INSIDE VOICES

INSIDE VOICES

Robert Gwaltney and Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Kalela Williams

Kalela Williams is an author, a proud auntie, a cat mama, and a "Black History Maven." She is the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book and directs the Virginia Festival of the Book and other events. She has created and produced literary events for the Philadelphia library system, a youth writing non-profit, a university poetry center, and other institutions. Kalela grew up in Atlanta, but now she calls the cute, artsy town of Staunton, Virginia home, where she and her partner run a community arts organization, The Off Center.

Her debut novel Tangleroot is an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce and an Indie Next Pick, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2024.

Inside Voices/Jeffrey: Tangleroot is your debut novel. What was the impetus to tell this story of a young woman’s awakening. Of herself and of her place in history? Of this mystery.

The impetus of Tangleroot was the history I would see around me in Central Virginia, which is where Noni is uprooted into, after her mother foists a move there from Boston. Years ago, I had a non-profit job that required me to drive through Central Virginia, meeting with volunteers. And as I drove down one long road after another, I’d see these sprawling plantation homes, and sometimes old cemeteries, and I’d wonder what stories they told; especially the stories of enslaved residents who lived there. These are places that speak of mysteries, and I wanted a young Black woman to uncover their secrets, and unbury her own family skeletons as well.

Inside Voices/Robert: The novel is a story of family history, but at its core, it is a mother/daughter story. Talk about the relationship between Noni and her mother.

At first glance of Noni and her mother, Radiance, you almost wouldn’t think they were in the same family, much less mother and daughter. Radiance is a perfectionist, a renowned scholar, a college president, a former Harvard dean. Noni is a former high school slacker. But she has recently discovered her own talent: she’s an artist with a needle and thread, and she dreams of designing theater costumes. Radiance doesn’t think Noni’s goals are good enough, and Noni doesn’t care that she’s living in the house that her enslaved ancestor built, just as she has no interest in her own family’s history. Somehow, the two of them have to come together.

InsideVoices/Jeffrey:You portray Radiance as a superhero of sorts. She's not afraid of bears, yet she's deathly afraid of cats. She also admits that she didn't stand up for herself when some college students taunt her. Why did you show these unexpected chinks in her armor? Talk to us a little about her character development.

Radiance Castine seems perfect. She’s brilliant. She’s beautiful. She’s brave, unafraid to confront history in all of its truths. She’s beloved by the scholarly world, and by her students at Stonepost College, where she holds the role of president. But when some young men intimidate her at a bar, Noni sees that there’s something in Radiance that shrinks back. What could it be? And I wanted to give Radiance another fear. Cats are small, cats are cuddly, but cats are also independent. Perhaps that’s what scares Radiance the most: like her daughter, cats go their own way.

Inside Voices: Robert: Radiance is an educator, and she wrote a best-selling book, The Remembered. It's even used as a resource in a Black History class Noni takes. I'd love to hear about your research process to get the facts right.

The Remembered is a fictional book of narratives by formerly enslaved people, all compiled in close to the turn of the century; a book that Radiance has edited. The inspiration comes from the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration’s Slave Narrative project, which were oral histories that were transcribed in the 1930s. To write some excerpts from this fictional book, I read the WPA narratives. Tangleroot also includes fictional (and sometimes real) newspaper clippings, as well as diary entries, an early 1900s obituary, and other fictional “primary sources.” So I had to style all of these like real ones. I spent hours digging through historic archives and resources to bring this book to life.

Inside Voices/Jeffrey: Noni is fairly complacent about her mother Radiance's passion to tell Black history and right wrongs. How did you awaken that fire in Noni to see the world anew in a more responsible culture-centered way?

In Tangleroot, I wanted Noni to learn to step into her Blackness because in doing so, that’s how she finds herself. But first, Noni has to step into some cow patties. She comes to small town Magnolia, Virginia with her own preconceived biases about the “hicks” around her, and she makes mistakes; just as her friends and co-workers make mistakes about who she is, and just as they sometimes belittle her heritage and culture. Noni’s got to get it wrong in order to get it right, but she also has to learn how to stand up for herself and in doing so, she’s standing up for her lineage.

Inside Voices/Robert: Tangleroot takes place in the fictional town of Magnolia, Virginia. This community comes through strongly as a character. Tell us about this fictional town. Is it based on a real city?

So in that job traveling into various small towns, I’d meet with volunteers at diners and coffee shops, and sometimes I’d spend a morning or afternoon killing time, walking around. Each of these towns seemed alike, and yet they seemed to be their own characters. From there came Magnolia, an amalgamation of different places in Virginia: Orange, Madison, Lovingston, Farmville, Louisa, Gordonsville. It’s more fun to create your own Southern town, because then you can pull a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. Charlottesville was written as a real place, because I wanted to harken to the white supremacist rally that happened there in 2017.

Inside Voices/Jeffrey: Speaking of strong characters, Lana Jean is a pretty awful and insensitive person. Early on she asks Noni to play "Furl the Banner Softly, Slowly." How does Noni navigate these situations in which those around her feel a privilege hold onto the past and glorify wrongs?

I wrote Lana Jean as a classic villain. She’s the kind of person who wishes she could live in the Old South, and who tries to claw back this mythology into real life. But when she offers Noni a job playing Confederate songs on the piano in her plantation-inspired inn, Noni is tempted by the money she’s offered—just as she’s tempted to go along and get along with her friends back in Boston. It’s the secrets around her, and the hints at the racist legacies in Magnolia, that allow Noni to really understand what it means to stay quiet.

Inside Voices/Robert: Noni is an artist struggling to find her way as she navigates several monumental life changes. It makes me wonder about your background and journey to becoming an author. Tell us about that.

The story of bringing Tangleroot to life is a long one. I began writing this book about two decades ago, in fits and starts before I got serious and buckled down and researched. But in 2011, when I looked for an agent, I couldn’t find anyone to represent me. So Tangleroot (it had a different title then) moldered away on a hard drive until 2020, when I picked the manuscript back up. So much had happened in the world: the murder of George Floyd, the pandemic and people feeling disconnected, and a political milieu that seemed it wanted the Old South back. So I figured the book’s time had come, and this time, it was a quick process to find an agent and a publisher.