![]() ![]() I was 18 years old, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, and people started asking me political questions, and I had no idea what was going on. I didn't understand politically what was happening. I would watch TV and almost forget that I was black. Then my perceptions of the way things were started to become distorted. There are very few blacks working in picture books. I love her and am very grateful for what she did for me, but I also have to notice that publishers right now aren't buying a lot of work by black artists. I am not downplaying my appreciation for Ursula. All of this was during the '60s and publishing houses were ready to work with black folks on account of we were getting real uppity. One teacher I knew suggested Harper's, so that's where I went. I put together a portfolio and asked some people for advice. I was staying home from school and feeling bad about myself, so I finally decided to leave. I felt cramped in school, not because the teachers were bad but because I wanted to do something else, which was paint. But when you're young and feeling disconnected from people, you begin to feel crazy. I felt like the odd man out -which is not so different from what I feel now, except that now I understand it better. JS: I was feeling strange in school and in my life. ![]() ![]() GD: How did you get to Harper's in the first place? I was about 16 years old and I said, Sure. A few weeks after I came to Harper's, I met Ursula Nordstrom and she asked me if I wanted to write a book. ![]()
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