 Stiching Dreams One Seam at a Time By Libb Erty
Breena Clarke’s debut novel, River, Cross My Heart (Little, Brown and Company) was an Oprah Book Club selection and an international bestseller. And now in her latest work, Stand the Storm (Little, Brown and Company), Clarke once again delivers a gripping story that infuses history, survival, and adventure.
“Work on Stand the Storm began with research – reading books. I cast a wide net and brought back plenty,” said Clarke. Storm is set during slavery times on the Ridley Plantation in rural Maryland and tells the story of Sewing Annie Coats, a house slave, whose intricate sewing and needle work led her to many hours of labor that toll on long after the field slaves had laid to rest. Coats’ son Gabriel often stayed up late learning his mother’s craft which created an unbreakable bond between the two. During these nighttime sewing sessions he also learned about lessons of survival. From the time Gabriel was a young boy he knew a better life was out there, a “free” life. As he planned routes to flee north to Canada and save money for their escape, he never realized that all along their path to freedom was in his hands. "I chose to emphasize less the sometimes stereotypical image of slavery as only agricultural work, only rural and only unskilled labor," said Clarke. "I selected needlework for the Coatses because traditions in needlework have defied the limitations of literacy and have been preserved through hand to hand links. I wanted to put my characters squarely in the line of African Americans who pursued literacy and pursued a highly specialized, creative art.” Storm captures the lives of America’s urban slaves, in an era when most revolutionary events had an adverse impact on African Americans. Clarke works to depict the bond between a mother and son and their enduring fight for freedom.
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Riffs On Rides
