Wildflowers COVER
Three years ago, when Lyah LeFlore released Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, she gave us a theoretical mix tape to understand her novel by, as well as a list of clubs she hits when she's in town. Leflore's newest book, Wildflowers, hits shelves today, and the book tour kicks off in St. Louis this Thursday. Many of these readings will also feature Lyah's mother, legendary St. Louis poet Shirley LeFlore, whose work is woven throughout the novel (The St. Louis American did a nice mother-daughter profile, which you can read here.) I haven't give away any plot points, but you can probably already see that a suggested soundtrack for Wildflowers would be far different than the one for DJ.
Perhaps Jandek Shaefer's "Love Song," would find its way into the mix -- for this piece, the composer assembled the women of his family, ages 7 to 60, and asked them to sing the word "love," seven different times at seven different pitches, then mixed it all into a 10-minute piece, attempting to describe in sound the relationships between mothers and daughters, aunts and grandmothers. Wildflowers weaves together the same kinds of voices, but on the page:
"Twenty-three dollars and eleven cents–that’s all that thirty-five-year-old Chloe Davis Michaels has to her name after she is driven from her home and career as a jet-setting Hollywood publicist, desperate to protect her unborn child from her crazed newlywed husband. She thought she had it all. Now Chloe seeks refuge in her Midwestern hometown to “get prayed up” by the women in her family.
Chloe’s impromptu homecoming takes us into the world of eight African-American women who make up the Davis clan–three mothers and five daughters, including Chloe, who soon discovers that the secrets she’s been keeping about her own life don’t compare to the secrets the other women in her family have been hiding. As the bonds of family are tested, the women call upon their strong faith and spiritual teachings of deceased family matriarchs, MaMaw and Muh, in order to weather the storm."
As the elder LeFlore observed in her interview with the American: "The needle of my poetry threaded the novel, and I think it worked out quite well." And, of course, gives this intergenerational story even more depth, and effect that will be amplified when mother and daughter read the work together. --Stefene Russell
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UPCOMING READINGS BY LYAH AND SHIRLEY LEFLORE FOR WILFLOWERS
9/10 - 7:00pm St. Louis Public Library Event @ Schlafly Branch, 225 N Euclid
9/11 – 6:30-8:30pm Diversity Gallery/Culture, Café & Bookstore, 6150 Delmar Blvd - Sister to Sister Happy Hour Part One. $25. Includes meet-and-greet, signed book, wine and cafe tastings. Reservations: 314-721-3361
9/12 - 5-7pm Diversity Gallery/Culture, Café & Bookstore, 6150 Delmar Blvd. - Sister to Sister Happy Hour Part Two. $25. Includes meet-and-greet, signed book, wine and cafe tastings. Reservations: 314-721-3361
9/13 - 3-5pm - The Nu Art Series Gallery, 2936 Locust. Sunday Afternoon Soiree. Includes Wildflowers by Lyah B. LeFlore & Shirley Bradley LeFlore and a performance by gospel divas Sista 2 Sistah.
