Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Poet, essayist, playwright best known for 'Citizen,' chronicling everyday racism, winning Forward Prize and MacArthur grant.
On the island
Eight records
Love that Coltrane is able to pull it into a kind of jazz blues.
a song I first heard in another Claire Denis film called Beau Trevais.
The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:42What comes back to you when you think about your early years in Jamaica?
The only real memory I have of those early seven years was going to school with my cousin Precious and her explaining to me that most people go to school.
Presenter asks
8:37When you were about to get married, your mother broke some shocking news. What did she say?
Well, it was odd because I was engaged to sort of my college sweetheart and by my late twenties we had decided to get married. And she said, you need to come and get your birth certificate. … And she said on the birth certificate you'll see where it says father, there's nothing. It turns out she had been raped and I was a product of that [rape]. Her gratitude to him. To my father was that he had agreed to marry her knowing she was pregnant.
Presenter asks
17:49As an interracial couple, did you ever experience any hostility?
Not so much hostility, just … And this kind of thing still happens. It's a kind of invisibility. And it happens in restaurants where he'll come in and they'll seat him and then they'll say to me, How can we help you?
The book
William Faulkner
Partly because it's a book made up of sections that are short but complete in and of themselves. So you can pretend that you have 10 books.
The luxury
I don't know how or where I'll plug it in, but I think I would like a television so I could watch some tennis.
Presenter asks
21:28Why was it important to place those small moments of everyday racism alongside the bigger stories of police killings?
It's one thing to tell a single story, but another thing to understand that if a thing happens again and again … the small moments, what people call the paper cuts, that become a kind of weathering that wears you down. … And then in the news somebody has been killed by the police because they're black, and so you see how it amplifies.
Presenter asks
29:58Did the experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer change your attitude to your work?
Having cancer was the moment that I decided. I'm gonna just do what I wanna do. It's a sense of freedom. It's not about I think I'm going to die tomorrow. It's I'm going to live today, which is a different thing.
Presenter asks
31:22Looking back at your life so far, how satisfied do you feel?
I have to say I am pleased with how I've lived my life. And who I've supported in my life. What I've written, who I've loved. So, you know, knock on wood. It's been a good one.
“My mother is a forest.”
“If you had a book and you could tuck in, no one would bother you. It was like having an extra room in a house where you could just go.”
“What a surprise, Claudia, you've gotten top marks on this.”
“When the system changes, then we'll stop talking about it.”
“I'm gonna just do what I wanna do.”
“It's a sense of freedom. It's not about I think I'm going to die tomorrow. It's I'm going to live today, which is a different thing.”