Novelist
Writing about African American Spirituals in 1994 began my journey with actually writing a novel. As a child, I was a great story teller, and I guess that spirit remained with me. The 1994 venture was set aside to address teaching and raising a family. But in 2018, after finishing choir rehearsal, The Fancy Gal came to me as a way of telling our history through historical fiction. From that moment on, I have continued writing.
Born of mixed parentage in New Orleans in the antebellum era, Isadora DeVille and many other Creole women or mulattos were acculturated to be “Fancy Girls” or glorified mistresses for white plantation owners. But Miss DeVille is a woman before her time in that she does not define herself by her harlotry alone. Instead, she learns to use everything she has including her beauty, sexual prowess, and most of all her intellect to advance her cause which is freedom on her terms.
In Book Two, Isadora DeVille discovers that freedom isn’t free with or without papers, with or without money, and regardless of constitutional law. After the Civil War, when Mr. Lincoln set the enslaved free, this freedom stood unprotected by the citizens, the courts, and the Constitution of the United States as applied to the “negro” people, the colored people, the newly manumitted, and les gens de couleur libres of New Orleans who were born free before the War. Isadora soon realized that freedom itself could not and did not stand alone without strategy, alliances, and demands made upon her oppressors. Here again, although no longer a “fancy gal,” she was obliged to depend upon her intellect, platonic and sexual alliances, and yes, her heavenly alliances. Isadora DeVille could never afford or ever hope to have an uneventful life if she expected to advance her cause beyond freedom. A cause beyond freedom? True freedom thrives in tandem with equal access and opportunity, mutual respect for fellow citizenship rights, and laws that govern the whole of society justly irrespective of gender, social, political, or religious status or favor.
The third installment of the Fancy Gal Trilogy finds Isadora living the high life in Paris but in conflict with her past life in New Orleans, personal difficulties in Paris, and an inner torment that nearly destroys her life. Yet, it is at this part of her life that she finds deeper meaning and perhaps the illusive redemption she has always sought. Lost in her formidable challenges, Isadora failed to call upon the voices that had guided her throughout her life on her own -- Christophe Bertrand: her earthly Father, and God: her Heavenly Father. She had the answer for everything in life except that which burdened her the most. But in the midst of it all, the relationships encountered in her life be it family, friend, or foe finally had to come to terms with Isadora’s true beauty beyond her carnal knowledge, gender, and color.
Book four, the prequel installment of the Fancy Gal Trilogy gives the reader powerful insight into the mind of Isadora Bertrand who after her father’s untimely demise chooses to become a “Fancy Gal called Isadora DeVille.” What led her to make such a drastic decision? In her mind, it was a means to an end. It was a way to become a part of a society that rejected her father and rejected Isadora. But vindictiveness as a life objective comes at a great cost. It would take a lifetime of living for Isadora to learn that, but regret was not a part of her thinking or her father’s teaching. “Only God can judge us,” Christophe Bertrand often said to his daughter. And his precious daughter, Isadora Bertrand, adhered to that same principle. But more than anything, the concept of freedom and her concept of it became a driving force far exceeding her life as a fancy girl.
VINE CITY BLUES: Hattie Mae Davis, a grandmother living in the Vine City area of Atlanta, is looked upon as a strong pillar of her community. Even so, her strong-willed, domineering character -- salty tongue and all -- does not spare her from the devastating effects of segregation and racial injustices levied on black people during the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement in 1955. Her eldest granddaughter, Sadie Marie Davis living in her grandmother’s house, along with her troublesome younger sister, is a student at Atlanta University pursuing a master’s degree in Social Work tries desperately to break the indomitable hold of her grandmother’s apron strings while facing her own battle with the “double consciousness” dilemma as defined by Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, and finally, the adverse effect of the “Mess-Education of the Negro” upon the black community’s educational, social, and political advancement. In spite of the internal struggles of the Vine City community compacted by the external factors of Jim Crow, the community, as within most African American communities during this time, press forward by opening successful businesses, by developing political organizations, and holding fast to the philosophy that the village, the elders, the strength of the young, and the leadership of the black church were the pathway to survival. Although fictional, the reality of the time has been preserved in tandem with historical events. In the Appendix, several former residents of Vine City, Eagan Homes, English Avenue, and Hunter Hills graciously submitted narratives and remembrances of their experiences growing up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s and the impact of family, community, and Jim Crow laws upon their lives.
Is a collection of poetic social commentaries, short stories, poems of encouragement, and special memorial tributes. This beautiful collection of poetic art is available at Amazon and is sure to bring inspiration and a bit of humor to its readers. Dr. Willis is Director of the Hoosier Memorial U.M.C. Sanctuary Choir of Atlanta; former Department Chair of Clark Atlanta University and Morris Brown College, and the Founding Director and Principal Composer of Americolor Opera.
This is a book of stories based upon the journey of Africans to America and how the Negro Spiritual was created, used and connected to plantation life, faith, and finally freedom. Although the narratives are based upon historical revelations about slave life, the dialogue and script are expressions of the author’s research as revealed through slave narratives, family and community elders, and experiences as a musician in the African American church. Artistic license was necessary to personify enslaved people as they endured the hardships and inhumane conditions of plantation life. This book was conceptualized in 1994 when the author wrote the framework, researched pertinent histories, selected the spirituals, and scripted certain stories. The author rested the project for several years before reviving it, having it edited, and finally creating a format by which to present the book.
My people brought a past forbidden to share; they brought a language forbidden to speak; they brought rhythms forbidden to drum; they brought a strength so feared that it was bound up in chains; it was branded and laid in the bowels of stinking slave ships; it was a strength that carried its people through 250 years of forced slave labor and the endless lash of the overseer’s whip. Yet that strength kept moving on and upward until it was free.
The Mind of Chericka Lee Jones tells the fictional account of a young woman’s struggle to function in a world where she has been victimized by family, men, school children, and people where she works. Her goal is just to cope and survive from day to day. SJW
Essentially, Dr. Sharon Willis uses this “fictional literary” undertaking to call attention to the dynamism of the human mind. That is, the capabilities of the human mind are unimaginable and whether it realizes its full potential is primarily determined by what happens to children during their formative and most vulnerable years. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for the very mature audience and those persons who counsel our Youth professionally. Truthfully, it takes one on an introspective journey; be aware that the “trip” along the way may require moments of long reflections.
Richard L. Morton, Retired Social Worker
Public School System