← All Of It with Alison Stewart
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- [00:08]
A
This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. Coming up on the show today, actor Issa Briones is here in studio. She is Dr. Santos in the show the Pit and Connie Francis in the Broadway musical Just in Time. James Beard award winning chef Jose Andres has a new cookbook out called Spain My Way. He'll join us to discuss. And right now, comedian and Daily show host Josh Johnson is on the corner of grand and Worcester streets, but will be right across the table from me in about one hour to preview his new HBO special, symphony. That's the plan. So let's get this started with some summer book news. We are kicking off today's show with a very exciting announcement from our friends at the New York Public Library. This summer, the library will partner with the Public Theater for an extra special summer book club celebration. That celebration will take place at the Delacorte Theatre in Central park on Monday, August 17. All summer, the library will invite New Yorkers to read the same book in a citywide summer book club ahead of the August event with the author. I'm excited to announce that yours truly will be a part of that author conversation. But what book has been selected? We're about to find out. We've got the author with us here now.
- [01:37]
B
Shh.
- [01:38]
A
We're not gonna talk to you. First, we're gonna speak to Brian Jones, senior director of reading and engagement at the New York Public Library, who's gonna help us announce the selection. Brian, it's good to see you.
- [01:48]
C
Good to see you, too. Thanks for having me on.
- [01:50]
A
So what was the inspiration for this big, exciting book event?
- [01:54]
C
Well, you know, the library is the place to be for many years for children and for teens when school is out. And we always have prayers, prizes and swag and fun things for them. And for years, adults have been saying to us, what about us? When do we get to have some of the fun? So this summer we have a great answer. We're calling it the Big Summer Book Club. And just as you said, we're going to invite New Yorkers to read a book all together with us. Come to our branch libraries for fun activities. And yes, there will be swag and prizes and all kinds of fun ways to participate. And we're going to have the book available for instant downloading. We know that people like to read different ways and some people want to read an ebook or even want to listen to the book. So starting right now through August, the book that we're about to announce will be available with no waiting, just available with your New York Public Library card.
- [02:53]
A
Now, we're having the book club event on August 17th. It's at the Delacorte. The what's unique about having a book club event at the Delacorte?
- [03:02]
C
I think it's going to be the biggest book club meeting ever. The Delacorte Theater in Central park holds almost 2,000 people. It's a fun open air theater. So you've got a picture in addition to kind of like talking about the book with the author and with you, Alison Stewart, that there will also be dramatizations and audience engagement. So we're really looking forward to that and such an iconic location in the city. And we think it'll go really well with the book that we've chosen.
- [03:32]
A
All right. Do you want to announce the book that we have chosen?
- [03:35]
C
Oh, my gosh, yes, I do. So the book we're going to invite New Yorkers to read this summer and celebrate with us is the City we became by N.K. jemisin. A sprawling urban fantasy that takes place right here in New York City, in the city that we love, where basically unwitting, unsuspecting New Yorkers become seized by the essence of their and become superheroes, really, and fight a supernatural battle in places that will be familiar to New Yorkers.
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A
And the laughing you hear in the background is NK Jemisin. MK Nice to meet you.
- [04:15]
B
Nice to meet you too.
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A
What did you think when you were presented with this idea of being the book of the summer in New York City?
- [04:21]
B
I was delighted. I have been to Shakespeare in the park many times in the Delacorte. I am a constant person in the libraries. I was just looking on my phone to try and pull down a book on Libby like just a minute ago. So I was delighted by the idea. I was honored that they were willing to choose one of my books. But I also just thought that, you know, the way that they were talking about doing it, the execution sounds really exciting and I can't wait to kind of see how people react.
- [04:55]
A
Why was this the first book you wanted to pick for this event?
- [04:58]
C
Well, we wanted a book that would appeal to New Yorkers, and this one certainly does. There's so much that's familiar. There's so many places and. And even just the attitudes and the ideas. And we thought it's fun to think about what is the essence of my borough. What is the essence of this city? What is it all about. So we, and we wanted something that would, that we thought would bring people together and be fun for them to discuss and engage with in creative ways. So in addition to just regular kind of club conversations in our branch libraries, we're also going to have arts and crafts and creative writing and all kinds of stuff like that.
- [05:37]
A
We are talking about the New York Public Library Summer Book Club celebration taking place August 17th at the Delacorte Theatre. We've just announced the book club selection the City we became by N.K. jemisin, who joins me in studio alongside Brian Jones, senior director of reading and engagement at the library. NK what was the first seed of the idea for this novel?
- [05:59]
B
Oh, gosh, there were so many little seeds. But really what it kind of came down to was I was walking down the street on a really beautiful summer day. I was in my neighborhood at the time, Crown Heights. The sun was slanting across the buildings in just that afternoon almost sunset way. Some kids were, were playing in the water plug across the street and there were rainbows in the air. And it just, it was literally a magical moment. And I started to think, well, what if the city was alive? And that that was pretty much the, the beginning of it.
- [06:34]
A
It's sort of interesting because when the book came out, it was March 24, 2020.
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B
Right, right.
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A
Just days after the COVID 19 pandemic swept through the city and people started to stay home. People could read more, but they were at home.
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B
Right.
- [06:48]
A
How did Covid affect your book's release?
- [06:52]
B
It didn't affect the first book. I'd finished the book sometime before all of that began. It just happened to debut at that time. It stop book tour that I would have done because I'd already set up a bunch of cities around the country and I was going to actually visit every borough in the city to do a talk at the library in every borough. But we had to cancel all of that and it made it much more difficult to write the second book of the series. The second book of the series. This is a series that's supposed to be kind of light hearted and funny. And you know, as you know, many of us during that time were not feeling super light hearted. So I ended up actually making some changes to plans for the topics that I wanted to address in the books, the pace of the books, a bunch of other things. So it really kind of unfortunately cut the series short. It would have been a trilogy. But because I had to start working on that during one of the most sort of bleak periods in recent history, I wasn't really in a humorous or lighthearted mood, and that messed with the schedule. But the actual release of it went really well. I just did as much virtual. As many virtual book tours or book meetings as I could. And people were really into it because they really wanted something to read.
- [08:20]
A
For sure.
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B
For sure.
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A
Would you lay out the premise of the city that we became?
- [08:26]
B
The idea is that when cities reach a certain stage of development, when they get big enough, when they get well known enough, when they become culturally iconic enough, something changes and they come to life. And each city chooses one or more avatars to sort of represent it. Human beings who just happen to, in that moment, be what the city needs and embody the city in some quintessential way. The city designates them its avatar, and they are able to then do a kind of city magic. So I'm gonna sp a little bit. So the avatar of Manhattan suddenly discovers that he can sort of enrapture people by tossing them money or by giving them money. So if he flashes a 50, then people will start paying a lot more attention to him, and they'll listen to what he says, and they'll be more willing to do his bidding. If he throws 100, then he controls them completely, but he tries to keep it to, like, 50 and below because he wants them, you know, to have a choice in the matter, that kind of thing.
- [09:38]
A
What about Brooklyn?
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B
Oh, Brooklyn. Brooklyn was based on my own growing up in New York in the 80s, and so the advent of hip hop. So she's an ex hip hop musician based on MC Light, but she has. Yes, but she has grown up since, and she has become a city councilwoman. And so, yeah, she's about my age, because she also came up in that era, and she's able to wrap, but she also is able to command her intrepid army of city council assistants to open all the doors in the city when she needs them.
- [10:19]
A
All right, we're gonna go through all the brooks, all of the boroughs. Quickly. Staten Island.
- [10:25]
B
Ooh. Staten island is a little hard to talk about because there are spoilers, But Staten island is representing the part of the city that has always been Republican that is even now contemplated contemplating seceding from the rest of New York. So she is the daughter of a policeman who is not a good one. And the. The policeman has taught her to be afraid of people who look a certain way. And she's also agoraphobic and. And is terrified of the rest of the city on top of everything else. But she has the magic power of super get off my lawn. So if she wants to, she can teleport. As long as you're on her territory and she doesn't want you there, you can't. She can send you away in an instant.
- [11:19]
A
And there's one for the Bronx, there's one for Queens. How well do these avatars work together?
- [11:24]
B
Not well. Let's say they work together as well as the boroughs of New York work together, let's just say. Which means that they come together when something really important needs to be done, but in between, they snarp and snipe at each other and mostly really kind of don't like each other or pretend that they don't like each other. And then they still get along. They still have each other's back.
- [11:46]
A
We're talking about the New York Public Library Summer Book Club celebration taking place August 17th at the Delacorte Theater. We've just announced the book selection It Is the City we became by N.K. jemisin, who joins me in studio along with Brian Jones, senior director of reading and engagement at the New York Public Library. This text just came in for you, Brian. Hey, how do I get a library card?
- [12:07]
C
If you live, work, or go to school in the state of New York, you can go to nypl.org and sign up for a library card for free and then download the book. And all the information about what we're doing this summer is going to be@nypl.org summeradults if people want to use that as reference, that's where you can get. That's where you can get information about the book. That's where you can find information about what's happening in your local branch. You can even download a bingo card. We have to kind of gamify this with a lot of different activities. If you complete a row or a column, you'll get a tote bag. And if you complete the whole thing on the honor system and while supplies last, you can get Baseball hat.
- [12:49]
A
That's exciting. NK when you were writing this book, what kind of frame of mind were you in when you were writing the city we became?
- [12:57]
B
At the time, I really needed to kind of cleanse my palette. I had just finished the Broken Earth books, which are my sort of best known books, but they're also very dark and depressing. And I wanted to write something fun. Pardon me. So my, my mood at that time was let's do something kind of off the wall, a little silly, a little strange. And I wanted to write about the city that I loved so much. I've Written about a lot of cities over the course of my career, New Orleans, other places that I've lived. But I had really only tackled New York in a couple of short stories. And I wanted to do something deeper and kind of more. More of a love letter. I was beginning to realize at that time that my career had made New York my true home. And although I'd always sort of thought that I would really only live here just for a while, I was starting to realize I really just wanted to stay. And that was it. I wanted at that point to have some fun expressing my love, also expressing my concerns about a lot of aspects of things. Because, you know, I've had enough time in New York City to see how gentrification and other things have affected the city for good and for ill. And I wanted to. I really hadn't intended to talk about that part, but it slipped in because that's the kind of writer that I am. So that was it.
- [14:29]
A
What do you want, people? We always do this for our book club. Normally we ask the authors, what do you want people to pay special attention to? Is it some part of the book that was difficult or some difficult, you know, part of it that you had to sort of wrestle through? Or maybe there's an Easter egg that you want people to pay attention to and then we can discuss it on August 17th.
- [14:47]
B
There's one thing I don't want people to pay attention to, which is a mistake that I made that my copy editors didn't catch either. I am so sorry. Far Rock, I said that you were in Brooklyn. You are part of Queens.
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A
Okay?
- [15:00]
B
So I'm gonna. I know I'm gonna get flack about that because I have for the last five years, so. And the other thing that I would suggest is if you are ebook, I'm sorry, audiobook inclined, check out the audiobook version, which is narrated by Robin Miles, who's a. An amazing voice actress and other actress of other types. And she and the folks at Hachette Audio had fun making this version of the book. They put in special effects. They made the credits part of the story. So check that out. If you are interested in the audiobook, you will really enjoy that. It's a special experience.
- [15:38]
A
Brian, is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up?
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C
Well, I just think if you're already a big reader or if you're somebody thinking that maybe you've been wanting to get back into reading, we think this big summer book club is for you. And whether you've just started the book or you've finished it. You're always welcome to come into our branch libraries for any and all of these activities and to join us on August 17th at the Delacorte Theatre.
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A
Did you give us tell us how to get tickets?
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C
Yes. Tickets will be available through the usual channels that the public theater dispenses them. All of that information is on their website. But the free tickets, the important thing to remember and take away is that the free tickets are always available same day at public theater distribution locations. And we're going to have distribution at two branch libraries, one in the Bronx and one in Staten island on August 17th. And the website to remember where we'll list all of this info is nypl.org
- [16:32]
A
summeradults well, I'm excited to reread the book and to listen to it. That's going to be awesome. I'm excited about that. My guests have been N.K. jemisin and Brian Jones. Thanks for coming to the studio and we'll see you on August 17th.
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B
Thank you for thank you.
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A
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