Author Conversation: Tanya Davis and Threads (Episode 4)
Charlotte talks to author Tanya Davis about her new book, Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond.
Learn more about Tanya and her book at thetanyadavis.com.
Find Tanya on Instagram at @carats7
Learn about Tanya’s Narrative Writing Workshops
*
Why It Matters: Every act of remembering and sharing our stories is an act of trust—a step into the unknown, with the belief that something meaningful will emerge. In this episode, I talk with Tanya Davis about her new book, Threads, and how returning to the places and people that formed us can offer freedom, healing, and a more profound sense of belonging in our creative lives.
One thing I’ve learned from Tanya is that honoring our stories isn’t about perfection-it’s about presence. It’s about showing up as we are, listening deeply to ourselves and others, and trusting that even the smallest memory or detail can weave us closer together.
>>> This episode is a conversation with Tanya Davis about the power of reading and writing to help us process our lives, the importance of community, and the ways art and ancestry nourish us through every season.
>>> We talk about courage—the courage to claim your voice, to revisit your roots, and to merge the good and the hard into a whole and beautiful self. Tanya shares how her writing journey brought her home to herself and her community, and how sharing her story has sparked new connections across generations.
>>> I invite you to reflect on your formative stories and those who shaped you. What memories or places do you return to? Please take a few moments to write about a person, a song, or a Saturday morning that still lives in your bones, and notice how it continues to shape who you are becoming.
Thank you for joining us as we celebrate the threads that connect us, the courage to listen, and the joy of telling our stories-again and again.
Thanks so much for joining me here. More soon.
*
Please check out this first mini-season and subscribe to your favorite platform. I’d also appreciate you taking a minute to rate the podcast and leave a comment to help others find this podcast. Thanks so much for your support!
Subscribe to All of This & More on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe to All of This & More on Spotify
Subscribe to All of This & More on YouTube
About Tanya Davis:
Tanya Davis is a wife, mother, grandmother, philanthropist, and author whose life’s work is giving and pouring into the lives of others.
Twenty years ago, Tanya, her husband Stephen and their seven children established the William & Mary Davis Foundation with the mission of providing opportunities to those who reside in under resourced communities and advocating for those whose voices are not heard. They also support organizations that align with their mission. The foundation provides financial support, and educational experiences for individuals for the purpose of empowerment-financially, emotionally, spiritually.
The foundation supports organizations that embody this mission including Daystar University (Nairobi, Kenya), Fox Valley Christian Action, Young Life Teen Mothers, Orange Hands, Women at Risk International, and By the Hands, Haymarket Center, MFS, GEMS of St. Sabina, East Tennessee Freedom Schools, Chicago Foundation for Women, DuSable Museum, and many others.
Tanya’s desire to enrich the lives of others also led her to launch Purpose by Design, a mentoring retreat for girls in under-resourced communities, in 2010. Each year, Tanya and a group of volunteers host 10-20 girls for a long weekend of enrichment workshops – from health and wellness to college prep and goal planning. Recently, the organization partnered with Foolproof to provide financial literacy empowerment for young women. In addition, Tanya is a sponsor for Tuskegee Next, which allows high-risk youth to earn a pilot’s license through an intense 10-week program. Tuskegee Next has been featured on CBS Weekend News and recognized by the original Tuskegee Airmen members as well as Illinois Governors and city-wide officials. The program has helped to license over 76 young adults in 7 years.
Tanya has authored four books: May I Please Speak with My Father, I Don’t Want to Shame My Daddy’s Name, Urban Monks and Mystics (co-author), and Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond. She has also served as a publisher for numerous other books on various topics and as a guest contributor for online organizations.
A 38-year resident of Wheaton, Illinois, Tanya was the Chair of the Board of Fox Valley Christian Action and Development Chair for Haymarket Center, an addiction center in Chicago. She also serves on the board of Metropolitan Family Services, DuPage Health Coalition, The Walter Cronkite Committee, and is a founding member of Magnolia Moonshots 2030. She is also a member of the Chicago Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Tanya holds a bachelor’s degree in counseling from DePaul University with an emphasis on narratives and a master’s degree in narrative medicine from Lenoir-Rhyne University. She believes in the power of story, and being an active listener in another person’s story is how we will grow in empathy and love for each other. She has facilitated narrative workshops that bring people together to share their stories.
Episode Transcript:
Charlotte Donlon (00:00):
Welcome to all of this and more. I'm Charlotte Donlon and I'm excited about my conversation with Tanya Davis about her new book Threads. Tanya, welcome. It's so good to see you. I would love to hear a little bit about you. Before we get started, for any listeners or viewers who haven't met you before.
Tanya Davis (00:22):
Well, hello everyone. As Charlotte said, my name is Tanya Davis and I live in Wheaton, Illinois. I've lived in Wheaton for 40 years, married for 38 years. Wife, mother, entrepreneur, philanthropist. Grandmother of 11, mother of seven, and a writer. I am a writer. I'm a published author. I always have to say that because in the writing community, they say it loud. I'm a writer, and sometimes I forget that. So I have to say that.
Charlotte Donlon (00:54):
I love that a lot of people have a problem with their writerly identity. A lot of writers are scared to say they're a writer. So, I love that you're bold about it. That's great. We are going to have a conversation about your reading and writing life before we get into discussing your book. And my first question is, how do writing and reading help you belong to yourself, others, and the world?
Tanya Davis (01:20):
Well, I'm thinking about when I was a kid and I felt lonely when I was a kid. I think we all have those times where we just feel lonely. And I remember what a book would do for me. A book would take me to other parts of the world. It would let me know that there's other things going on outside of those beautiful green mountains that at the time felt like a wall because it just felt closed in, especially when you're a teenager. But books were able to take me beyond the mountains and to know that there was more going on in the world. It helps me process my thoughts. Writing helps me process my thoughts and my feelings and my emotions. The first thing I wrote in was a journal. And as a matter of fact, I had like 25 journals by the time I got married.
And I was like, what are you doing with all these thoughts that I don't want anybody else to see? And I actually hid 'em at a friend's house for a minute in case someone found 'em, especially when we traveled because there were so many. Because I would just always be writing. And that was the way I knew to process and to hear and sometimes get the answers that I need. Because of reading, everyone's story matters, I want to hear about other people's perspective because they helped me grow. They help me learn. They increase my empathy, they expand my heart to want to get to know others. I feel that I'm a better listener because I read about other people's perspective. And sometimes when you read about other people's perspective, it doesn't shock you when someone else says something. But just gives you a broader understanding of the world to be able to read and write.
Charlotte Donlon (02:56):
Yes, through spiritual direction providers you meet with clients one-on-one and do custom group workshops. How was that work influenced by your love of reading and writing as a kid? Can you connect the dots for us on how you grew into this role?
Tanya Davis (03:12):
Yes. When you're reading, and like I said, you're reading about other people's stories in their life and because I believe everyone has a story that matters, and sometimes we don't take the time to sit and process those stories because really, especially when you're reading nonfiction, somebody has sat down and thought about the pieces of their life and they want to share them with you in hopes that you will be encouraged or feel like I need to share my story. And I don't think that we take enough time to sit and process those. So, with the writing workshops, that's what we do.
I call it a sacred space where you take the time, it's actually an act of self-care, to sit and say, I need to hear what my voice is speaking. I need to record those stories. And whether you share 'em with the world or you don't share 'em with the world, you do have this opportunity to share with others your story and allow people to encourage you and say, “that's great. I understand, I hear you.” And there's something very freeing about that to be able to do that. So that's what we do in the workshops.
Charlotte Donlon (04:22):
Yeah, I can see, I mean, the way you talk about how reading and writing has formed you, it makes a lot of sense that it would've formed your narrative writing practice also and the work you do with clients. So thanks for sharing a little bit about that.
Another question I have is what art, and I mean all kinds of art, film, music, literature, visual art has been nourishing you when you encounter it. How have you received nourishment from it in the last few months or so? What art comes to mind?
Tanya Davis (05:01):
Oh, I love this question. So lately it's been a painting that I purchased called Grandma's Glory by David Roby. And it's a picture of an elderly black woman, and she's got a flag draped around her, and she's sewing. It's a little needle, and she looks weary and she's kind of bent over and she's sewing the flag. And it's actually inspired by a Katrina survivor named Nata Hendricks. Actually, that was his inspiration with everything going on in the world and sometimes the weariness that I feel to see her sit there and still little bitty stitch, just trying to, I'm going to keep trying. Even if it's just this little bitty stitch. It calms me because—this might bleed over into another question—because lately I feel that we need to really look back and listen to what our ancestors spoke. And I think about my ancestors a lot during this season, and I want to hear what they have to say. And that painting seems to speak to me. I'll sit and look at it. I'll read, sit in a chair and read when I'm looking at that painting and look at her bare feet. And I don't know, it's just something about it that's calming to me. And so that has been my latest inspiration in the visual arts. Yes.
Charlotte Donlon (06:38):
Thanks for sharing. Will you send me a photo of it for me to put in the show notes?
Tanya Davis (06:43):
Yes.
Charlotte Donlon (06:44):
And the artist's name and everything so I can share that with people listening. And I know you've shown it to me before. It's an amazing piece of art. The thought not only of just one tiny stitch at a time, but one tiny stitch of this democracy or what's supposed to be a democracy at a time is very, I mean, it's very eye opening and makes me think about all kinds of things, especially with the current state of things. So, thank you for sharing that.
What are some of your comfort reads that you return to again and again?
Tanya Davis (07:29):
Well, I love it's more video.
Charlotte Donlon (07:35):
What are some of your comfort watches?
Tanya Davis (07:38):
What's bringing me comfort right now is Toni Morrisons the pieces I Am. There's something very reflective about it. It calms me. It reminds me that I have a voice. It reminds me to stay focused on my own voice and don't listen to outside influences. And I'll just sit and watch it, especially when the anxiety of the things going on in the world come and people want to tell you what to say and maybe shouldn't say that. And I think these are the times when we need to know our voices, when our voices need to be heard, where you have to make a choice. What am I representing? And that whole documentary reminds me to do that with her soothing voice of keep going in her own way. That's what she's saying to me.
Charlotte Donlon (08:31):
I love that answer. And I love that documentary too. And now we do some belonging through art work together, Tanya and I do. And now I'm like, okay, so whenever I watch this documentary, I can know that Tanya's probably watched it recently or might be watching it right now. And, it's one way that we can be connected through the difficulties we're experiencing right now, and the joys.
Tanya Davis (08:57):
Yes, yes, yes. Because there is a joy in knowing that she kept going. We would not have the works that we do. We would not be represented if it wasn't for her saying, “I'm not going to listen to anyone else.”
Charlotte Donlon (09:12):
So, how has that decision to be secure in your own voice grown over the years with your writing life?
Tanya Davis (09:30):
Well, it's grown because I think when I decided that that's what I wanted, you have to be proactive. I started surrounding myself, my community, belonging through art. I started surrounding myself with people who encouraged that, with people who said, “Hey, you're not crazy and you're not alone.” And I use those times to strengthen me, and like I said, to keep going. I think it's very important that you form a community where they can say, “Hey, wrong way or right way.” And that is from a place of authenticity, that they're telling you that, they really love you and care about you.
Charlotte Donlon (10:13):
Okay. So do you think some people are listening to the wrong voices? And you're choosing to surround yourself with the voices you want to listen to that you need to listen to that serve your goals and purposes?
Tanya Davis (10:27):
Absolutely. I mean, for example, when I wrote the book, I didn't know what to do, which is how you and I met. And because I just kept hearing, “you don't need to do the book that way. You don't need to do the book that way.” And “that's not right.” And I just thought, but something is not. I mean, my insides were literally, and my stomach was a knot. It's like, I can't do this any other way. And I met you because I was on Instagram and saw that you were doing writing coaching sessions. And I said, “maybe I'll give it a try.” And I contacted you, and of all the voices, your voice. First of all, is it okay to say this? You could take it out if you don't want me to say this. I grew up in the south, and so there's certain southern sounding voices.
I'm like, I can't. No, no, no, no. And then Charlotte goes, “hi.” And I go, oh, okay, Southern, what do I do now? And with that southern voice, you said, I know what's wrong. You need for black women to read your no. You said, have you ever had a black woman read your work? And I said, no. I mean, I'm in Wheaton 4%. I've never done that. You said you need to have black women look at your work. And then you showed me a way to get that done, and I did it. And the black women that were in the group encouraged me. They said, there are voices like this. Read this book, read that book. To have that opportunity to have Crystal Wilkinson say, “Hey, there are books like this, and this is where you find those.” To have Dawn Turner read and go, “Hey, you just need to tweak here, edit there.” To have her do that, it freed me in a way that I had to keep going and it's what I needed. And so that's why having voices that are a part of your community is very important. And being open to hear other people's voices that you wouldn't expect. You have to at least give the opportunity to do that.
Charlotte Donlon (12:33):
Yeah, yeah. Thanks for clarifying that. And thanks for sharing a bit about how we first met and got to know each other. And I'm so glad that you were able to get the feedback and reassurance that you needed with this book. And since we're talking about the book, let's talk more about it. For listeners who aren't familiar with Threads, what are three things you want them to know about this book?
Tanya Davis (13:06):
What are three things I want them to know about this book? I want them to know that we are all connected in some way, that we have more in common than not. Even though our stories may look different, we have more in common than not. And I want them to know about Asheville and the Black communities of Asheville that's around Asheville. When they go to Asheville, I hope that they'll do a little bit more exploring in other areas other than downtown Asheville. So those are the three things I would want them to know.
Charlotte Donlon (13:46):
When you were writing Threads, what did you discover about yourself while writing the book that you hadn't noticed before?
Tanya Davis (14:01):
I noticed that the pieces were already there. The pieces I am, I was more connected than I thought, that I could merge the good and the bad, and it makes me who I am. It makes me a whole person. I realize that sometimes we get so caught up in the memories of the bad that a fog can go over our head. So it opened me up to walk in the fullness of who I am, and that's what I discovered about myself when I wrote the book.
Charlotte Donlon (14:35):
So you mentioned when you were younger, reading helped you see beyond the mountains that surrounded you in Shiloh, which is a community in Asheville, North Carolina. Can you share a little bit about when you left and why you came back and what made you start putting these pieces of your story together for this book?
Tanya Davis (14:58):
Yeah, so I would say I was a knucklehead teenager who didn't have the tools to process anything around me, whether it was my dad not being there all the time, or my mom having to work to take care of us and being a latchkey kid, just all these little pieces. It was more for me—we were all in survival mode. So for me, it was more like, “I got to get out of here. I have got to get out of here.” And I went off to college and met a wonderful man. We got married, moved to Wheaton, Illinois, and then when people would say, “Well, where are you from?” And I would say, “Asheville, North Carolina.” And they'd go, “oh my goodness, is so beautiful there.” It's so beautiful. I'm like, really? I mean, this is me in this little Black community. We are surrounded by mountains.
So I would wake up in the morning, walk by my door, and there would just be big green mountains. I don't think I ever really paid them any attention because you're trying to survive. You're trying to go to school. You're just all the things that go along with that. And I wouldn't say I took it for granted. It was just so much going on, and then there was so much going on that we did not have access to. So, all these big beautiful mountains that you're saying you're going there for pleasure and you get a chance to go outside of the areas that I might have lived in that I didn't have access to. Or we were told, “You can't go there because of the color of your skin.” So the curiosity of it, the curiosity of it was hearing that, “oh, it's so beautiful.”
And I said, okay. And then I was looking to get my master's degree, and I Googled counseling and writing because I didn't want to be a traditional counselor. And up pop narrative medicine. And I said, what is that? And so after doing my research, after saying I would never go back to Asheville, it was in three places, Columbia, New York, the UK, and Asheville. And I was shocked. And Asheville, Lenore-Rhine was the only one that had the online component. And so I called the professor, and she told me that this would be the first class to do the WebEx, which was all they had at the time, and we would be inside the classroom with the students who were there. And I started to laugh and she said, “Why are you laughing?” I said, “I promised myself I would never go back to Asheville.” And it's not that I hadn't been there.
It's like my heart wasn't there. And she said, “Tanya, come home, your community.” She's like, “your community is here.” And it was a community I didn't know was there. And so that's how I ended up going back. And of course, in narrative, in order to help someone process their own story, you got to process your own. So I spent so much time processing Shiloh, learning about the history of Asheville from others that I didn't know because we were never taught that. So that is how I ended up going back, and now my heart is there, it's there.
Charlotte Donlon (18:05):
And then the book came. So it was after and through your narrative writing degree that you, or the narrative medicine degree that you began writing this book, right?
Tanya Davis (18:17):
Yes, yes. That's where after it was over, and I just had all these stories and people were intrigued by the stories and they said, you really ought to write these down. So I wrote those, but I wanted to go beyond that and say, okay, this is what happened, and this is what formed me. So there's a section in here, Shiloh and Beyond Shiloh, that you'll understand some of my views on certain things.
Charlotte Donlon (18:40):
Yes. Great. I would love for you to read a couple of paragraphs from the book that represent, at least in part, the mind, body and soul space that you're inhabiting right now.
Tanya Davis (18:54):
So what I would like to read is it's really towards the back of the book and it's called Banned because I feel that people's voices and stories are being banned.
It says: “Mama took me to the Asheville Public Library. She opened the books to read to us, and the words on the pages were magical. They put me in a trance. I was spelledbound by books and the word tell the magical power, because I could be anything I wanted to be, go places I had never been and realize the impossible was possible. The autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman, when Ms. Jane took that sip from a whites-only water fountain with her puckered wrinkled lips, I understood the power of courage. Courage does not have an age. When I read about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, I learned about the perseverance of women and that we all have a gift that is for the benefit of many.
(19:53):
I read about Mary McLeod Bethune, and I knew it could go to college. Maya Angelou and Alice Walker got me through high school. I could be it because I could see it, and I dreamed beyond the boundaries and knew there was more than what was in front of me. Therefore, I wept when I discovered their list of banned Black books. Why would anyone want to ban words that heal, connect, and educate us about each other and our experiences—personally and collectively? Books can increase our empathy for one another. We all need to be seen in the pages of a book, men, women, Black, white, queer, indigenous, Asian, Hispanic.
And then I wrote a poem, “Banned:” officially exclude someone from a place you do not belong. We do not want to hear your voice, your story, your thoughts do not matter, are not relevant. I do not want to hear. I do not want to bear witness to your pain, to your history. I do not want to understand you or learn about you. You do not matter. Muted invisible, banned.
Charlotte Donlon (21:08):
Thank you for reading that. How are you navigating what's happening right now in the world from this place with your personal history and experiences? What do you think is most important for you right now in navigating this current moment?
Tanya Davis (21:35):
Self care. I do yoga. I breathe. Most importantly, I write, even though I do the writing workshops, and it gives people an opportunity to share, it fills my heart with so much joy and happiness. And it fills you with hope to just see other people share their story and to know that it's helping them. That really helps me feel better. And in reading and watching Pieces I Am.
Charlotte Donlon (22:04):
Yeah, I think it makes sense that as we see these books being banned and people trying to silence others' voices and erase their stories, the response for more stories and more writing and more reading feels like a really great way to combat that.
Tanya Davis (22:23):
Yes.
Charlotte Donlon (22:24):
So thank you. I'm going to ask you to read more from your book, but first I want to ask how writing this book affected your parenting and grandparenting and/or your hopes for your children and grandchildren?
Tanya Davis (22:40):
Well, what I realized, I think that it's important that we all in some way, whether it be privately or in writing and sharing, that we process what's in our bodies. And I realized that I had not fully done that. And I realized it even more, even when I processed privately and I felt whole, I should have been doing that work with my kids. After I wrote the book and they actually read the book, the responses that I got from them, they have really been feeling for me, “mom, you have given me,” the text of “Mom, it made me love you and grandpa and grandma even more. I feel inspired. It feels so good to know more of my history. There are things I didn't know about you.” And I thought they knew because it's just, I mean, it's all a part of me. I just thought they knew. And they've actually started a book club, and the book they're reading is mine. And so every other Sunday, I join them on a Zoom link and they ask me questions about the book. So they assign each other page numbers, page numbers on the group text. Today, this Sunday, the author, Tanya Davis will be discussing pages... So that's what they do. And then they ask me questions and they talk about what they like and what they didn't know and those kind of things. And ask me what I'm thinking.
Charlotte Donlon (24:17):
That's amazing.
Tanya Davis (24:19):
So fun.
Charlotte Donlon (24:20):
I love that you have enough kids that they can have a book club and you can Zoom in. That’s wonderful.
Tanya Davis (24:28):
And the fun part is it's my daughter-in-laws as well who are on the call, and they actually read it before my kids, I think. And they said, oh, wow. And so then it's like, oh, we need to really start reading this book. So when they read it, they were like, yeah, we need to do a book club. So it's been great.
Charlotte Donlon (24:47):
That's awesome. Are you taking notes after those calls with them? Or can you start taking notes?
Tanya Davis (24:53):
I think that I should start, yeah, you're right.
Charlotte Donlon (24:56):
It feels like something that you might want to write about later, write later. Or something I want to read about later, maybe
Tanya Davis (25:04):
To be more specific. I think I'm more in shocked that they're doing this. It's like, whoa.
Charlotte Donlon (25:08):
That's awesome.
So I'd love to hear another couple of paragraphs from the book that you wrote because you needed to read these words.
Tanya Davis (25:17):
Yes. Well, some of those were kind of long, but I'll read the short one, and I think I needed to read it because I didn't really understand it until I did the research. It's called The Ancestors.
Old Shiloh was a part of the Biltmore East States. This is the story. George Vanderbilt needed the land where the old Shiloh ancestors live to build the Vanderbilt Estates. He went to the Old Shiloh community and said, “I would like to offer you money to move your houses.” The people refused the second offer: “If I gave you money and move your homes, would you give me the land?” The people refused. The third offer, “If I gave you money, moved your homes and relocated your church, would you give me the land?” They refused. “What if I gave you money, moved your homes, moved your church, and moved your ancestors, taking a dirt nap beneath the soul of the earth, would you give me the land?”
“If our ancestors can go with us, we will move.” The homes, compensation, the church, the ancestors, taking a dirt nap beneath the soul of the earth is how Old Shiloh became the New Shiloh. New Shiloh would be my home. The church that was moved for us for vacation Bible school during our summer months, Shiloh AME Zion Church, where the seed of God's love was planted in my heart, where I watched the pastor's wife do sign language to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” for our deaf playmate, Bernard, and where the ancestors who were moved to their new resting place buried beneath the soul of the earth, lay at peace beside the church.
Charlotte Donlon (27:09):
So when you were writing the book, you did that research for the first time and discovered the story?
Tanya Davis (27:18):
Actually, I discovered it when— I've gone to Biltmore House many times now. Actually, I hadn't been until I got married, and Shiloh is not that far from there. And a friend of mine said, Hey, we're going to do the behind the scenes tour. And I was like, I didn't even know there was a thing. I think it's called the Legacy Tour. And he took us by the old Shiloh, and that's when I realized, oh wow. I didn't realize until at that point and he told the story. And that's when I knew I needed to add this to the book. I think it's very important. There's so much there.
Charlotte Donlon (27:55):
Yeah. What kind of responses have you gotten from people who have read the book from the area?
Tanya Davis (28:05):
That is a core memory. They actually did a book signing for me and the elders, the elders are so proud. And they kissed me on the cheeks and grabbed me by the hands and said, “thank you.” And they're just so proud, and they feel seen. And that's what is so important to me that they feel seen. I wanted the community to feel seen, and I didn't expect the response like that. I don't know. I don't know why. It's just I wasn't writing for a response, but I'm happy for the response, if that makes sense.
Charlotte Donlon (28:44):
Yes. And this episode will be coming out on April 29th, which means if you're listening and you're in the Asheville area, you can go to the Asheville Public Library. Is it the downtown location, Tanya, for your May event?
Tanya Davis (29:00):
Yes, May 6th. Yes.
Charlotte Donlon (29:03):
I'll put details about the event on May 6th. Which I'm going to be there, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Oh, great. Great. And now that I know you reminded me about the story of your mom taking you to the library and you checking out these books, and now you're presenting at the library in Asheville. How does that feel to come full circle in this reading and writing life to where now you're at a local library sharing about your stories of this place that formed you?
Tanya Davis (29:36):
So this is going to sound strange, Charlotte, but I had not thought about that. And when I went home to do some marketing for the book, and Todd Greg from Branding system said, "Wwe're going to go to the library and do the filming.” And I thought, okay, we're going to go to the library. And he took me down to the special section and they gave him permission to set up. You can see the videos on thetanyadavis.com, and he took me down to the section and he started talking to me about, so tell me about your mom in the library, and all the tears. There was a whole level. He actually left some of those tears in the videos in the video. It was a release. It was truly a full circle moment to go to the library. And I don't know, I'm still processing that, what that really meant to be there. I asked her, “I said, what made you take us to the library?” She said, I knew that you were going to learn about different things. That was all she said. “I knew you're going to learn about different things.” Yeah, I think something can be so much a part of you that it's just who you are and it's not a big deep response. It's just always been a part of who I am going to the books or going to the library.
Charlotte Donlon (30:53):
And I love that you hadn't thought about it much until you were there, this embodied sort of experience of being there and how the connection was made. And what a gift your friends gave you that day. They knew something was going to happen, but you didn’t know yet.
Tanya Davis (31:13):
No, and I was like, oh, that was so bad. But you know what also happened? This is something that caught me off guard. I write about my mom in the book. It was at that moment being in the library that I realized she's really the main character in the book. And I didn't realize that until I was in the library.
Charlotte Donlon (31:34):
I have chills. It's true.
So, Tanya, I'd love for you to read a little bit from the book that features your mom. Will you share some from the chapter about your typical Saturday morning and your childhood home?
Tanya Davis (31:48):
So the name of this chapter is The Rhythm of My Shiloh Saturday Morning.
I may not have inherited the hips of my mama, but I did get her ability to have a song in my heart, no matter the circumstances. Believe me, she had wonderful days and bad days. Even at 84 years old, when a song comes on, she will move her shoulders and pop her fingers to the rhythm. That is why I believe to this day that I should always have a theme song. On beautiful summer days. My theme song for the day must be any song from Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. My stride moves to before I let go, I jump out of bed and my feet hit the floor while I turn on Spotify and dance over to the blinds, raising them up to let the sun join my song. When I feel pain or sorrow, I wake up and hear God is not abusive.
I take time to worship and bathe in the presence of God. When I think about my husband, choosy lover by the Isley Brothers fills my heart with love. I will start dancing with him and he will look at me perplexed because I can only hear it in my head. I will start singing and then understanding and joy appears in his face and he will sing and dance with me.
I remember that soundtrack as a seven-year-old girl in Shiloh. Our Saturday mornings always had a rhythm. Saturday mornings were full of chores, songs, dancing, library visits, and once a year, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus. Going downtown to Woolworth or going to Haynes grocery store to get our hair shampooed and styled by Aunt Estelle still would sometimes alter our routine. But overall, the first part of the morning was always the same. There was one consistent person in that routine, and her name was Mama.
My mama, I call her Genetic Sway because she had a natural sway and stride in every step she would take. The stride sway with the portrait of a Maya Angelou poem. It's not the stride in my hips. They seem to say as she sashay around town and unintentional sway, clothed and humility sway the sway was more than confidence. It was a genetic sway. Her shoulder length hair was the color of a red fox. She wore it straight with bangs in the front, her hair frame, her oval shaped light brown skin. Her eyes were blueish yellow that looked like sunshine behind deep blue clouds. Her bosom set up at attention without effort, and her hips were in proportion. She was perfect.
Charlotte Donlon (34:23):
Wonderful. Thank you for reading and introducing us to your mom, Genetic Sway. And thank you so much for this conversation and for talking to me about your reading and writing life and this new book Threads. Is there anything you want to share before we close?
Tanya Davis (34:46):
I just would like to close with, take the time to listen, be an active listener in someone's life and someone's story. Even if you don't—sometimes we feel like, well, I don't agree, so I don't have to listen to that. But it's okay to read something and say, I don't agree with that, but maybe it's good for someone else. And that's it. Just take the time to listen.
Charlotte Donlon (35:11):
Wonderful. Thank you, Tanya.
Tanya Davis (35:13):
Thank you.