You Know (Agate Publishing, 2004), pays homage to the African-American family and the jazz world and Wading Home (Agate Publishing 2010), about New Orleans natives struggling to recover their lives as well as their property after Hurricane Katrina. Wading Home was made into a very successful opera, which was a collaboration with composer Mary Alice Rich, that has been performed internationally.

Since 2000, Rosalyn has been a member of the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra of Detroit, which performs annually for the International Sphinx Competition, devoted to increasing the participation of young African American and Latino string players in professional classical music. 

And now my interview with this fascinating woman.....

Rosalyn, tell me about where you live and why you love it so much.

I live in Dallas, TX and I wouldn’t say I love it so much! I like many things about it - the weather, the size and amount of land and space, its diversity,  and the fact that it is no more than a few hours’ drive from my home town, Kansas City, where family members live, and Houston, where other family members live. I like the fact that even though I live in a very conservative state, I live in one of the most liberal, progressive cities here! 

Where were you living when you were 4 years old? Are they fond memories?

I was living in the northern part of Kansas City, Kansas. 

My fondest memories are associated with family - my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins on both sides, big family Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, birthday celebrations and picnics, and the old rambling house we lived in with a huge wraparound porch, where cousins would shoot fireworks on Fourth of July nights, and where my brother and I would sleep in our pajamas on summer evenings.

Here's a photo of me (in the middle) at about 3-ish (maybe close to 4?), I think! Don't know who the girl is giving me 'side-eye', but I may have stolen her doll, so I don't blame her! My mother is in the back, getting her hair done!

                     

Is there a book that changed the way you look at life?

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

It is still an amazing book but I can’t remember details about it as much as I remember how I felt when I read it one night when I was about 19 or so, between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. I was blown away. The spiritual journey and discovery aspect of it haunted me. Another book was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the first book I read about a black woman’s life.

For the first time I saw my own life in print. It was then I realized that a black woman could write a book.

Do you have a favorite children’s book and what about it makes it so?

The Little Prince, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Velveteen Rabbit.

                              

 Love, self-belief, and self-fulfillment, individuality - those are themes I found in these books, and I enjoy them as an adult. I never read anything like them when I was a child, and I find them inspiring.

Is there a song, person, or group that you listen to when you are feeling a bit down?

Anything by Earth, Wind and Fire from the 1970s, 

 especially After the Love Has Gone, Reasons, That’s The Way of the World, and Can’t Hide Love. 

Reasons 

After the Love is Gone

That's the Way of the World

Can't Hide Love

Or, any kind of slow jazz by Miles Davis in the 1960s, 

especially his album, Kind of Blue, and the piece Flamenco Sketches. 

Flamenco Sketches

Even though I play classical music for a living, when I want to chill, it’s always jazz, or old-school R&B.

How are you different now than you were in your 20’s?

More confident in meeting people, expressing myself and speaking in public, less concerned about what others think of me, less naïve about human nature. In my 20s, I think I believed more strongly in the inevitable dominance of good over evil, truth over lies. But in the past few years I have been shocked at the gullibility of people, their tendencies to believe the loudest, most vociferous mistruths without challenging them through research or critical thinking. Though I am no longer shocked at meanness, negative thought and bad human behavior, I still remain hopeful about the future, because that’s my nature!

Has anything happened to you that is really embarrassing?

I was on my very first white water canoe trip with some friends, all of us violinists in the Tulsa Symphony orchestra. Real city kids, rookies, except for the two guys who organized the trip. Not a big deal, but I don't swim, and though I love water, I never got over my fear of it, which is why I never learned!
When we arrived at the river, we 'put in'. It had rained heavily earlier as my friend and I were putting in our canoe/raft on to what had become a rapid, deep stream on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. In my canoe there were two of us; me and my best friend, who didn't swim much either.

When we got in we were fine for a while. Then the passages between rocks narrowed as the water, because of the rains, became higher and swifter. The current was strong. We tried furiously to navigate, but we hit a rock. We capsized! 

I saw my life flash in front of me! The other friends in the two other canoes looked at us in horror. I was floundering in the water, and so was my friend. We tried to reach out for the overturned boat but it kept getting away from us. After what appeared like minutes and minutes of flailing around in the water, I felt my feet touch something. It was the bottom of the river. I realized then that the water was only about 3 feet high. We both stood up, grabbed our little canoe and dragged it to the shore, and started again. A little humiliating, but the stronger feeling was relief!

Is there a question no one has ever asked you that you wish they would? Something, perhaps, that people would be surprised to know about you?

No one ever asks me about my parents - what they did for a living, who they were. I think they would be surprised to know that I come from very humble stock; both my parents were products of the Great Depression. My dad was a steel worker, my mom a garment worker. They were not educated beyond high school, and both worked factory jobs. 

In fact, my mom worked in what was literally a sweat shop - a coat and suit factory that never had air-conditioning, even though she worked through the 1980s. I think people assume that since I play classical violin for a living, I was brought up by educated, middle class black people. Certainly I was surrounded by them. Back when I was growing up, because of housing segregation, black people of means (doctors, lawyers and other professionals)  lived alongside working class folks like my parents. I would not say I grew up poor - as all of my needs were met. But I didn’t have the advantages some of my friends had, because of who their parents were and what their circumstances were. 

As unfamiliar as my parents were with the classical music world, they were incredibly supportive of my musical career. They never missed a concert I was in while I lived in Kansas City, playing with the Youth Symphony or the Kansas City Symphony!

Tell me about Eden, the main character in your book, is she based on a real person?

Eden is not based on a particular real-life person, but rather is a composite of several young black women that I have gotten to know while writing about opera singers for Essence magazine, for Opera News and in my first book, And So I Sing.

It's been interesting over the years to see how many unbelievably talented young people have voices that are just made for opera, but who have no idea what opera is! What I mean is this...they have extraordinary range, natural vibrato, unusual timbre, sense of pitch, volume and a particular quality in their voices that is rare, and is usually heard on the opera stage. Of course they need training to develop it, but there is a unique quality that sets them apart from pop, gospel, jazz, and blues artists.

A lot of the young women I have written about have grown up in the black church, and many have come from a tradition of gospel. But they have been discovered by someone who hears that quality, and then they are plucked out of a chorus for special attention. A way is provided for them to have the training classical singing requires. Many of these young women are in working class families and don't have resources or even advocates to help them along. It's an often told story - and Eden's story happens a lot in real life.

And Celia?
The character of Celia is definitely based on Sissieretta Jones, who lived from 1869 to 1933, and had a fabulous career, even though she wasn't allowed to sing with white singers, nor was she recorded by any of the recording companies. She loved opera and likely was heartbroken not to have been allowed to perform on the mainstream opera stage. At one point, she was the highest paid black performer in America, but then died penniless and on 'relief'. One can only wonder what her legacy might have been, had she been born in a different time.

Two important recurring themes of Sing Her Name is the Mozart's heartbreaking Deh vieni non tardar from the Marriage of Figaro

 Giunse alfin il momento . . . deh, vieni

and the French Opera House in New Orleans that sadly, burned to the ground.

How do you feel about “Independent Bookstores” and their role in your success?

Love them and happy to see some rise in the number of Indies compared to a few years ago when the ‘big box’ stores took over. I think people now see what bookstores provide to a community - a gathering place, a place to learn, to talk and read and exchange ideas. I’m especially hoping that black-owned, African American and other culturally-themed bookstores will return. One of the best black-owned bookstores in the country, Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas, was very helpful when I wrote my first couple of books, and the owner and I are still very much in touch. I can recall the day I learned they were closing down due to economics. It was a very sad day. But Emma Rodgers is still actively promoting books by black authors!

Independent bookstore owners and staff are very active readers and supporters of authors. They actually hand-sell books that they love. I owe a lot to independent bookstore owners and I am grateful for them.

And finally.....

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME

to any period from before recorded history to yesterday,

be safe from harm, be rich, poor or in-between, if appropriate to your choice,

actually, experience what it was like to live in that time, anywhere at all,

meet anyone, if you desire, speak with them, listen to them, be with them.

From an African American perspective, this question is loaded! As difficult as these times are, it is without a doubt the best time to be black. (Would I want to go back to any previous time in America and be a black woman, or any region in this country? Or any country? ) That said, I’ll give this a shot.

When would you go?

The 1920s. 

Where would you go?

Two different places; Paris, France, and Harlem, New York 

Who would you want to meet? 

Josephine Baker, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Ida B. Wells, Marian Anderson (I actually did meet Marian Anderson, but she was about 93 years old at the time. I would like to have met her in the prime of her career.)

And most importantly, why do you think you chose this time?

The 1920s period of the Harlem Renaissance was a time of great enlightenment and hope for black people. 60 years after the end of slavery, it was a time of promise, especially if you lived in the north.

 Even though the times were fraught with horrible events (lynching's and other racist acts), there seems to have been a spirit of great awakening and promise for those with an interest in art, music, literature, etc. - i.e., my interests! I think I would have been inspired by all that was happening around me, and by being in the company of such creative geniuses.

I would have loved those times. I would have figured out a way to get invited to one of the posh parties held by Harlem luminaries, and in Paris I would have loved the music and the food!

Thank you Rosalyn for not only writing such an exceptional book but also for your wonderful answers to my questions. One day, if I am fortunate enough, I will be able to hear you play your violin with your friends at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra!