Author Chat with Gwendolyn Wallace (Dancing with Water)

Interview by YABC

“YABC:  What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

I read the account of a water diviner in Michele Lee’s Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing and immediately wanted to know more about the practice. While the tradition of using dowsing rods to find fresh water underground isn’t exclusive to African-Americans, I thought it took on a special meaning in a Black community in the American South (like where my family is from). As I say in my backmatter, “To be Black is to have a complicated relationship with water,” and I wanted to use this book as a chance to talk with children about the planet, freedom, justice, and queerness through water. While on the surface Dancing with Water may seem like a story about digging wells, it’s really about so much more. The book is about Kit’s journey to feeling empowered in their body through this intergenerational relationship, a community (like so many Black communities) that is experiencing environmental racism, and the importance of learning about and understanding other ways of knowing besides those supported by Western bioscience. It was also so incredible to work on this book with illustrator Tonya Engel, whose grandfather, Hubert Singleterry, was a water diviner!…”

To read the rest of the interview, visit yabookscentral.com