Leslea Newman shot to fame in 1990 when her children's book, Heather Has Two Mommies, was celebrated in some circles as the first book to show a reflection of same-sex parents and their chidren, and banned in others. In the ensuing years, she has written or edited more than 60 books, including The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, The Best Cat in the World, Nobody's Mother and Write from the Heart. Her most recent book, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard (Candlewick Press), is a moving and evocative response to Shepard's death, and has been 11 and a half years in the making.
In a strange coincidence, Newman was on her way to the University of Wyoming to give a keynote speech entitled "Heather Has Two Mommies: Homophobia, Censorship and Family Values" for Gay Awareness Week on the day that Matthew Shepard died. The talk was sponsored by the university's LGBT association and, as part of the planning committee, Shepard most likely would have attended. But they never met. Shepard was robbed, abducted, beaten, tied to a fence and abandoned, and he died the morning that Newman arrived. He was 21 years old. When she showed up at the lecture hall, she was met by a community in crisis and publically vowed to help keep his name alive.
Other artists and activists have worked to make sure that the world knows this story. Moises Kaufmann and Tectonic Theater Project travelled to Laramie, Wyo., shortly after Shepard's death to interview the people of the town and create a play based on their responses. The Laramie Project has had countless productions and in 2009, Tectonic produced The Laramie ProjectTen Years Later: An Epilogue, based on more interviews with the community to assess what had changed.
And now, Newman has written a historical novel in verse that takes as its premise actual events but moves beyond statements of record. Briilliantly, this slim volume of 68 poems includes a far-reaching universe. We read the imagined thoughts of his attackers, the bartender and the officer of the court, "Some days this courtroom feels so cold/it chills me to the bone."
But we also hear from the fence to which Shepard was tied, "some of them touch me/in unexpected ways/without asking permission/ and then move on/but I don't mind/being a shrine/is better than being/the scene of the crime." We hear from the truck that transported him, the stars that watched over him and even his shoes.
I was fascinated to learn that October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard was selected by the Children's Poet Laureate Monthly Pick. And then I questioned my own skepticism. Why shouldn't this be a book for adolescents or even preteens? Is it ever too early to learn about the consequences of violence and hate? And Newman includes both a helpful section chock full of footnotes for those who want to know more about the history of the event, as well as an explanation of various poetic forms she uses, including haiku, found, villanelle, concrete and acrostic.
October Mourning is a beautiful book and an important addition to the literature of witness. It is also a reminder of the magnificent capacity of art to distill and refract the precious moments of our lives and our history.
Joan Lipkin, the James F Hornback Ethical Humanist, is the Art and Education Council's Arts Innovator of the Year. Her most recent essay, "The Wedding Table Cloth" is published in Here Come the Brides.