Auntie M. Speaks

Auntie M. Speaks is a memoir about Margaret's childhood and beyond in a mostly Black community, segregated by white politics, that created a village in the Central District (CD) of Seattle, where she and her siblings were nurtured in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. Despite redlining, they lived in a safe, healthy environment with friends, backyard gardens, fruit trees, and no fences. The elders- mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and neighbors- canned vegetables and fruits, bottled libations, made preserves, baked the best cakes and pastries, and the families worked in domestic and maintenance roles. Her story is about the resilience of the community, the power of nature to heal, and her confidence to venture out to the wider community of adulthood and employment.