Journalist Alexis Okeowo's insightful second book, Blessings and Disasters, examines the complicated history of Alabama through a mixture of history, reporting, and personal reflections on her experience growing up in Montgomery. "In Alabama, I learned how to speak my mind and make my way by force," Okeowo writes. She explores the intersections of the state's environmental, social, and political histories: its lush and fertile climate, the enduring legacies of colonialism and slavery, the close-knit (sometimes exclusionary) nature of its communities (religious and otherwise), and the wide gaps between stereotypes and reality. As she delves into Alabama's contrasts and contradictions, Okeowo (A Moonless, Starless Sky) shares her love for--and sharp criticism of--her home state.
A graduate of Princeton University who later became a foreign correspondent, Okeowo is "familiar with how places can be stereotyped and neglected." She goes beyond the broad strokes that often represent Alabama to the rest of the U.S.--cotton fields, white Southern religion, and a long history of poverty and racism--to tell a more intriguing and much more complex story. She chronicles the forced removal of Native American peoples from Alabama, interviewing several members of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians who still live in the state and are determined to secure greater political and financial success for their community. Okeowo also chronicles her parents' separate journeys from Nigeria to Alabama during their student days, their eventual decision to raise their family in Montgomery, and the ways her background separated her from her Black American classmates. She interviews Alabamians of multiple races, genders, and generations about their experiences, piecing together a mosaic of different ideas about what it means to be from Alabama. Along the way, she examines the influence of evangelical Christianity on state politics; the intertwined effects of race and class on education and other outcomes for children; and the narratives the state has created to justify its policies.
"In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster," Okeowo writes, musing on how the realities of her home state--its weather, culture, and religion--reflect (and swing between) those two extremes. With a keen eye for detail and a thoughtful big-picture perspective, Okeowo paints a layered portrait of a state whose green fields contain more heartbreak and more hope than most people realize. Alabama is more than cotton, Confederate flags, and civil rights, and Okeowo's book is a nuanced look at a place she wrestles with and will always love. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Journalist Alexis Okeowo's insightful second book delves into the complicated social and political history of her home state of Alabama.