Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Mama Says I'm Fine Author Brittney Cooper Heats Up The Summer With A Great Read

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Mama Says I'm Fine Author Brittney Cooper Heats Up The Summer With A Great Read · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've checked it out yet. Arrow
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  Speaker 1: dot net A r r oe dot net. It's not
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  Speaker 1: just one podcast. It is a network of podcasts that
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  Speaker 1: feature so many places to escape to and to escape from,
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  Speaker 1: one of them being view from the Writing Instrument. I'm
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  Speaker 1: sharing conversations with the biggest authors around the world. Not
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  Speaker 1: only that songwriters, movie directors, people who prepare scripts for
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  Speaker 1: these binge watches. We're into the writers view from the
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  Speaker 1: Writing Instrument only on Arrow dot net A r r
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  Speaker 1: oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hey, good morning, how
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  Speaker 1: are you doing today?
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, hero.
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  Speaker 1: I am so excited to share a conversation with you
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  Speaker 1: because it has been a long time since I have
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  Speaker 1: received a book that I cannot wait to share the
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  Speaker 1: book and it's one of those where and I need
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  Speaker 1: to warn listeners is that you're going to buy five
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  Speaker 1: or ten of these because there's going to be somebody
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  Speaker 1: in your life or you're going to meet this summer
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  Speaker 1: that needs to have this book, and because this is
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  Speaker 1: one of those books that we would wait for a
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  Speaker 1: very long time at the school library to get our
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  Speaker 1: hands on. And I just can't thank you enough for
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  Speaker 1: doing this, because it's going to create conversation.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Erro.
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  Speaker 2: It was a pleasure to write, and it's a pleasure
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  Speaker 2: to be with you.
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  Speaker 1: Where did it come from? Because something had to reach
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  Speaker 1: out of your heart to say it's time, it's more
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  Speaker 1: than ever, it is time to share this story.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, you know, I am a mama's girl, and this
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  Speaker 2: was my opportunity to.
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  Speaker 3: Pay tribute to my mom, and I wanted to think
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  Speaker 3: of it. I wanted to think about how to do that,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, and my mom was a woman of
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  Speaker 3: few words in many ways, but the words she did
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  Speaker 3: say were impactful, and this felt like the best way
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  Speaker 3: to pay tribute to her.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's that why I can relate with this,
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  Speaker 1: because my mother was very very short on words. She
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  Speaker 1: used eye contact in other parts of her body to
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  Speaker 1: control everything. But yet but we were still connected. And
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  Speaker 1: I see it's not just for children. This is not
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  Speaker 1: why a book. There's going to be a lot of
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  Speaker 1: adults that are going to have a lot of memories
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  Speaker 1: because of your illustrator and as well as yourself.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, you know, I was thinking about that. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I absolutely am glad to be writing for young people,
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  Speaker 3: but I also realize I'm writing for the young people
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  Speaker 3: in us that needed these stories ourselves, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: so this will absolutely appeal to to you know, those
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  Speaker 3: of us who had moms like this, who you know,
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  Speaker 3: who will see ourselves in this story.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: How did you come up with the illustrator in the way,
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  Speaker 1: because I mean, sometimes you know, you can tell the
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  Speaker 1: difference between well, here's where the author comes in, Here's
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  Speaker 1: where the illustrator is trying to clarify that there's there's harmony.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, have you guys worked together before, because I
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  Speaker 1: want to know how it all blends together the way
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  Speaker 1: that it does.
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  Speaker 3: You know what, we have not worked together before, but
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  Speaker 3: our press put is together. And I just think Tomisha
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  Speaker 3: capture the spirit of my words and ways that I
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  Speaker 3: could not have imagined. We got a chance to talk.
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  Speaker 3: We have a similar bring We're both Southern women raised
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  Speaker 3: by moms in this way, and then we I sent
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  Speaker 3: her some pictures of my mom and me when I
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  Speaker 3: was a little girl, and she took that and just
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  Speaker 3: you know, ballooned that inspiration out into this gorgeous set
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  Speaker 3: of illustrations for this book, you know, and I was
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  Speaker 3: I was just blown away by her interpretation. You know,
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  Speaker 3: it's one thing to see you know, to have your
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  Speaker 3: words on the page. It's another thing when someone really
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  Speaker 3: gets the spirit of what you're trying to do.
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  Speaker 2: And can illustrate that, and she really masters.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you've got a game changer here, Brittany. And it's
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  Speaker 1: right here in the center of the book where where
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  Speaker 1: Mom says, I'm fine. That's my mom, my mom, that's
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  Speaker 1: all she would ever say. Mom, Mo, Mom, how can
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  Speaker 1: I help you? I'm fine, I'm fine. And so now
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  Speaker 1: I have to wonder the generation that is featured inside
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  Speaker 1: this book, where what decade did the mom come from?
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  Speaker 1: Because there seems to be that line where mom and
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  Speaker 1: dad always said I'm fine and we had to go
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  Speaker 1: with it. But if I say that today, nobody's gonna
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  Speaker 1: go with that. They want the floor story.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's absolutely true. Like my mom was a late boomer.
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  Speaker 3: She was she had me as a young person. She
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  Speaker 3: was born in the early sixties, you know. So it's
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  Speaker 3: that late boomer early Gen X generation that's like kind
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  Speaker 3: of minimalist, doesn't say a whole lot, doesn't wear their
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  Speaker 3: heart on their sleeve in a certain kind of way.
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  Speaker 3: And in this moment where we use so much emotional
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  Speaker 3: language all the time, and it's always over the top.
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  Speaker 3: I think that there's a way that so much of
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  Speaker 3: that generation of moms and dads just has been misunderstood.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, this is my tribute to them. And
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  Speaker 3: also part of what I hope is that parents and
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  Speaker 3: kids that are reading this book together today can give
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  Speaker 3: themselves a little bit of a break and say, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we don't have to be excellent, extraordinary, super you know,
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  Speaker 3: great and awesome each and every day. Some days we're
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  Speaker 3: just fine.
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  Speaker 2: And that's okay, you know, and that if we can stay.
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  Speaker 3: At that baseline of being fine, then we're you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're doing great, doing better than most.
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  Speaker 1: I love the way that you're using your inflection, because
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  Speaker 1: you are so right because I'm fine. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: it's the way that you're ending that word, because how
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  Speaker 1: many times did we live in this generation where even
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  Speaker 1: the little ones, I'm fine and you, oh, well what's wrong?
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 1: I really am fine? Well then why didn't you say
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  Speaker 1: I'm fine? Oh my god? Maybe we need to get
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  Speaker 1: people's sentences to go in a different direction so that
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  Speaker 1: we can believe them.
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  Speaker 2: Then that's right.
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  Speaker 3: Look, that's the thing is a kid reading this book
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  Speaker 3: will be able to see in the illustrations all the
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  Speaker 3: things that's fine can mean, and I hope that it
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  Speaker 3: will give them the space to recognize that and to
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  Speaker 3: sit with that. We just look, these are hard times.
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  Speaker 3: We just need to take the pressure off. Parents need
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  Speaker 3: to take the pressure off themselves. We need to take
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  Speaker 3: the pressure off kids, you know, and we also can
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  Speaker 3: this book. You know you pointed to like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: there at that moment, my mom would say, I'm fine,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, things weren't always fine.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: She didn't want me to have to worry about that
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  Speaker 3: when she was trying to figure out how to pay
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  Speaker 3: all the bills and do all the thing. But I
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  Speaker 3: was an observant kid, and so one of the joys
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  Speaker 3: of my life were those moments where I could say
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  Speaker 3: to my mama, you're fine.
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  Speaker 2: You know, everything's okay.
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  Speaker 3: Mom. You know that I want kids to I don't
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  Speaker 3: want them to take on their parents' burden, but I
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  Speaker 3: do want us to raise generations of empathetic children who
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  Speaker 3: are paying enough of an attention that they can give
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  Speaker 3: an affirmation back on occasion when it is needed.
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  Speaker 1: Please don't move. There's more with Britney Cooper right around
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  Speaker 1: the corner the name of the book. Mama says I'm fine.
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  Speaker 1: I say it that way for a reason, And we're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about that. We're back with Britney Cooper.
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  Speaker 1: In a way, are you saying when someone says I'm
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  Speaker 1: fine and then you come back quickly and say, I'm listening.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's almost like there's your collaboration right there.
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  Speaker 1: You're you're setting up that person that's receiving it. I'm fine,
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  Speaker 1: I'm listening, all right, let's talk about this.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: It's you know, you know, I had a friend one
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  Speaker 3: time who said, you know, when a person says I'm fine,
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  Speaker 3: they would say, well, what's fine? You know what's fine
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  Speaker 3: about your life? I think that in the right circumstance,
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  Speaker 3: that is a conversation that we could that we could have.
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  Speaker 3: But I also think that for me too, when my
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  Speaker 3: mom would say you're fine, what I remember is the
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  Speaker 3: feeling that my whole body kind of relaxed and calmed down.
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  Speaker 3: It was a it was a reset, you know, there
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  Speaker 3: wasn't something that I needed to go fix. I got
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  Speaker 3: bullied a lot as a kid, and I always thought
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  Speaker 3: that I was doing something wrong, you know, and I
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  Speaker 3: would go to my mom and say, like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: such as I said this thing, and you know, and
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  Speaker 3: and I you know, and just explaining myself and trying
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  Speaker 3: to figure it out, and she would say, you're fine,
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  Speaker 3: you know.
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  Speaker 2: Like there's nothing wrong with you. And so often that
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  Speaker 2: is just a little gifts we can give each other.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't require a bunch of emotional labor. It doesn't
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  Speaker 3: require a bunch of fancy words. It just requires us
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  Speaker 3: to your point, to pay attention and then to say
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  Speaker 3: to someone you're fine, You're doing just fine.
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  Speaker 1: We got to break something down here that I'm so
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  Speaker 1: proud of you about, and I hope we have enough
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  Speaker 1: time for this. And I love like what you do
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  Speaker 1: with each one of these. My wife is a teacher,
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  Speaker 1: she's also a tutor, and she will have those students
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  Speaker 1: explain not only what they've just read, but what's in
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  Speaker 1: the pictures. I mean, just this one alone, three plus
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  Speaker 1: five equals have the student answer it. We love our school,
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  Speaker 1: Tell we love our elementary. Tell me why you love school?
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  Speaker 1: Do you see what you got here? I'm kind and
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  Speaker 1: I'm fine, okay, tell me and you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: It gets the student actively involved, even with the student
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  Speaker 1: who's raising their hand in class, and you could ask
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  Speaker 1: that student if you could answer a question right now
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  Speaker 1: that any teacher would be asking, what would your answer be.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you see how you make this book so interactive, that's.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Listen.
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  Speaker 3: I love to read as a kid, and I loved
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  Speaker 3: school as a kid, and you know, and I love
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  Speaker 3: story time. And so this just gives kids at school
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity to see themselves, an opportunity. There's so many
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  Speaker 3: wonderful things going on in the illustrations and different activities,
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  Speaker 3: walking the dog, You're going to the flower shop, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you know, doing all of the all kinds of things.
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  Speaker 3: And so there's all these entry points for kids and
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  Speaker 3: teachers and parents to be in the story and be.
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  Speaker 2: A part of it.
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  Speaker 1: What part of the South are you in? Because I'm
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  Speaker 1: here in the South too, Where are you at?
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  Speaker 2: I am from the northern part of Louisiana. I live
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  Speaker 2: in South, not the fact I'm a Deep South girl,
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  Speaker 2: for sure.
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  Speaker 1: I'm over here in Carolina. You probably look at me
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  Speaker 1: saying you aren't from the South.
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  Speaker 3: I've gotten better at it, but I used to think
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  Speaker 3: it wasn't the South.
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  Speaker 2: Now I've met enough Carolinians that I stand correctly.
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  Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
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  Speaker 1: The door is always going to be open for you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Errow, I appreciate.
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  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, thank you you too,