Claudia Rankine Speaks About Her Writing Practice and Citizen at PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour Digital Reporter Courtney Vinopal interviews Claudia Rankine about the writing process behind her book, Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf, 2014). Citizen is NewsHour's July 2020 pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club.

What is something you’ve seen, watched or read that you think is overlooked or deserves more attention?

During the quarantine I finally was able to watch Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us.” A year had passed since its release and I’d been waiting for a moment when I had enough emotional bandwidth to hold the horror and sadness of the dramatization. The false imprisonment of five Black and Latinx youths for the gruesome rape of the white, female Central Park jogger, given the number of official people — from police, to prosecutor, to judge, to jury — who had to lie, ignore and create evidence, had years ago reframed the justice system as its own form of “wilding” in my mind. [The prosecutor] made her career on the injustice of that case and was never held accountable. The film stays with me as calls for defunding the police are being made across the country.

What is your favorite childhood book?

Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” It was my first feminist read.

What is the best piece of writer’s advice you’ve received?

Someone once told me that if I repeat something, something has to change. Some movement has to occur. I think someone didn’t believe in repetition as emphasis.

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