In an interview with theGrio, award-winning writer and author Jacqueline Woodson opens up about how artists and creators should show up today and any day after.
Today is both the day set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and the second presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. You can cut the tension with a knife.
There’s so much going on right now, from the inauguration to Nelly performing at the inauguration to the slashing of DEI at major corporations to Big Tech cozying up to Washington to the TikTok ban to the LA wildfires to the price of eggs — the list could go on.
However, as many agonize about the uncertain future or even how to begin to approach today’s dichotomy, writer, and MacArthur Genius Jacqueline Woodson is looking to the past.
“Nothing we’re living in is new,” said the 61-year-old celebrated author who has been chronicling the stories of our elders alongside nine other writers through The Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project.
Speaking to theGrio days before the inauguration, Woodson said, “It’s important to keep history in my back pocket so that I know about survival.”
“This is a time where we have to think deep about means of survival,” she continued. “Whether it’s emotional, mental survival, or physical survival, or economic survival, artistic survival. All the ways that we have to engage in the tools that we already have.”
Through The Elders Project, Woodson has documented nearly 300 different personal histories from people of color throughout the country and also nearly 300 different examples of survival.
“You have this idea that your elders are going to always be here,” Woodson, who lost her mother before she had a chance to get her history, noted. “Like, there’s some part of your brain that’s like, ‘You know what? I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I’ll ask you about that tomorrow.’”
To prevent losing any more crucial tales from generations who have lived through moments in history like The Great Migration, Woodson launched The Elders Project and has been gathering oral histories. One of Woodson’s lasting takeaways from her work has been how “None of [the day’s current events are] new.”
Like many people, Woodson has seen parallels between the late Octavia Butler’s writings and current events, particularly that of the Los Angeles wildfires at the beginning of 2025, which similarly occurs in her famous novel “Parable of the Sower.” While Woodson attributes some of this “forecasting” to Butler potentially being a “seer,” she said, “I also know that she had a sense of history that she was pulling from.”
According to Woodson, the past can be both instructive and comforting. For one, the writer said the past is full of hope.
“I think one thing that happens when you write and when you read is the fact that because you’re reading it, someone has lived to tell the story,” she noted. “And that, in and of itself, is hopeful to me.”
The past isn’t just full of terrifying patterns; it is also full of ways individuals or whole communities have found ways to survive and bring about progress. We just need someone to record it. That’s where Woodson says the present-day creator comes in. Whether you are a writer, journalist, visual artist, poet, thespian, musician, cook, or beyond, Woodson said, “We need them all.”
“We need their creative work,” she continued. “We need the person who sings well, the person who farms, the person who sews, the person who knows how to read maps.”
She added, “I think our role is to step up in doing what we [do].”
Woodson encourages people to look to their network for the people they already know who may have a specific skill set and come together to document and engage with the current times.
“We have such a rich tapestry of folks in both our inner circles and our world,” the author reminded.
As TikTok and social media face continued uncertainty, Woodson noted one more lesson from the past that may help us navigate the future: meeting up face-to-face.
“Sadly, you know, I have to say, we have to remember that social media is not going to be the answer for us,” she said despite noting younger generations do seem to have a way of “negotiating” social media better than others.
She added, “I do think it’s so important that we gather [in real life], and have conversations in real life.”
She implored people “to remember that this is how we’ve done it” for a reason.
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