Timeline for the Book

November 2016 – I got the idea one night and started sketching out how I wanted the project to take place and turn out.

January 27, 2017 – my first interview! with Mr. Roosevelt Rouse (He’s my daughter’s great-grandfather, so I wasn’t nervous.)

February 22, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Mary Butler Smith (I was so nervous!)

February 24, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Madie (first phone interview; I was in Savannah and she lived in Philly)

February 28, 2017 – interviewed Mr. Steven Williams (he reminded me so much of my daddy; I think that calmed me down. He told me how important my work was; that was all the confirmation I needed.)

March 1, 2017 – started the first draft for the book

March 13, 2017 – Darrien interviewed Mr. Johnnie Parrish and Ms. Dorothy Parrish (I was so grateful because I was tired. At this point, I was still interviewing but also transcribing past interviews.)

March 13, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Florrie Scriven (my first time working on birthday, which showed me that this was a passion project FOR REAL)

March 21, 2017 – interviewed Lula Mae (her sister Florrie suggested that I talk to her)

March 22, 2017 – interviewed Curt Williams (after him turning me away twice, he finally let me interview him lol)

April 2017 – started the second draft of the book. By this time, I’d adopted a mentor for the project, Dr. James Lough. He’d written an oral history too.

April 1, 2017 – interviewed Curt again

April 1, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Ruby (someone suggested I go by the Mary Flournoy Golden Age Center. Ms. Ruby was one of two willing to talk. Afterwards, Nathaniel “Baldy” gave me a tour of the westside and cemetery)

April 4, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Puscha-Scott (I’d gone over Mr. Steven William’s house to return some borrowed pictures. He wasn’t home, but she came ‘cross the street to ask what I wanted. She was his cousin. I told her and then we started talking/recording.)

May 8, 2017 – interviewed Carolyn Dowse (I met her at a SCAD community event and was taken aback by how old in age yet young in spirit she was. We met a couple days later at the Southwest Chatham Library. Drums and Shadows was one of my primary sources for research and was published in the 1930s. Ms. Dowse’s grandmother was interviewed in that book.)

May 9, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Sadie Green

May 19, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Madie again

May 22, 2017 – interviewed Ms. Matilda Patt Brown

May 30, 2017 – defended Krak Teet for my Master thesis (and passed!)

September 4, 2017 – interviewed Pastor Southall Brown, Sr. (when I asked him to read and sign the consent form, he said God gave him the gift of discernment so he didn’t need to read it; I read it aloud to him anyway lol)

December 26, 2017 – interviewed Pastor Brown again (he told me I was made of that stuff that make lightning bugs glow, and now can’t nobody tell me nothing.)

March 2, 2018 – interviewed Curt again (I just stopped by to say hey, but he started talking history so I had to record)

June 2018 – started a 10-week internship at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center

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August 29, 2018 – met and interviewed Ms. Madie in person! (Philly is only 2 hours from D.C., and it was so worth it!)

April 2, 2019 – interviewed Mr. Omar Boone (another phone interview; I was in DC and he was in Savannah. I interviewed him years after first meeting him and was technically done interviewing but when I got to that Migrations chapter, I couldn’t resist his story; I had to call him.)

October 16, 2019 – got my first set of edits back and needed a nap just by looking at all the markups

November 2019 – interviewed Ms. Laura Langley (the book was finished by this point, so I couldn’t include her whole story, unfortunately, but I had to get that one-liner in there though.)

November 30, 2019 – final draft done!

December 12, 2019 – released Krak Teet!

January 2020 – reprinted Krak Teet (to get rid of the errors in the first print)