I once made a great discovery
I could wander the streets of Cape Town
while I was sitting at home in my living
room here in DC thanks to Google Maps
Street View in 2011 I had just come back
from my Fulbright year in South Africa I
had led a creative writing Club for
teenage girls there in Cape Town and I
was writing a book about them now about
our time together and their lives
growing up as the first post-apartheid
generation South Africans called them
the born freeze my head was in that
foggy space of reentry after you’ve come
home from an amazing journey and you’re
back in your everyday life and you
wonder did that really happen I knew
that it had because I had a laptop
filled with photographs and a suitcase
full of notebooks where I tried to take
down every detail I could every view I
could see but inevitably there’s always
views that you miss one of the things
that excited me about Google Maps Street
View was I could recreate my days in
Cape Town
I looked up Pinelands the suburb where I
lived and I went along its leafy quiet
back streets where I learned to drive
stick shift on the left-hand side of the
road I went up in Tyrande basha Belmont
toward the University of Cape Town which
is situated up against Table Mountain in
this incredibly beautiful view and all
these places were really well marked on
the map as you can see here highlighted
all the blue those are the streets that
are photographed but the place I wanted
to see most was a place called Google a2
that’s where the writing Club took place
and where the girls lived goups as
locals call it it’s a Township outside
Cape Town it’s a place where during
apartheid black South Africans were
forcibly removed and forced to live
there as it was back then it’s a place
of poverty but it’s also a place of
great pride and for the people who live
there in fact the name itself Google a2
means our pride in Plaza that’s the only
click I can do in Plaza and when I was
looking up Google a to one of the things
I had in mind most of all was one of the
writers her name’s Anna suena she was
actually one of the first girls that I
met when I got to Cape Town she asked me
what I was there to do what I had come
to her country for and so I told her I
said I’m leading this writing Club and I
hope you’ll join us and she stood up
real tall as tall as she could which was
maybe 5 feet and she said I’ll be there
I’m a poet I thought wow you can just
announce this without any hesitation or
doubt and she was 18 I was 40 and I was
having trouble calling myself a writer I
got to know Anna suena really well
during our time together in the writing
Club but in many ways outside of it too
I went with her to the aids clinic to
pick up her antiretroviral medications
we shared a lot of chicken sandwich
wraps and fries at KFC and gooks from
our first meal we shared together she
she used to tease me like a younger
sister would and then I would drive her
home afterwards to the shack where she
lived with her aunt and cousins because
Anna so Anna’s mom had died when she was
10 so when I was looking on Google Maps
what I wanted to do in particular was
recreate Google a2 to look up the places
there and especially anise huayna Street
because I couldn’t remember if you could
see table mountain from her streets and
so when I went
Google a2 I found blank space and I
looked at it I thought that you’d be
right the only Street that was
photographed is the main drag that runs
down through it and y1 and Y stands for
native yards it was named this during
apartheid as the place where black South
Africans were forced to live it’s only
recently been renamed Steve Biko Drive
in honor of the South African
anti-apartheid activist who was killed
by police looking around at this – you
can see there’s other townships nearby
there’s mianga and crossroads and
kyliyah and all those places were left
unhighlight it as well and looking at
this I thought if if you don’t know Cape
Town and you come across this you’d
think that there was nothing or no one
there but there was I knew that I had
been to this place I bend in these
townships and I knew that they overflow
with life and energy and sound and music
when I think of Google a – I can hear
the children in their school uniforms
running down the street calling out to
their friends I know on a warm day
Google a – always smells like grilled
meat because everyone’s out having a Bry
which is a beloved South African
barbecue I can almost feel the sand and
the dust that swirls up in those fierce
Cape Town winds and sticks to everything
including you but you wouldn’t know all
of that from these places here and so I
began to wonder when we’re faced with
blank spaces how often do we ask what
we’re missing
what views haven’t been shown what
voices go unheard how often does our
curiosity fail us I went into Google a –
because I wanted to form this creative
writing Club I wanted to help girls find
their voices claim their voices and
claim themselves as writers long before
I could do that
some of the girls like Anna suena had
no problem speaking out from the very
beginning other girls like I think of
one named Tom bee she hated the sound of
her own voice hated to talk but as we
got to know one another as we exchanged
our stories these girls to a girl found
out that she had a lot to say and all I
had to do was go in and give them the
writing prompts and say just tell me
what you think curiosity that’s all it
took so when I came time to write my own
book I couldn’t rely on Google a2
instead I went back to my photographs
that I had taken of gooks and remembered
the places and the people that I got to
meet there when we miss out on the blank
spaces we don’t know what we’re missing
and we don’t know what else is out there
and the things that we might find can
surprise us a lots been said this year
about the bubbles that we all live in
here in this country political
Geographic economic racial curiosity can
pop those bubbles but first we have to
hone our curiosity we have to reach in
and ask the stories and find out where
the blank spaces are and what’s missing
the Nigerian writer Ben o Kree said
stories can conquer fear you know they
can make the heart bigger anise wayna
overflowed with stories
this girl was a walking monologue but we
reached a point where I didn’t even have
to ask her questions she just talked she
had things to say and she had someone to
listen to her and that was all it took
she told me that her mother had been a
famous singer there in South Africa and
she was I googled her her name’s Anna
lean her name was Anna lean malabo she
was the lead singer of an all-girl band
called joy basically she was the Diana
Ross of South Africa joy was a was the
first
black pop band to have a number one hit
in on the all-white charts in 1980 later
on ana lien malabo became the first
South African celebrity to publicly
announce that she was HIV positive in
2002 when she died
Nelson Mandela released a statement
comforting her children and calling for
anti retrovirals to be made available
and affordable so that fewer children
were orphaned ana lien had wanted to
keep the money that she had saved for
her children in the event of her death
she didn’t want to spend it on the
expensive medications so by the time she
started on them it was too late I
learned some of the ways that her death
affected ana suena her daughter after
her mom died she was moved around from
place to place
family family friends house to Shack
Township to Township I learned that this
instability contributed to her struggles
in school and now when I met her she was
18 and she was three years behind trying
to re-enter a grade 9
but I learned other things about her too
I learned that she will sing along to
any song that comes on the radio whether
she knows it or not I learned that she
loves avocados and her laugh which was
really more of a snicker always reminded
me of Ernie’s on Sesame Street I always
got the feeling when I listened to her
that it had been a long time since
anyone had shown curiosity about Ana
Suenos life when we don’t ask the
stories ask the questions to get at the
stories that are missing one of the most
important things we miss out on I think
are the places where our stories
intersect when I first met her Ana’s
suena told me early on that she herself
was infected with HIV when she was raped
by her uncle when she was 8
about a year after that conversation she
told me when the subject came up again
she said an aunt had told her that the
abuse was her own thought I remembered
this day it was one of my last days
living in South Africa before I was
coming back to DC and it was a perfect
December summer day and we were driving
along out the coast toward the Cape of
Good Hope and she told me this and this
comment from her aunt so outraged me
that I almost couldn’t see clearly to
drive the car and then I did something
that I didn’t expect I would do
I told Anna suena that my own uncle had
molested me when I was 8 I told her that
my parents told me it wasn’t my fault
but we never could talk about it so I
had spent years of my life thinking that
it was and I really didn’t want her to
think that about herself but Anna suena
didn’t she said sure I know I’m not to
blame and all I could do was laugh at
the sheer moxie of this girl stories do
conquer fear they do make the heart
bigger and I believe they make the world
smaller and closer Anna suena told me
her story and I told her mine and our
stories intersect with millions of
others because worldwide one in five
women reports she was sexually abused as
a child and many more never report it
statistically that has to include women
listening to this talk
this girl from Google a – she was a poet
long before I ever went to her community
to lead a riding club she taught me how
to tell my own story and how to be brave
enough to do it so Google Maps couldn’t
show me a picture from Anna suena Street
but on a visit back there in 2014 I took
a better one of my own I want to leave
you with the challenge seek out the
places on the maps that are left blank
look for those empty spaces and the
voices that aren’t heard from and ask
why you don’t even have to go halfway
around the world to do this you can do
it in your own country your community
your family your bubble you can do it in
your own life even with the stories that
you thought you could never tell because
I believe that the intersection of all
of our stories forms one curious
beautiful picture thank you
[Applause]
you
I could wander the streets of Cape Town
while I was sitting at home in my living
room here in DC thanks to Google Maps
Street View in 2011 I had just come back
from my Fulbright year in South Africa I
had led a creative writing Club for
teenage girls there in Cape Town and I
was writing a book about them now about
our time together and their lives
growing up as the first post-apartheid
generation South Africans called them
the born freeze my head was in that
foggy space of reentry after you’ve come
home from an amazing journey and you’re
back in your everyday life and you
wonder did that really happen I knew
that it had because I had a laptop
filled with photographs and a suitcase
full of notebooks where I tried to take
down every detail I could every view I
could see but inevitably there’s always
views that you miss one of the things
that excited me about Google Maps Street
View was I could recreate my days in
Cape Town
I looked up Pinelands the suburb where I
lived and I went along its leafy quiet
back streets where I learned to drive
stick shift on the left-hand side of the
road I went up in Tyrande basha Belmont
toward the University of Cape Town which
is situated up against Table Mountain in
this incredibly beautiful view and all
these places were really well marked on
the map as you can see here highlighted
all the blue those are the streets that
are photographed but the place I wanted
to see most was a place called Google a2
that’s where the writing Club took place
and where the girls lived goups as
locals call it it’s a Township outside
Cape Town it’s a place where during
apartheid black South Africans were
forcibly removed and forced to live
there as it was back then it’s a place
of poverty but it’s also a place of
great pride and for the people who live
there in fact the name itself Google a2
means our pride in Plaza that’s the only
click I can do in Plaza and when I was
looking up Google a to one of the things
I had in mind most of all was one of the
writers her name’s Anna suena she was
actually one of the first girls that I
met when I got to Cape Town she asked me
what I was there to do what I had come
to her country for and so I told her I
said I’m leading this writing Club and I
hope you’ll join us and she stood up
real tall as tall as she could which was
maybe 5 feet and she said I’ll be there
I’m a poet I thought wow you can just
announce this without any hesitation or
doubt and she was 18 I was 40 and I was
having trouble calling myself a writer I
got to know Anna suena really well
during our time together in the writing
Club but in many ways outside of it too
I went with her to the aids clinic to
pick up her antiretroviral medications
we shared a lot of chicken sandwich
wraps and fries at KFC and gooks from
our first meal we shared together she
she used to tease me like a younger
sister would and then I would drive her
home afterwards to the shack where she
lived with her aunt and cousins because
Anna so Anna’s mom had died when she was
10 so when I was looking on Google Maps
what I wanted to do in particular was
recreate Google a2 to look up the places
there and especially anise huayna Street
because I couldn’t remember if you could
see table mountain from her streets and
so when I went
Google a2 I found blank space and I
looked at it I thought that you’d be
right the only Street that was
photographed is the main drag that runs
down through it and y1 and Y stands for
native yards it was named this during
apartheid as the place where black South
Africans were forced to live it’s only
recently been renamed Steve Biko Drive
in honor of the South African
anti-apartheid activist who was killed
by police looking around at this – you
can see there’s other townships nearby
there’s mianga and crossroads and
kyliyah and all those places were left
unhighlight it as well and looking at
this I thought if if you don’t know Cape
Town and you come across this you’d
think that there was nothing or no one
there but there was I knew that I had
been to this place I bend in these
townships and I knew that they overflow
with life and energy and sound and music
when I think of Google a – I can hear
the children in their school uniforms
running down the street calling out to
their friends I know on a warm day
Google a – always smells like grilled
meat because everyone’s out having a Bry
which is a beloved South African
barbecue I can almost feel the sand and
the dust that swirls up in those fierce
Cape Town winds and sticks to everything
including you but you wouldn’t know all
of that from these places here and so I
began to wonder when we’re faced with
blank spaces how often do we ask what
we’re missing
what views haven’t been shown what
voices go unheard how often does our
curiosity fail us I went into Google a –
because I wanted to form this creative
writing Club I wanted to help girls find
their voices claim their voices and
claim themselves as writers long before
I could do that
some of the girls like Anna suena had
no problem speaking out from the very
beginning other girls like I think of
one named Tom bee she hated the sound of
her own voice hated to talk but as we
got to know one another as we exchanged
our stories these girls to a girl found
out that she had a lot to say and all I
had to do was go in and give them the
writing prompts and say just tell me
what you think curiosity that’s all it
took so when I came time to write my own
book I couldn’t rely on Google a2
instead I went back to my photographs
that I had taken of gooks and remembered
the places and the people that I got to
meet there when we miss out on the blank
spaces we don’t know what we’re missing
and we don’t know what else is out there
and the things that we might find can
surprise us a lots been said this year
about the bubbles that we all live in
here in this country political
Geographic economic racial curiosity can
pop those bubbles but first we have to
hone our curiosity we have to reach in
and ask the stories and find out where
the blank spaces are and what’s missing
the Nigerian writer Ben o Kree said
stories can conquer fear you know they
can make the heart bigger anise wayna
overflowed with stories
this girl was a walking monologue but we
reached a point where I didn’t even have
to ask her questions she just talked she
had things to say and she had someone to
listen to her and that was all it took
she told me that her mother had been a
famous singer there in South Africa and
she was I googled her her name’s Anna
lean her name was Anna lean malabo she
was the lead singer of an all-girl band
called joy basically she was the Diana
Ross of South Africa joy was a was the
first
black pop band to have a number one hit
in on the all-white charts in 1980 later
on ana lien malabo became the first
South African celebrity to publicly
announce that she was HIV positive in
2002 when she died
Nelson Mandela released a statement
comforting her children and calling for
anti retrovirals to be made available
and affordable so that fewer children
were orphaned ana lien had wanted to
keep the money that she had saved for
her children in the event of her death
she didn’t want to spend it on the
expensive medications so by the time she
started on them it was too late I
learned some of the ways that her death
affected ana suena her daughter after
her mom died she was moved around from
place to place
family family friends house to Shack
Township to Township I learned that this
instability contributed to her struggles
in school and now when I met her she was
18 and she was three years behind trying
to re-enter a grade 9
but I learned other things about her too
I learned that she will sing along to
any song that comes on the radio whether
she knows it or not I learned that she
loves avocados and her laugh which was
really more of a snicker always reminded
me of Ernie’s on Sesame Street I always
got the feeling when I listened to her
that it had been a long time since
anyone had shown curiosity about Ana
Suenos life when we don’t ask the
stories ask the questions to get at the
stories that are missing one of the most
important things we miss out on I think
are the places where our stories
intersect when I first met her Ana’s
suena told me early on that she herself
was infected with HIV when she was raped
by her uncle when she was 8
about a year after that conversation she
told me when the subject came up again
she said an aunt had told her that the
abuse was her own thought I remembered
this day it was one of my last days
living in South Africa before I was
coming back to DC and it was a perfect
December summer day and we were driving
along out the coast toward the Cape of
Good Hope and she told me this and this
comment from her aunt so outraged me
that I almost couldn’t see clearly to
drive the car and then I did something
that I didn’t expect I would do
I told Anna suena that my own uncle had
molested me when I was 8 I told her that
my parents told me it wasn’t my fault
but we never could talk about it so I
had spent years of my life thinking that
it was and I really didn’t want her to
think that about herself but Anna suena
didn’t she said sure I know I’m not to
blame and all I could do was laugh at
the sheer moxie of this girl stories do
conquer fear they do make the heart
bigger and I believe they make the world
smaller and closer Anna suena told me
her story and I told her mine and our
stories intersect with millions of
others because worldwide one in five
women reports she was sexually abused as
a child and many more never report it
statistically that has to include women
listening to this talk
this girl from Google a – she was a poet
long before I ever went to her community
to lead a riding club she taught me how
to tell my own story and how to be brave
enough to do it so Google Maps couldn’t
show me a picture from Anna suena Street
but on a visit back there in 2014 I took
a better one of my own I want to leave
you with the challenge seek out the
places on the maps that are left blank
look for those empty spaces and the
voices that aren’t heard from and ask
why you don’t even have to go halfway
around the world to do this you can do
it in your own country your community
your family your bubble you can do it in
your own life even with the stories that
you thought you could never tell because
I believe that the intersection of all
of our stories forms one curious
beautiful picture thank you
[Applause]
you
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