Today is the publication date of The Wind in the Reeds, actor Wendell Pierce’s memoir about his Louisiana past and Louisiana present. It’s a book about family’s rise out of slavery and Jim Crow. It’s a book about growing up in New Orleans, and building on the gifts of character and education his family gave him to study acting at Juilliard, and launch a career as a successful artist. It’s a book about how Hurricane Katrina destroyed the neighborhood that had nurtured him, and how he vowed to go home, to rebuild his childhood home, and to commit himself to bringing New Orleans back. It’s a book about the power of art to redeem our suffering and transcend our tragedies. It’s a book about faith, family, resilience, and the promise of America. It is a profoundly American, profoundly hopeful work, and I hope you will read it.
As readers of this blog may recall, it was my very great privilege to work with Wendell on The Wind in the Reeds (the title is a phrase from Waiting For Godot; Wendell played Vladimir in a nationally recognized 2007 production staged in the ruins of the Lower Ninth Ward, and repeated in the ruins of Gentilly). I wrote here about how the experience of working with Wendell on the book opened my eyes and changed my heart. I will blog more about the book over the coming week, but a conversation I had with my mom this morning prompts me to relate this story from Wind in the Reeds.
Read Full Article »