TULSA, Okla.–Social justice leader Tamika Mallory will stop in Tulsa Friday for a conversation with city and community leaders as she unveils her life story in a new memoir.
Mallory, a Harlem-born, Bronx-raised nationally recognized activist, is founder of Until Freedom and co-founder of the historic Women’s March. In her new book titled, I Lived To Tell The Story: A Memoir of Love, Legacy and Resilience, the public figure takes readers beyond the headlines and into the experiences that shaped her life.
Mallory will join Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons and Dr. Tiffany Crutcher for a community conversation at All Souls Unitarian Church (2952 S. Peoria Ave) on Friday, May 9 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite, and books will be available for sale with Magic City Books. Mallory’s previous book, State of Emergency, became a national bestseller.
In an interview with the Black Wall Street Times ahead of the Tulsa event, Tamika Mallory discussed what she wants people to take away from the book and why she chose to make Tulsa her next stop.
Q&A with Tamika Mallory: “I Lived To Tell My Story”
Black Wall Street Times: Why did you choose Tulsa for this event?
Tamika Mallory: “I think Tulsa is such an important city, not just from a historical perspective, but even today. We know that there is a struggle that continues in the city of Tulsa for America to acknowledge the wrongdoing that happened there and how Tulsa has become sort of symbolism for our goal and fight for self sustainability; that every time we organize and come together to build, there are always forces that are sanctioned by the federal government and state government that attempts to wipe us out and to stop our progress.
And so I think it’s important that whatever we as Black folks who have influence, who have a following, whatever we’re doing, whether it’s art, culture, social justice, we have to continue to go back to Tulsa to ensure that the country never forgets about what took place; but also the brilliant leaders who are still on the ground there in the city, fighting every single day.”
Who is Tamika Mallory?
BWST: For people who maybe only have heard of you from a news article about a protest or one of the organizations you’re involved with, talk about who is Tamika Mallory, and how did she become who she is today?
TM: “Well, I love to tell people that Tamika Mallory is a regular girl, just like any other woman who may be listening to my story. You know, I came from housing projects in Harlem, New York, and there was no example of where I am now that I knew of or that I was taught about as a young girl, and my parents, to be clear, were history buffs. They taught me and exposed me to so much about our culture and about our journey from Africa all the way through the American experience for African American people. And so I learned the gamut. Nonetheless, I could not find someone who looks like me, who I was attracted to that would give me an example of a pathway forward being someone who at a young age, I had a lot of mouth.
I love to talk, and it was always that folks would try to suppress that in me, because, you know, you have to learn the time and the place to speak, but when I was young, I had no concept of that. And so I would say, in my life, I have found my voice and found the importance of using my voice to make this world better, and at least speak truth to power about the issues that are stopping us from progressing.
And that means that is, is that that it comes with a lot of blows, it comes with a lot of adversity, because, you know, it’s not popular, even sometimes with your own folks, to challenge the system. And so I find myself sort of at the intersection of a girl who just–I feel like everyone else, I believe, like everyone else. I eat, like everyone else. You know, I love like everyone else, but I think that the way that I fight for Black folks and fight for social change is probably the place where it’s only a few of us that are willing to step out at that level.”
The message behind the memoir
BWST: What is the message you want people–you know, maybe little girls who look up to you–to take away from the book?
TM: “Trouble truly does not last always, that while we go through trials and tribulations, we cannot stay there. We have to push ourselves through and know that there is no easy way to to become a success, and certainly to fight for your community while doing so.
And I think the second message is you never give up. You know that what feels like it’s going to end you is more than likely making you stronger for the next hurdle, and that hurdle, when you get to the other side, it will absolutely give you joy that you were able to make it through what other people would have not been able to accomplish.”
Why now?
BWST: You know, when you think about a memoir, a lot of times people will write one maybe towards the later stages of their life,
but not you. Why now?
TM: “I agree with you. I mean, when I first was was asked to write my memoir by the publishing company that I’d already worked with for my first book, State of Emergency, Black privilege publishing is the name that Charlamagne tha God’s imprint, and when you know he and I discussed my second book being a memoir. I did not think that at 40, at the time, 42 years old, that I had in me the ability to write something like that first of all, but also the wisdom that I felt memoirs should impart on the world; I thought you had to be 70-plus to do that, and so I sat, and I was instructed to write an outline and also to answer questions every day. Every day I would have to answer one or two questions a day.
And as I got to the end of the the journaling and the outline process, I was amazed by how much I had grown from where I started in the beginning of the book to the end. I was amazed by of the wisdom that I do have, and the way in which I was able to fight through so so much adversity and still be standing and not just standing, but looking good at the same time and feeling good. And so I was convinced it was me really putting it down on paper, chicken scratch of pages and pages and pages where I learned that my story was valuable, and it was very clear to me that someone else’s life will be transformed by reading my memoir.”
Tamika Mallory to stop in Tulsa
BWST: Why should people attend Friday’s conversation and book-signing?
TM: “Well, I think Friday is going to be an amazing conversation and time spent with people who are fighters. They are architects of the social change movement, and yet they are humans. And I think that is what will be special about the event is that you will have an opportunity to hear about the human side of the fight.
The people who might be in front of the camera have stories just like yours, and hopefully it will encourage a person who comes and spends time with us to push forward and push through despite the challenges that they face, because you will learn that no matter how much success it appears that a person has garnered they went through some of the similar, regular, everyday challenges, just like everyone else.”
Tickets for the May 9 event with Tamika Mallory inside Tulsa’s All Souls Unitarian Church can be purchased online at Eventbrite.
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