Twin Cities writers, illustrator share story of James and Grace Lee Boggs with young readers

NINA MOINI: A new picture book by a combo of well-known Twin Cities creatives tells the story of an American couple whose social justice writing and activism had wide-ranging influence. Their names are James Boggs, who was a Black Union organizer in Detroit, and Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese-American philosopher. When they got married in 1954, their interracial relationship was illegal in parts of the country.

The new book about their lives is called Revolutions Are Made of Love. It was written by Sun Yung Shin and Mélina Mangal, and Illustrated by Leslie Barlow. They spoke with NPR's Emily Bright. To start the conversation, Mélina read a poem about James Boggs called, Also Known As.

MELINA MANGAL: He was born James Boggs, but answered to son and brother, comrade and friend. Listening to their problems, showing up at the grocery store just before closing to buy fresh food at a bargain. Tomatoes, potatoes, onions, food that hadn't sold and would just get old. He brought around to neighbors. An arts lover, James quoted poet Countee Cullen, read Richard Wright, listened to Dinah Washington. Their shared southern roots filled his soul with the sights, sounds, and scents of Black Bama, pride, anchoring him to his people.

At home after work at the factory, James fixed a faucet or cleaned the counter, always thinking. Before he lay down on the living room floor, writing on yellow legal pads, feeling the passion of purpose pulsed through his fingers and out his pen. He became Mr. Jimmy to the youth, dad and grandpa to his kids, the man who would not be king to poet Willie Williams.

James wrote a visionary book calling for a new declaration of human rights in the time of automation and abundance. He influenced activists like Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and philosophers like Bertrand Russell, and world leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of the newly independent Ghana. When interviewed, James said, "I call myself a revolutionist."

EMILY BRIGHT: I like that idea, and I know that's a quote from grace at the start that we are not just one thing.

MELINA MANGAL: Yes. As part of that quote, he also said, "I see myself as a person imbued with a mission of advancing humanity. My ideology is changing with one constant, cornerstone, it must always advance humanity."

EMILY BRIGHT: I really like that quote. Sun Yung, do you have a favorite quote?

SUN YUNG SHIN: I mean, one of the things that I've seen proliferate in movement spaces as sort of rallying cries or mottos is this quote by grace about-- that you're the leader that you've been waiting for. And that's been a really powerful, I think, call to action for, especially Asian-American women in the last few decades who often have been socialized to be in the background, to not necessarily call attention to themselves, to not necessarily think about themselves as potential leaders.

Also, her idea that really seems so common sense now, and that especially in activist spaces have really been internalized, that to have the kind of society that we want, to have the kinds of revolutionary changes that we want to see, we need to also change our inner selves and change how we relate to each other. But really, if we go back into social change history, because so much of formal organizing and so much of the Civil Rights movement to the stories, stories were kind of told by men and often about men, there's lots of women too that have been written about, but there's just been a predominance of writing about men and by men.

So the fact that this is her idea and the idea, of course, many other people. But it wasn't something that I think people took for granted, that I think now, younger people, it just seems like it's really common sense that we have to also change ourselves and that we can't just have external political or social change in terms of structures or in terms of government institutions, but we have to change our social relations. We have to change how we think about the human condition. We have to change how we think about ourselves.

So that's something just in my lifetime, just as an observer, I've seen that really change. So I'm excited to share Grace and James's part in advancing that idea.

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, Leslie, this is the first book you've Illustrated. The pictures are stunning. They're full color. They're very emotive. What did you want to emphasize as you were illustrating this book?

LESLIE BARLOW: This was just a dream project. It felt really important to me to really have every single image feel like a complete and whole artwork, that it could stand alone, but also be threaded together as a part of this longer story. And, yeah, just because the work of both Grace and James is so inspiring, I really wanted every image to feel like it could do them justice.

EMILY BRIGHT: What do you hope kids get out of this?

MELINA MANGAL: This is Mélina. I hope that they see role models, people who come from very different backgrounds, who came together to form a life of, as they called it, in love and struggle. People who had unique gifts and found their way to share those gifts with the world and helped empower and encourage those around them.

And when we look at someone like James Boggs, who did not have some of the formal education and schooling that Grace did, for example, he used his talents for writing, reading, and found his way despite the huge obstacles of systemic racism and segregation to develop his mind more. He was really open to thinking about and incorporating with his own experience new ideas and new ways of thinking about things. So I hope kids will look at them as role models in that way.

SUN YUNG SHIN: This is Sun Yung, and I 100% agree that's-- I can't really improve on that. I'll just say that I hope that children see that you don't need to be an elected official. You don't need to be famous. You don't need to be the head of an institution. You don't need to have a role that's been sanctioned by the political world. You don't need to have access to a lot of money. I mean, it's a different time, but that you can always start where you are and start with the people that you find yourself among.

You could start in your own neighborhood and just see what the people around you need to solve, and then you just work together organically and you continue to refine your ideas. You have discussions. You work together. You can achieve a lot through cooperation of us everyday people.

EMILY BRIGHT: Thank you so much for talking with me today, and congratulations on your new book.

MELINA MANGAL: Thank you.

SUN YUNG SHIN: Thank you so much, Emily.

MELINA MANGAL: Yeah, thanks for having us here.

NINA MOINI: That was Emily Bright speaking with Sun Yung Shin and Mélina Mangal, and Leslie Barlow about their new picture book, Revolutions Are Made of Love, The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs. There's a book launch this Saturday at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. It's 2:00 to 4:00 PM. It's open to the public. The book comes out Tuesday, November 4.