Talking With Children’s Book Award Winning Writer Cristina Kessler

Talking With Children’s Book Award Winning Writer Cristina Kessler

by | Mar 25, 2024 | Culture, Society

March 25, 2024–Interview by John Coyne, Peace Corps Volunteer (Ethiopia 1962–64)

Cristina Kessler is an award-winning author of nine books set in Africa, where she lived for 19 years. She’s received the 2015 Lumen Award, given for “excellence in nonfiction for young readers” with Hope is Here! She’s received the Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award from the ASPCA for Excellence in Humane Literature for Young Readers; the Africana Book Award, from the African Studies Association, honoring outstanding books about Africa for children and young adults; and has been included many times on the Notable Books for a Global Society list. She writes about nature and cross-cultural topics.

I asked Cristina what she did before the Peace Corps.

I graduated from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo, CA in 1972. I majored in Criminology and minored in Political Science. My first job upon graduating was working as a mushroom sorter in the Santa Cruz Mountains for four hours before I quit, due to the mess on my hands. I then began work at the juvenile hall in Santa Cruz, as a counselor. I worked both in the facility and with individual girls that had been released. I did this for a year before I joined Peace Corps in 1973. Since I was 12 years old, I knew that I wanted to travel and see the world and combined with PC it gave me the opportunity to also make a difference.

You have had several Peace C0rps tours — Honduras from 1973-75, then Kenya from 1975-76, and Seychelles from 1976-78.

What did you do as a volunteer?

My first assignment was in Honduras where I was assigned to a boy’s reform school. The only women there was me, and an older American nun named Sister Rose. Every night I had boys knocking on my door and yelling, “Dame sandia,” which was prison jargon for “Sleep with me.” After I made several trips to the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Peace Corps finally decided it was an unsafe posting and came to pick me up and take me back to Tegucigalpa where I began work as a counselor in the girls’ reform school. I did this for about 6 months when Joe arrived from Peace Corps/Peru.

We had met in Training in Puerto Rico and Joe was sent to Peru and I was sent to Honduras. He managed to transfer to Tegucigalpa so we could be together. I had not joined the Peace Corps to live in a city, and so I was constantly on the lookout for a new position in the country. I located what looked like the perfect jobs for each of us, me as a community coordinator to build a five-classroom school on the island of Punta Gorda, and Joe would be the building boss since he was a Civil Engineer. The Peace Corps, however, said the only way they would send us together to small village was if we were married. We decided to get married for a year so we could go there together. (That will be 50 years ago this August!)

We enjoyed our village life and the completion of the school and went back to Tegucigalpa when we finished our two years to see if there were any options to transfer to another country.

We had both originally joined PC to work in Africa, and we eventually got posted to Kenya. Joe was an engineer on a farm-to-market road project, and I was the social worker for an orphanage in Nakuru, Kenya.

When we arrived in Kenya we saw a poster about Peace Corps/Seychelles.  We asked about transferring there after Kenya, and were told we could go if we did a year in Kenya and promised to do two years in The Seychelles, which we agreed to immediately. Joe was a roads engineer, and I was a counselor for girls in a center run by UNFPA in The Seychelles .

Upon completion of our service, we spent our readjustment allowance on a 3½-year-trip that took us from The Seychelles back to Africa where we headed north on the Nile steamer through Sudan to Egypt. We then went briefly to Europe and then to the Caribbean and on to South America where we hitchhiked or took public transportation the length of the continent.

Highlights were five months in the Galapagos Islands, volunteering to tag turtles for the Darwin Research Station,  and catching a ride to Antarctica with the Chilean Navy. Certainly, two rare opportunities of a lifetime.

When we were down to $18.00 we decided it was time to join the real world and get a job – overseas if possible. That’s when Joe joined CARE, and we were sent to Sierra Leone. During his 20 years with CARE we lived in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As a result, we spent 20 years in Africa, 7 years in Latin America and 2 years in Asia. We have been to all 7 continents.

What led you to write children’s and YA books?

As Joe’s career with CARE took off, I began looking for projects of my own. I decided to write books for kids, eventually five picture books, four young adult novels, and two nonfiction photography books for kids.

All of the books are set in Africa except for Hope Is Here, which is set in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and the Arctic Circle, documenting the migration travels of a whimbrel named Hope.

I chose to write about Africa because I wanted to show kids around the world all the things they share in common like love of family, importance of school and having goals. The books are about conservation, cultures, and animals. My books have received numerous awards including an Award for Best Children’s Writing from the Peace Corps Writers in 2002 for my book, Jubela about a true event of an old white rhino adopting a young rhino whose mother was killed by poachers. All of my books are based on true events I have witnessed. My basic goal was to share Africa with kids before they had a passport. I have 12 published books, 32 awards and recognitions, 10 books set in Africa and have been the Visiting Author in 156 schools in 17 countries.

Tell us about publishing your first book.

My first kid’s book, One Night: A Story from the Desert, was published by Philomel, the children’s division of Penguin/Putnam. I went through the regular submission process, and was lucky to be published.

I also went to the Chautauqua Children’s Writer conference put on by Highlights for Children. This really did get my career rolling because I met my mentor there, who is my editor at Philomel, and a lot of other important and inspirational people. I’d highly recommend doing something like that.

Have you written your Peace Corps memoir?

The only memoir I have written is called Tales of an Ikut Swami.  This is a book celebrating women around the world. Some of the chapters are based on women I met while in Peace Corps, but the majority are women I met during Joe’s CARE days and my freedom to meet women and help organize them to pursue goals they all share, like caring for the family, making sure all kids get to school, and basically serve as the backbone of their communities.

Of all the African countries that you have lived in and visited; what nation most impressed you and why?

That’s a tough question. I have been to 111 countries around the world. Each country had something unique to make it stand out. I loved Botswana for its pristine natural condition and political stability. Mali was spectacular and the setting of my YA novel, Trouble in Timbuktu, written long before the idiot marauders went into the ancient city and destroyed many of the beautiful, historical mosques and burned thousands of the ancient manuscripts stored there. By far, Africa is where my fondest memories are.

Based on your experience in Africa, do you think Peace Corps Volunteers have made a difference?

Definitely. In so many African countries foreign assistance was dependent on working with the men. The Peace Corps opened countless opportunities for women to pursue and realize their goals. I truly believe that Peace Corps is one of the best programs ever created by the US government. Perhaps not on a macro level, but certainly on a micro level. I have met many people who felt their experience, or relationship, with a PCV had a significant impact on their lives.

Of all the Peace Corps writers you have read, who stands out as your favorite?

My favorite memoir written by a volunteer is Roller Skating in the Desert by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96). I am impressed with her joining the Peace Corps at the age of 55 and going to Senegal for three years. I recently had the great pleasure of meeting Leita and we hit it off immediately and have become great friends. (She sends you her regards John!)

What’s your next book about, or have you even decided?

I am thinking about finishing my fifth YA novel called Touch. It’s based on a young African friend, Wavho, whose life was changed drastically when her mother died from AIDS back when the disease swept through Africa.

Thank you, Cristina

With my books for kids I have a personal writing agenda, which is to get the good news out about Africa.

Cristina Kessler

Award Winning Author. Photographer. World Traveler.

Cristina Kessler’s My Great-Grandmother’s Gourd on A Season’s Griot 2013 WHQR Storytelling by Joyce Grear

Cristina Kessler’s My Great-Grandmother’s Gourd on A Season’s Griot 2013 WHQR Storytelling by Joyce Grear

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Africa, Culture, My Great-Grandmother's Gourd, Society

I am very proud and honored that My Great-Grandmother’s Gourd was featured on A Season’s Griot, a one-hour storytelling show honoring the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, focusing on the theme of families, fatherhood and community, and aired on WHQR 91.3 FM. Thank you Madafo Lloyd Wilson for choosing my book, and thank you Joyce Grear for a beautiful reading.

Excerpt from the article “Only Kwanzaa public radio program in the U.S. continues its tradition after 20 years” by Amanda Greene on December 26, 2013:

It was mid-October, but the two storytellers were planning for Kwanzaa in late December.

Wilmington storyteller Joyce Grear (http://joycegrear.com/) and Madafo Lloyd Wilson (http://www.madafo.com/), longtime storyteller and host of “A Season’s Griot,” (http://whqr.org/post/seasons-griot-2013) were dickering over which story she should read this year. They sat in the wide, barren conference room between radio studios at WHQR Public Radio where “A Season’s Griot” has been produced for more than two decades as the only nationally syndicated Kwanzaa radio show in the country.

Storytellers Madafo Lloyd Wilson and Joyce Grear prepare to record a story for “A Season’s Griot,” a Kwanzaa program on Public Radio International.

Photo by: Amanda Greene

One was a Japanese tale; the other was a version of an Aesop’s fable about the baobab tree. The baobab tree won.

“Ahh, this is great,” Wilson said after finishing his reading, tapping the book with his finger. “This is the story.”

“How did you come to that,” Grear asked.

“The tree, the image of the tree, the little girl helping the elder,” he said. “This is what the show’s about.”

This year’s one-hour storytelling show honoring the African-American holiday Kwanzaa features the theme of fatherhood and airs on WHQR 91.3 FM at noon Thursday (Dec. 26) on the first day of Kwanzaa and will re-air at 7 p.m. Dec. 29 on WHQR. Kwanzaa is celebrated from Thursday (Dec. 26)- Jan. 1.

– See more at: http://wilmingtonfavs.com/2013/12/26/kwanzaa-public-radio-program-u-s-continues-tradition-20-years/#sthash.PgRky8vW.dpuf

Chats about Hats, St. John School of the Arts

Chats about Hats, St. John School of the Arts

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Culture, Society, St. John, Women

2015 has proven to be a very exciting year, as I ventured into new projects. In cooperation with the St. John School of the Arts I interviewed four West Indian matriarchs about their hats. Wearing hats is an old tradition in the local community. This project was inspired by Kim Wild, Director of the School of the Arts. I interviewed each woman and then wrote their stories according to what they told me. I then visited each one to take a photo of them.

The photo of Miss Blake was taken by her daughter and accentuates how the hat is the finishing touch on a well-planned and executed outfit. Once the stories were written and approved by the ladies The School of the Arts put together a dance performance based on the stories. I hope you enjoy their stories. It was a real honor for me to get to know these wonderful women.

Chats About Hats

told to Cristina Kessler

I grew up in Cruz Bay until I was about 14. It was a village then, like a big family. We celebrated together and sympathized together as one family. If someone heard a child crying everyone came. They would take you on a walk or visit the bay with you.

I was still a small child when I got my first hat. Even before I started school. There was a woman who platted hats from straw. She wove them like someone plaits hair. She platted hats for girls going to school. For the little girls they had a ribbon to tie under the chin, I think so they wouldn’t fly off when we ran. Hats were always part of the back to school clothes. That lady made some fine styles with her hats.

Mrs. Andromeda Childs

Today I like to wear a hat with a wide brim so I can wrap a scarf around it. I have many scarves and many hats. I wear the same ones a lot until I go to the back of the group and pull out something I haven’t see for awhile. Sometimes I put it aside and sometimes I look at it and then just put it back. When I was up north I had hats with plumes or feathers, but not anymore. I like Panama hats because you can shape them. My hats for church are dressier.

Sometimes when I wear a hat it just makes me feel better. You can tilt it to match your mood. It says a little more about the way you are feeling. I usually wear a hat when I leave the house. It depends on my hairstyle. Usually I have a hat to protect me from the sun. Also a hat does something special for me sometime so I like that. A nice hat can make you feel better, more together.

I’ll never forget when I wore a hat to my first opera. I had it on to finish my outfit because I was dressing up. What I didn’t know is that you aren’t supposed to wear a hat to the opera. There was a man mumbling behind me but I didn’t know it was about me until a young man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to remove my hat. I did and I never made that mistake again. It’s hat etiquette.

We go on cruises now, and if I see someone wearing a fine hat some place we stop, I get one there. If I don’t buy one my husband might ask, “Not getting a hat this time?” I got my Panama hat in Ecuador. It came rolled up in a small box it is made so fine. And when I’m in New York if I see a hat store I go in and try hats on. If I’m in Macy’s or Gimbles I go to their hats departments and try hats on.

Times change with generations. When I was growing up all girls and women wore hats. Not all women wear hats to church now. Young women will wear a hat to church sometime. I think that hats will always be around. Hats definitely have a future.

When I was growing up you would always see women wearing their hats. My mother used to say, “Women wear hats to church and men take them off.” We had straw hats made by hand by a woman over in the BVI where I grew up.

I don’t like big hats because I like to wear a hat down on my forehead – so I prefer little ones. Thin ones, not the wide, wide ones. When I do Worship Service on Sundays at church I don’t wear a wide hat because I don’t want people to look at the hat, I prefer them to listen to what I say. I don’t want to wear one over my face, because that would like take away from what I’m saying. They’d be looking at that instead of listening.

Mrs. Reubenia V. Hill

I wouldn’t say I have a lot of hats, but the ones I have are old. They don’t fit so well because my hair is less full than it used to be. But every once in a while I see them, love them and leave them. Now I can crochet some for myself. I learned to crochet from when I was young, but then a cousin taught me to read it recently and that helped me a lot because now I can take up a pattern and try to follow it. Maybe I don’t get everything a 100%. I can make my own hats and I can read a pattern now.

I admire a woman that looks very nice. Some wear hats to match their clothes and that finishes the outfit. I look and I say, “That person looks really nice.” I feel more completely dressed with my hat on. Some places I go don’t need a hat, but mostly at night with the weather I wear a hat to keep the cold off my head and in the day to keep sun off it too.

Sometimes I watch different worship programs on TV, and some of the hats they wear are out of this world! I might be able to help someone if they put on a hat and asked me, I could say that one looks better than the other. For me I look in the mirror and if it’s ok I just wear it. I don’t know any secrets about choosing a hat. I just look in the mirror.

Today is not like when we were growing up. Not so many hats, and sometimes not worn right. Pastor George says baseball caps on backwards are bad boy style or bad girl style. Not good. In church I don’t see so many hats, like when growing up, but I can tell you – I still like mine.

I was about 10 years old when I got my first hat. My mother was in St. Thomas and she sent me and my sister nice white hats for Easter. It is a family tradition, wearing hats to church. You wear a hat to show respect for God in his house.

My grandmother never went to church unless she had her head covered. When I was growing up, if we didn’t have a hat for church we wore a mantilla to cover our heads. My grandmother never kneeled to pray unless her head was covered with a mantilla, so it was a sacred something we did in our family. It’s a tradition that was handed down to me from my parents and my grandparents.

Miss Daisy Callwood

I was about 10 years old when I got my first hat. My mother was in St. Thomas and she sent me and my sister nice white hats for Easter. It is a family tradition, wearing hats to church. You wear a hat to show respect for God in his house.

My grandmother never went to church unless she had her head covered. When I was growing up, if we didn’t have a hat for church we wore a mantilla to cover our heads. My grandmother never kneeled to pray unless her head was covered with a mantilla, so it was a sacred something we did in our family. It’s a tradition that was handed down to me from my parents and my grandparents.

I haven’t passed this tradition onto my children because they think it’s old fashioned, so they don’t wear hats. But, they give me a hat for Christmas most every year. Some I have never worn because they don’t fit my face. I have to fit the hat, no one can tell me what hat fits my face. I have more hats than I can count, stuffed in closets and boxes and bags.

The hats I wear most are custom-made. I have my own hat maker, on St. Thomas. She comes with hats and if I like one I say, “I’ll take this one, but in a special color.” When I was being honored at Frenchman’s Reef I didn’t have a hat for the night. I told her I needed a silver hat, to go with my outfit. She made a fine one.

Not all hats are right for me. I may not like the shape, and it has to match my face or I don’t wear it. I feel comfortable in a hat, like I am ready for whatever I am going to do. Without my hat on I am not ready to go. I feel like part of me is missing – the hat makes me complete. My image is very important to me, since I was a child, and I’ve passed this onto my children. There must be a difference between how you look at home and how you look outside. You don’t need to be rich, but be clean and neat.

There are not so many hats in church anymore, in fact one Christmas a lady gave me a hat and I wore it to church and the minister mentioned my hat. He encouraged others to wear hats, and now they do. I have received many comments about my hats over the years. One lady asked me if I there is any color hat I don’t have, and I told her, “I don’t think so.”

A hat makes a statement. I have green, gold, tan, purple, red, white, black and black and white hats. I love all my hats, but my favorite hat is this black and white one. My friend Millicent made it for me.

She bought the hat plain, then added the lace and flowers and made this beautiful hat for me. The green rose hat is number two.

It’s the latest one that I got in Florida.

Mrs. Helena Blake

A hat makes a statement. I have green, gold, tan, purple, red, white, black and black and white hats. I love all my hats, but my favorite hat is this black and white one. My friend Millicent made it for me. She bought the hat plain, then added the lace and flowers and made this beautiful hat for me. The green rose hat is number two. It’s the latest one that I got in Florida.

I probably wore my first hat when I was about 10. I grew up on Nevis and the British like to wear their hats, just like the Queen. I was an Anglican when I was there, and was in the choir. We never, ever went to church bare-headed, we had to wear a hat. I still do. I have been in the Virgin Islands for 67 years and 8 months, and I am happy to see all the women in church with their hats. If I see a well-dressed woman, with a nice hat, I gawk at her – not look, but gawk – she looks so good.

You feel good when you have a dress, hat, shoes and bag that match. I pick the dress first, then choose the hat from a color or stripe or something in the dress. I love hats and shoes and I feel very confident when I am dressed-up. I went to a funeral on St. Croix, and after we went into a shop and the woman there said,

“Oh my! Aren’t you gorgeous! Look at that hat!” It’s the same black and white hat that is my favorite one. It was good to have the woman appreciate my hat.

I have a sister named Elaine Hill, who loved the hats, but not to wear. So when she sees a nice hat she bought them for me not herself. She would see a hat and say, “This looks just like Lena.” And then give me that hat. My daughter bought me a dress and shoes to go with a hat I have.

A hat says something about the person wearing it. You can fit it just right, and tilt it or not, it is up to you. I prefer hats with rims and brims. I pick a color from the dress and match it up. I never lend my hats, no, no, no! I have many, and they are all well-preserved in the top of my closet.

I see lots of women, mainly my age, wearing hats in church. The younger women not so much, but the older women yes. I love my hats!