A PHOTO JOURNAL BY JAISSON RESTREPO ABOUT THE BOOK ‘’THE COLOR OF WATER’’ BY JAMES MCBRIDE

MAMEH Hudis Shilsky was her name. She was born in 1896 in the town of Dobryzn, Poland. Ruth’s mother. Mother of three kids. Marriaged with Fishel Shilsky. She was a quiet, gentle and meek person. She always obeyed his husband, from who sometimes she got verbal abuse. She was dark hair, high cheekbones, but she had polio. It paralyzed her left side. She was nearly blind in her left eye and walked with a severe limp, dragging her left foot behind her. She said taught Ruth that it’s ok kill the chicken to eat them, because they don’t fly, only the birds who fly are special.

TATEH Fishel Shilsky was Ruth’s father. He was a orthodox rabbi. Ruth and her sibling call him ‘Tateh’, it means ‘father’ in Yiddish. Marriaged with Hudis, with who had three kids. He was short, dark, hairy, and gruff. ‘He was hard as a rock’ Ruth said. He was a business man, he only care about the money, his money. His favorite child was the younger Dee Dee. He hate folks, and black people, specially the black men. He laughed and joked all the time about her disabled wife. After divorced Hudis he went to live with a fat and big woman, with who he had a fear long time before separated from Hudis

Ruth was born on April 1, 1921 in Poland. Jewish name: Ruchel Dwajra Zylska. Her parents changed her name to Rachel Deborah Shilsky when they came to United States of America. Mother of twelve kids. She was born in a Jewish family but then she became in a Christian. ‘’Education and church’’ were the most important things for her, specially to raise her children. She got married twice: with Andrew Dennis McBride (1942) and then with Hunter Jordan. (1958) RUTH MCBRIDE JORDAN

As a little girl Ruth was shy in the school, she only had one friend, Frances, the others kids were rude with her because she was Jewish. She always helped her father in the store, the family business that they had back in Suffolk, Virginia. Her father abused of her when Ruth was little, she was afraid from him all the time. She was not happy with her family, she missed a lot of love and affection. She had two sibling: Sam, the older, and Dee Dee, the younger of the family. Ruth was the middle one. She always liked and admired the black people, because even if they were poor, they were happy all the time and they were loving each other. In 1941 she left Virginia when she was nineteen and decided moved on to NYC. In 1986 she graduated from Temple University, in social work when she was 65 years old.

On Januay she died at her home in Ewing, N.J., at the age of 88.

Grandmother, Ruth McBride Jordan and Granddaughter, Z Amber Richter Atlanta, Georgia

Ruth McBride Jordan with some of her children (nine/ten of them, she’s probably pregnant)

James McBride, Oberlin College; M.S.J., Journalism, Columbia University; writer, composer, saxophonist. He was born September 11, 1957 in NYC. The kid number eight of twelve sibling. The last son of Andrew Dennis McBride. JAMES MCBRIDE

James McBride with his daughter Azure McBride.

James McBride and his Mother Ruth McBride Jordan

‘’A couple of weeks later the bus dropped me off and Mommy was not there. (…) I ran into their arms and collapsed in tears as they gathered around me, laughing.’’

MENORAHHANUKKAH

‘’When they were out of sight, I turned to the Black Panther’s son sitting behind me and pinched him square in the face with my fist’’.

‘’God, I was scared of him. (…) Anytime he had a chance, he’d try to get closer to me or crawl into bed with me and molest me’’

‘’ A deep sigh. ‘Oh boy… God’s not black. He’s not white. He’s a spirit’. (…) ‘It doesn’t have a color’, she said. ‘God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.’ ‘’

‘’So I did. I wrote Sam and told him to come home, but he never did come home and I never did see him again. He joined the army and got killed in World Warr II, (…)

‘’ When I was in fourth grade, a girl came up to me in the schoolyard during recess and said, ‘You have the prettiest hair. Let’s be friends’ I said, ‘Okay’ ‘’

‘’ ‘ Smell it,’ Ma said. ‘It’s spoiled.’ ‘I don’t smell milk. I sell milk’ (…) Ma stiffened. Still holding the milk in her right hand, she turned around and flung it at him like a football.

‘’Mameh came up to me in the store a couple of days later while I was standing behind the counter and placed the bracelet on the counter. Real quiet.’’

‘’He’d had a stroke. I was fourteen and didn’t know what a stroke was. I thought it was something you got from the sun.’

‘’ The oranges were in case she went into a diabetic shock. I was instructed to give her a piece of orange if this happened. Would worry about this constantly, and I’d often sneak into her room when she was taking naps and watch her breath. If I saw her shake, I’d wake her ‘Bubeh! Bubeh!’ ‘’

Chicken Man by Roy Ferdinand, Jr. (Self-taught artist) ‘’Everybody in this corner is smart. (…) You think if you drop out of school somebody’s gonna beg you to go back? Hell no!’’ Chicken Man was a small man with deep, rich, almost copper-toned skin, a wrinkled face and laughing eyes. He smelled of liquor and beer all the time, he always had a pocket full of candy. Chicken Man was one of the most important person in James’ life, because he taught to James, that no matter what, we all have great skills but use them for good or not in our life is our own responsability. CHICKEN MAN

‘’ I turned away, but not before Frances saw my tears. She got out line herself but I waved her away. ‘Frances, you go on in,’ I said. ‘Don’t miss the ceremony because of me.’ She went in.

‘’The manager, Rocky, (…) hired me immediately. He put the manicuring table in the front window and he plopped me right there an I worked in the window.’’

‘’ ’If you stay here, you’ll fool around’, She’d say. ‘Go away and learn to live on your own.’ ‘’

‘’ ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said. ‘I know you’re going back. Please don’t go back. Promise me you’ll stay’. ‘’

‘But she’d say, ‘That chicken is just a showing God we’re thankful for living. It’s just a chicken. It’s not a bird who flies. A bird who flies is special. You would never trap a bird who flies.’ ‘’

‘’Sometimes in the hospital I would go into the hallway and cry so Dennis wouldn’t see me.’

ANDREW DENNIS MCBRIDE

ROSETTA MCBRIDE

DAVID MCBRIDE

THANK YOU!!!