(upbeat music)
- [Suzanne] Welcome to conversations at The Moth.
In this episode, we're chatting with storyteller
and poet, Hannah Drake.
Listen to this clip from Hannah's story, Go Back and Tell.
And after our conversation stick around
to hear one of Hannah's most noteworthy poems.
We hope you enjoy this conversation.
- My daughter and I started to tour the plantation homes.
And when I say homes,
this is not like a two bedroom home here they are mansions.
Sprawling mansions
and you still have to pay to get into them.
And I thought at this point, can I get in for free?
I mean, at least a discount?
(Hannah laughing)
And we started touring them and I remember my daughter
in one, started touching everything
and I was looking at her and they still had the fine china
and the bedding and solid gold chandeliers
and she was touching everything in the rooms.
And I said, "Why are you doing that?"
I thought for sure they're going to put us out of here.
And she said, "I wanted to touch things
that I knew slaves wouldn't be able to touch."
And we continued to visit
other plantation homes and in one,
everything kind of started to look the same.
So I asked one of the tour guides,
"Take me to the slave quarters, show me that."
And I get that these homes are beautiful
but that is not where I would have been.
Take me where my people would have been.
And she said,
"Oh, we've covered those up.
We've turned those into offices."
And just like that, once again,
the history of who I am was gone.
- Welcome.
Hannah Drake is a writer, poet, and activist.
She told her story, Go Back and Tell, on The Moth stage.
And so we just wanted to follow up with her a little bit,
hear some more and dig a little deeper.
So, Hannah, first of all, thank you so much
for joining us today.
And thanks for sharing that powerful story.
I think you put words to a lot of what people
are feeling about this country's past and its present.
So I want to ask you, so I know you're a spoken word artist,
you're an author, you're a storyteller and a performer.
So you're used to sharing your words and your feelings.
What did it feel like to tell this particular story
on the Moth stage?
- It was actually one of the first times that
I told a story and I didn't have paper in front of me.
I just had to come out and share the story
so I was kind of nervous.
But when I was asked to do it,
I knew that this would be
the story that I told because I thought
it was important for me and I thought it would be important
for other people to hear it and people still reach out
to me about that story.
- Oh yeah.
No, it's quite amazing.
And I've spoken to you about this before,
had the chance to meet you and talk to you.
What resonated to me was that one scene,
where in the plantation home.
Now I haven't been to the door of no return
but I did visit a plantation home in New Orleans.
And the same thing that struck you struck me.
And it was that big fancy table
with that beautiful silk cord
reaching over the middle of the table
to the corner of the room.
And all I could picture was this poor enslaved child
pulling that thing.
And my mind, I made stories,
it hit me and broke my heart in so many places.
And I want to talk to you about that
because your tour guide said something
that was really beautiful.
He's like, "Don't weep for her, Hannah,
because when people sit and have dinner, they talk."
Right.
Take that back to her mother.
- When I saw the fan and I didn't know what it was,
why it was there,
but I learned, then he told me what's called a punka,
they actually, he told me, had ones where
a slave child would have to sit in the fan
above the table and rock and it would rock the fan
back and forth.
But this one at this particular plantation home
had the the string attached to it that went off
to the corner and I was so completely
heartbroken that someone would be enslaved
simply for the purposes of waving
or pulling this string and keeping
flies off food, it was mind boggling to me
but for him to put it in that perspective,
that he said typically, it was a child
and typically it would be a girl.
So this girl had this very important job
to stand in that space and go back and tell her mother
everything that she heard at the table
because that might be a signal for them to be able to
run for freedom, to escape.
And so it was certainly a different way
for me to look at it and even in
today's times when I think about
being in uncomfortable spaces
and I've shared my poem Spaces, many, many, many times.
It's probably my most requested poem ever.
And that's what it speaks about.
That many of us are called to be space makers.
And it's not going to feel great
and it is going to feel uncomfortable
but we're there for a reason.
And most of us are there to make space for other people.
And when you see it that way
and I say in the poem,
that's why I stand in these spaces
even when it makes me uncomfortable.
I'm here because I know I'm making space for people
that will come behind me.
And so I can imagine her in this corner
pretty much, I'm sure just ignored,
but all of the information that she is gathering
and the people around the table never being aware that this
little girl could be the reason
that people that were enslaved were able to escape
to freedom.
That was empowering for me
and I didn't weep for her anymore.
I understood that even in that position,
even in such oppression,
there was still a role for everybody when you're
talking about seeking freedom or justice.
- I want to bring it a little bit present, you know,
living through so much darkness,
I don't need to tell you that and your story
you touch upon the murders of, you know,
Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
We've had since then, Elijah McClain
and of course Breonna Taylor.
You know,
it's really heavy
and we're so devastated by this.
And how do we stay hopeful?
That's a million dollar question,
but what can we do to advance the cause?
What do you think? Is there something that each of us
can do to feel a little more empowered
instead of just feeling straight out devastated?
- Right. So I think it's real easy,
especially if you've been protesting
or on the front lines and you're doing the work
every day
to give up hope, to believe that this world just
is going to be what it's going to be.
But for some reason and I some days don't know why,
I just believe that this world can be better.
I believe that human beings, at the core,
can love each other
and they're not hateful people.
I believe that hate is simply taught.
And I think that if we continue to,
like when I fight for things or speak up about things
inherently, you know, I do believe that I'm fighting
for something probably that
I won't see in my lifetime.
But think about how many people did fight for things
that they were never able to see.
And in fact, you know,
Martin Luther King said that,
that I may not get there with you.
I've been to the mountain top, I've seen it
and I may not get to the other side of this with you.
And in fact, he didn't.
And there's so many leaders that,
our job, I tell people all the time,
I garden and I look at fighting for justice like gardening
and some people have different roles
when it comes to gardening and in here,
in my garden, my brother-in-law tilled the ground
and my daughter helped me with another aspect
and I planted the seeds.
And sometimes my friends
will come over and help me water it.
And we each have different roles along the process
of getting to this harvest.
You may not see the harvest,
but we all have roles along the way
when it comes to fighting.
And I think if you see it that way,
it will encourage you not to give up.
Your job may just be to plant the seed
and somebody else will water it.
- I think the other thing you talk about
that I found really touching
goes back to history.
You talk about how so many of our stories were lost
in the cotton fields.
And that just kills me. All of our ancestors.
And they're just so much that we aren't taught.
And I bring this up because
that beautiful New York Times 1619 project
that they're trying to get into curriculums
across the country.
Some people that have a problem with that.
Calling it revisionist history.
We're not taught these things in school.
And how does that affect us as a whole,
as a country and us as Black people?
- I think certainly we aren't taught about other people,
that's why we continue to have racism.
Because people learn certain things
and they never take the time to unlearn them.
And I've always said that Black people and people of color
have always learned about white people.
And white people must be intentional
about learning about Black people and people of color
and our history.
There are so many things that Black people
and people of color have contributed
to America, to the world.
But the hard part is, this is where people get stuck often,
when white people look at the history of America
and really, it could be the history of this world,
you aren't going to look like a victor.
You are going to look like someone
that has victimized people.
And that's difficult to deal with.
And what is that saying?
As long as the lion doesn't tell the story,
then the hunter will always be the victor.
And so there are some painful truths
that this nation must face
and the harm that has been caused
to people of color and Black people.
That's just reality.
There is no getting around it.
- Lets talk about something a little more fun
'cause I know you're a fun kind of person too
and so powerful.
But I want to share something that's not in your story.
Can you tell us a little bit about that
not even six degrees of separation from Michelle Obama?
(Hannah laughing) What happened to you
because I believe it was a poem you wrote.
(Both laughing)
- I absolutely love Michelle Obama
and so when she came out with her book,
someone took a photo
of her book signing in Chicago,
which was massive and I couldn't believe it and I thought,
as a writer, I'm not dreaming big enough.
And not that I'm Michelle Obama,
but Michelle Obama,
before we know her as Michelle Obama,
is a Black woman just doing what she does.
And ascended to this greatness.
You know, she was on this path but
as she went, she became.
And so I went to, this is so funny to me
when I tell the story, but I went to Target
and I changed all the magazines and put her in front.
(Both laughing)
I changed all the magazines.
So I made my tweet
and said, "I need to dream bigger.
And if Michelle Obama can do this, then I can do this."
And then I went to Target and put
all of her magazines in the front row
and then I went out that evening
and my phone started going crazy.
And my friend said, "Michelle Obama just tweeted you."
And I'm like, "No.
What? No, Michelle Obama, are you kidding?
And sure enough,
she did.
And she told me to keep dreaming
and to keep dreaming.
As I'm on my road to becoming.
But, you know, I tell people all the time,
I never imagined I would wake up that morning
and be talking about Michelle Obama.
And then in less than 24 hours,
Michelle Obama would be talking back to me.
I guess that's just how the universe works
or whatever people want to call it.
But it was amazing.
And things like that have often happened
where several people have
shared my work on Twitter or Instagram
and I'm thankful for that because it's just,
I think I have a message.
I knew I had something to say to the world.
And I'm glad that the world is starting to pay attention.
- I think you conjured her up.
- I must have! It was my magic!
(Hannah laughing)
- A poem called, All You Had To Do Was Play the Game, Boy.
- Yes. - To look that up.
It's a great one, I mean,
I think everyone should go to HannahLDrake.com
to see all of Hannah's work.
But she's just really incredible.
So I'm not surprised that
everyone's been reaching out to you,
especially right now, it's so ripe for you to be
telling your stories and talking to us.
- Thank you.
- And finally, I want to ask you,
finish this sentence for me,
Storytelling is important because...
- Storytelling is important because
it is important for us to own our narrative.
Don't let anybody else own your story.
You tell your story.
- Amen to that.
I love it.
Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
And I look forward to hearing another story from you
when you're ready.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you, Hannah.
- [Hannah] All you had to do was throw the ball, boy.
We concealed this auction block well didn't we, boy?
You didn't know you were on sale, boy.
Didn't we tell you to just run, boy?
Entertain us, boy.
Win championships for us, boy.
Stay in your place, boy.
Don't you dare get these other niggas,
I mean Black men riled up, boy.
Didn't we pay you enough, boy?
Why can't you just be satisfied, boy?
Stand up and salute this flag, boy.
Honor your allegiance to the system, boy.
Didn't we give you enough money to entice you, boy?
How dare you reject your master, boy?
Didn't you like your name in lights, boy?
Didn't we stroke your ego, boy?
All you needed to do was play the game, boy.
Keep dancing for us on Monday night, boy.
Make us rich, boy.
We don't care if you get hurt, boy.
Our job is to break bucks like you, boy.
Didn't you know boys like you come a dime a dozen, boy?
We can replace you with no thought, boy.
Make sure our new boy is a controlled boy.
Thought you knew we didn't trust Negros
to be quarterbacks anyways, boy.
We did you a favor, boy.
How dare you turn your back on us, boy.
If you are kneeling, it will be before us, boy.
Ain't this game your god, boy?
Don't you see how everyone else bows down before us, boy?
Don't you know what we do to Negros like you, boy?
You see back in the day, we let Negros like you
sway in trees, boy.
Make an example out of you, boy.
So other niggas just stay in their place, boy.
Don't you smell that strange fruit in the air, boy?
You see, all you have to do was just shut up, boy.
We ain't got to kill you, boy.
All we got to do is just silence you, boy.