Enticing Readers to Stretch

FEATURED AUTHOR—CRYSTAL WILKINSON Enticing Readers to Stretch Theresa L. Burriss Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2003, Water Street (2002) is Affrilachian Crystal Wilkinson's second published collection of short stories. Each of the thirteen chapters is devoted to a single narrator, but readers encounter characters introduced by narrators later in the text who recount their own stories or their interpretation of the story already told. In this way, the work almost reads like a novel. The stories overlap and intersect to create a cohesive whole. Just as she does in her first published collection , Blackberries, Blackberries (2000), Wilkinson assumes the voice of both male and female narrators and does so convincingly. Some chapters are conveyed from first person points of view, while others are recounted from third person, providing Wilkinson a bit more artistic freedom. Wilkinson's collection is an important contribution to Appalachian literature because she grapples with issues historically not addressed in this literature, primarily issues of race in the mountains. The Affrilachian emergence onto the Appalachian literary landscape has led to the appearance of characters and residents who have been present in the region for hundreds of years but who have been typically neglected in the telling of the area's history. Through her stories Wilkinson demonstrates that politicized blacks have existed in Appalachia for decades. Appalachian blacks, however, have suffered a double-silencing due to their race and their region, a silencing the Affrilachian Writers have vowed to combat through their works. Crystal Wilkinson serves as one testimony to their success. In the "Welcome to Water Street" introduction, Wilkinson presents her residents as typical Americans, sharing food, stories, church, and laughter. They are particularly Appalachian as she describes the men who are "one generation removed from farming but they still wear their farmer's clothes underneath work uniforms to remember where they're from. We still know the old folks' ways even if we keep it to ourselves" (2). Mountain traditions continue to influence their daily lives and inspire their activities. Yet something lurks below the surface of these individuals, for she explains, "On Water Street, every person has at least two stories to tell. One story that the light of day shines on; 37 the other that lives only in the pitch black of night, the kind of story carried beneath the breastbone, near the heart, for safekeeping" (3). As readers discover, the characters closely harbor these other stories for revealing them to anyone else would render them vulnerable, exposed to potential further trauma and heartache. For example, the second chapter, "Water Street, 1979: Junior," contains Junior's first-person account of his life with his wife, Yolanda, and the subsequent trials and joys of this life. He provides reflections on the past, before Yolanda, from his childhood to his maturation into young adulthood. Additionally, Junior shares his perceptions of race relations as ablackman and as ablackteacher in a public school system in Appalachia. Through Junior, Wilkinson tangles with many issues: political, cultural, and psychological. At the start Junior recalls his efforts to adopt the "Black Power" stance of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) through his appearance, speech, and actions. He explains, "We were plain old Kentucky boys but all of us had hair that stood out around our heads like halos. We were learning how to be the 'black people and proud' that James Brown summoned us to be onhis record, no matter what our parents said" (19). Clearly, Junior presents the politics of black hair as he purposefully allowed his to grow into an afro, its natural condition without the taming of Western European-inspired hair products. Noliwe Rooks provides insight into the politics of African American hair in her work, Hair Raising. Within the first chapter, "Nappi by Nature: Afros, Hot Combs, and Black Pride," Rooks explains the symbolism of the Afro and provides historical context for Junior's efforts to embody the black pride thatJames Brown advocates. As Rooks approached the writing of the work, she recounts, "I knew that as the Civil Rights Movement became the Black Liberation or Black Power Movement in the mid-seventies, wearing anAfro became synonymous with...