Book of Famous Black People in Arts With Eartha Kitt on the Cover

.

.

photo by Debbie Hazan

Kitt Shapiro, photo by Debbie Hazan

Kitt Shapiro, author (with Patricia Weiss Levy) of Eartha & Kitt:  A Daughter's Love Story in Black & White (Pegasus Books)

.

___

.

…..Existence the daughter of an international celebrity is sure to accept its rewards and challenges, particularly when the mother – in this case Eartha Kitt – grew upwards motherless and in extreme poverty in the Due south, and who every bit an developed, broke hardened and racist societal barriers with her intense inner bulldoze, determination and strength of character.

…..In Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter's Beloved Story in Black & White, Eartha's daughter Kitt Shapiro writes that they "were a really good fit for each other.  I got it.  Got her, that is – who she was, and who and what she needed me to be.  Those were things that, instinctively, I always understood.  She needed me to care for her.  Needed me to exist in that location for her.  Needed me to give her the roots she never had."

…..For iii decades, "Eartha & Kitt" traveled the world together equally female parent and daughter. Even after Kitt got married and started a family of her own, she and Eartha were never far from each other'southward sides.  "We were a team.  Inseparable. From the start solar day of my life to the very last day of hers."

…..Eartha'southward legacy every bit an entertainer and human rights advocate is still felt today. Non only practise nosotros however mind to "Santa Infant" every Christmas, but many of today'due south most influential artists con­sistently mention Eartha, paying tribute to her groundbreaking stances on social problems such as racial equality and women'southward and LGBTQ rights. And she is still widely remembered for her defin­itive portrayal of Catwoman in the archetype Batman television serial, voicing the character Yzma in Disney's The Emperor'south New Groove, and her many other movie and Broadway roles.

…..In a November 9, 2021 interview with Jerry Jazz Musician Editor/Publisher Joe Maita, Ms. Shapiro talks well-nigh Eartha's legacy as a mother, the life and career challenges they both faced, and her book (co-authored past Patricia Weiss Levy), a bright and inspiring portrait of a Black pioneer and artistic force, and a moving account of a heartfelt mother/girl relationship.

.

.

___

.

.

photo courtesy of the author

Eartha Kitt

"My female parent may have been known as a consummate talent, coy sexual practice kitten, and mettlesome trailblazer who helped break downward racial barriers, but she began her long, illustrious life in a distinctly unlike fashion.  Equally she would exist the first to tell you, she was 'but a poor cotton picker from the South.'  And no matter how far she got in life — and considering that she was world-famous past the time she was 23, and was all the same headlining when she was 81, I'd say that she went pretty far – on some level she still always felt like 'but a poor cotton fiber picker from the South.'"

-Kitt Shapiro

.

.

Watch a 1962 tv set performance of Eartha Kitt singing "I Want To Be Evil."   (The album recording was first released in 1953 on RCA/Victor Presents Eartha Kitt)

.

JJM Your mother was often publicly referred to as a "sexual practice kitten," and remembered in her December 26, 2008 New York Times obituary as a "seducer of audiences," who, along with Lena Horne, was "among the starting time widely known African-American sex symbols."   Orson Welles famously proclaimed her to be "the most heady woman in the world."  How would you describe her as your mother?

KS She wasn't perfect, simply she was a down-to-earth person who wasn't a sex symbol and glamorous at dwelling.  She was a easily-in-the-clay, hands-on parent.

JJM  Yous write in the book about her existence shy, that she felt proper utilize of the language was important, and that she expected y'all to be polite…

KS  Yes.  As a parent she was a very strict disciplinarian, merely she was too incredibly loving.  She would ofttimes tell me how much she loved me, and she was very affectionate with me.  She was also very much a recluse in many ways – she wasn't effectually people all the time.  She didn't socialize in the show business world, and she liked her privacy and requested that people respect mine as well.  So, in many ways she was the complete contrary of what people saw on stage and screen.

JJM  I understand she had stage fright…

KS  Yes, that'due south right.  She was always afraid that she wasn't going to exist accepted considering she'd been rejected and given abroad as a child, and those emotional feelings and feelings of abandonment stayed with her for her entire life.   Before she would step on stage in that location was e'er a moment of fear and self-incertitude, wondering if people were really going to show upwardly, and if they did, she'd question whether they'd savor her functioning.  Information technology's interesting considering, even as accomplished as she was, she possessed a great deal of inner-questioning and fear.

JJM   What is your starting time retentivity of your mom?

KS  Information technology'south hard to know what my first bodily memory of her is because I was always around her from the mean solar day I was born.  She was very much a easily-on parent and then I was never out of her sight, and so while I tin't recall a specific retentiveness, I merely recall being in her presence and existence incredibly loved by her.

JJM  Your mom grew upwardly in South Carolina, and her babyhood was complex and heartbreaking.  It was especially deplorable that she didn't really know her own mother, and the circumstances for her having to requite Eartha up.  What was it like for you lot to hear your mother talk most her childhood?

KS  It was really hard because she carried these scars and emotional baggage around with her for her entire life.  My babyhood was the consummate reverse from hers – knowing and having the love of my mother – and then it is difficult for me to imagine that feeling of non knowing who she was or what her family unit origin "roots" were.  What I find interesting is that she always yearned to know the identity of her father in order to have an understanding of who she really was.  Not knowing anything about him had to exist very disorienting for her for much of her life.  Something she'd ofttimes say is that she would take the manure that'southward been thrown on her from her life challenges and use it every bit fertilizer, to plow adversity into strength.  While she was good at doing that, I'thou sure that didn't stop her from wondering where she came from.

JJM  She found her birth certificate belatedly in her life, but her father's proper noun was redacted from information technology…

KS  Yeah.  The two of united states of america were in the judge's chambers in Columbia, South Carolina when we were given access to her nativity document.   We establish information technology interesting that we weren't allowed to take a photograph of it or to brand a re-create of it, and also that the relevant information she was looking for – the identity of her father – was redacted.  Nosotros were bewildered how information technology could still be possible for the country of S Carolina to protect the identity of someone who had long been deceased, just that was just the way things were washed back and then.  Her male parent was near probable a white man, and probably from a prominent family.

JJM  So this redaction would have taken place at the fourth dimension of your mother's birth?

KS  The judge – an African-American woman – thinks that was the case because it was mutual practice at the time to protect the families of the white plantation owners from having any responsibility for their illegitimate children.

JJM So she assumes her nascency was the result of a rape?

KS  She never knew what the reality was. What I find and so interesting is that even after all those years, and after all those times my female parent and I have gone down to the South – whether together or on my own since her decease – nobody down there is certain who her father was.

JJM Since it's assumed her birth was the issue of an interracial rape, that created challenges for her within her own family unit…

KS  Aye, because she was illegitimate and likely the product of a rape, and because her skin colour was lighter than what was acceptable in that community – she was referred to as the "yella gal" – she was treated horribly by members of the customs, and probably also by family unit members.  1 thing she was never able to wrap her mind around is how a community of people could so mistreat a child just because they were the product of a circumstance they had no control over.  I remember that'south why throughout her life she strove to defend the underdog and people and communities who felt they didn't have a vocalisation, because as a child she didn't have a voice and no fashion to defend herself from being physically, sexually and emotionally abused.  She came away from that knowing the importance of treating homo beings with kindness and respect.

JJM  Your mother was raised by two different aunts, one in S Carolina and i in Harlem…

KS  While the adult female in the Southward was referred to as "Aunt Rosa," she was probably not a claret relative.  She was a adult female who my mother was given away to when the Black man her mother married said he wouldn't have that "yella gal" alive in his firm.  The situation my female parent lived in while with Aunt Rosa was abusive, and her aunt in Harlem – a blood relative – took her in subsequently receiving word from family in South Carolina that unless she was removed from that situation, someone was likely going to kill her.  Then, the aunt brought her to New York to live with her.

JJM  What were the circumstances of Eartha Kitt condign an entertainer?

KS  My female parent went to public school in New York, and i of her teachers encouraged her to speak up considering she was so shy well-nigh speaking out in public.  She'd give her books of poetry to read, and she as well gave her a ticket to see Cyrano de Bergerac at a theater in New York, and it was at that moment my mother realized that she wanted to be upwardly on a stage like that. She auditioned on a cartel for the Katherine Dunham Trip the light fantastic toe Troupe and earned a scholarship to the school, and afterwards joined the trip the light fantastic company, which was actually her outset in testify business organisation.

JJM  She traveled overseas fairly early in her career with the dance company, and performed in Paris…

KS  Yep.  The Dunham company traveled all over, including in South and Central America, and also to Europe.  It was during her time traveling with the troupe in Paris that she decided she wanted to try to become a solo artist, and on a solar day off from the ballet she went to the Café de Paris to perform in a kind of "open mic" or audition session. When Katherine Dunham found out virtually her ambitions, she warned her that if she did this, she would be fired from the company.  My mother felt that since she would be doing this on her day off and on her own fourth dimension it wouldn't exist taking anything away from what Dunham was doing.  Just Miss Dunham didn't accept that, and when my mother decided to pursue this human activity at the Café, she was fired.  She wound up staying in Paris even though she didn't actually have a programme about what she'd do there.  She always felt that when an opportunity presents itself yous should give it a endeavor, that doors opened for a reason.  Ultimately, her decision to pursue the opportunity at the Café de Paris started on her path to becoming a star.

.

A musical interlude…Listen to Eartha Kitt'due south 1953 recording of "C'est si bon" (with Henri René & His Orchestra)

.

JJM  Her star rose quickly.  Some of her most famous recordings were made shortly later on that, in the early on 1950's.

KS  Yes.  "Santa Baby" was recorded in 1953, and before that, in 1952, Leonard Feather had a review on Broadway called "New Faces" that he brought her into, which was her introduction to American audiences.  From there she went on to sign with Decca Records and then RCA, where she became a very successful recording artist and live performer.

JJM  These tape companies were perplexed virtually how to allocate her because she didn't fit into any of the categories they had created in order to market Black entertainers.

KS  She never understood the need to niche people into a specific category because of the color of their skin. If you were a Black vocalist, record companies felt yous had to be in gospel, blues, or jazz, and my mother wasn't actually any of those; she had her own unique audio, and at that place wasn't actually a category for an creative person as unique equally Eartha Kitt.  She sang in several dissimilar languages and had a unique audio quality to her voice, then record company executives were somewhat bewildered past her.  My female parent just wanted to create music and it didn't experience it should matter how she was categorized, but the companies felt they needed to in guild to effectively sell her records.

JJM   What were her own personal interests in music?  Do you lot remember any of the records in her drove?

KS  She was a big fan of opera.  She loved Maria Callas and Edith Piaf, and she enjoyed sounds that weren't necessarily the norm.  She also loved music from the era of the late 1940s, and we would sentinel the archetype musicals on tv set together.  She was a large fan of Judy Garland, Nat Rex Cole, Johnny Mathis, and Rosemary Clooney, as well as the large bands of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.  She loved the powerful sound of horns and of a large orchestra.  These were among the sounds I recall listening to.

JJM  A pretty eclectic introduction to music for you…

KS  Ane of the other things we'd often exercise was watch movies together, and my favorites growing upwardly were those starring Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn.  My mother would talk to me near them a lot because she felt they were not necessarily thought of as beingness Hollywood beauties – they weren't "pinup girls," instead they were potent women off the phase. I retrieve being fascinated past them being potent women, especially since I was existence raised by a strong woman.  These were the women that my female parent talked about, and it's interesting now as I expect dorsum and recall how my mother talked to me almost them, and how she talked about their real life stories, and non but the women they portrayed on screen.

JJM  Your mother took you with her wherever she performed, so you must have seen a countless number of her shows.   Do any stand out in your memory?

KS   I remember intensely watching my mother on stage, the way she would command her audition and the way that people were riveted to her.  She was able to concord their gaze, even if she were only standing in silence, and often her silence seemed more captivating than her sound.  She was afraid of going on stage, simply she wasn't afraid one time she was on it, and once she was on information technology she admittedly held the audience her hands.  Whether she was on stage at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas or the Palladium in London or Carnegie Hall, or even in smaller rooms, at five-foot-two inches tall, this tiny trivial woman held such enormous ability.  Her performances weren't filled with dancers, it was mostly just her continuing on stage with an orchestra, and I was always enthralled by her incredible power to just be upward at that place by herself.

JJM  She was mesmerizing, particularly to men of our parents' generation.  She was what men referred to at the time as "exotic," and she was also erotic and outspoken, which was unusual at the time, peculiarly for a Black female popular entertainer.  She was incredibly alluring still unapproachable, so there was something "illicit" well-nigh her that white men of the time plant thrilling and interesting and attractive…Does that make sense?

KS  Yes, information technology actually does make a lot of sense.  I retrieve when I was immature, children would be mesmerized by her.  There was something absolutely captivating virtually her.  I can't really grasp what information technology was because I recollect information technology was more than than only what you see, it was also what you felt.  She possessed an aura you could feel when she walked into a room, and people would just stare at her.  And although she would say she wasn't the most talented person, she had enormous talent.  She combined her exotic sensuality with the sound of her vocalism and it commanded people's attention.  So, aye, I totally understand what yous are saying because I saw information technology whether she walked into a room holding a bag of groceries, or if she were on stage in front of a big audience.  She was fascinating.

JJM  In retrospect, the fascination with Eartha Kitt was probably about ability.  She had incredible charisma, phase presence, sexual energy, and a powerful intellect in a mode few artists of her era – whether Black or white – had.

KS  I think that's right, yep.

JJM  In 1960, your mother married your father Neb McDonald, a white man of Irish gaelic and German descent.  What attracted them to each other?

KS  God if I know! [laughter]  In some respects information technology's probably considering my mother had been injure many times and she merely wanted to be with someone who was "normal,"  which is what many celebrities strive for.  So it could exist said that she was looking for a kind of grounding.  She was likewise getting a petty bit older and was ready to settle down and have children, and he seemed like the right person for that.  They took to each other immediately.  He had a very stiff mother who adored my female parent, and she loved that piece of their relationship.  I will say that equally my female parent got older she didn't talk very kindly about my father, merely she loved him and was in love with him, I merely think she hoped their spousal relationship, which but lasted for 5 years, would accept turned out differently.

JJM  Your dad was badly wounded in the Korean War and could have suffered from PTSD at a time when there was niggling agreement of it, or fifty-fifty sympathy for information technology.  In those days veterans were mostly expected to but suck information technology upwardly and deal with their war trauma.  He also suffered from a drug addiction.  These must have been difficult challenges for their marriage…

KS  My male parent did talk quite a bit most his experience in Korea.  He was just a kid – but xix years old when he served there – and there was an farthermost level of brutality during the war that he had to take function in.  So, yes, I recollect my father absolutely suffered from PTSD, and his drug addiction began with an opioid addiction from all the surgeries he had after he was wounded, and equally we know now, opioids tin be the beginning of a long downhill screw.

JJM  Did your mom confront resentment in the Black customs for marrying a white human being?

KS  Yes.  She faced resentment even prior to marrying a white man because she always wanted to identify equally a man being first, and not and then much as a Black woman.  She would ask why a person had to be categorized.  Why can't I just be a person?  So that in itself separated her from the Blackness community because it was felt she was "acting all white," and that she thought she was better than everybody else.  Some of that had to practise with my mother'southward speech, her diction – which was important to her.  She felt that you must speak conspicuously and eloquently, that you need to pronounce words properly, and that there is a proper way of speaking. It wasn't and so much that she was trying to get rid of an affectation or an accent as much as she was merely trying to speak correctly in her mind. That also sent a bulletin to some members of the Black community that she was trying to split up herself from being Blackness and that she was trying to act white, which was something that was often said.  That's certainly not a struggle unique to her.  Merely after traveling the earth, my female parent felt that the way yous speak and the style y'all present yourself is very important, and it inverse the way people treated y'all.  She couldn't alter the color of her skin or the circumstances she was built-in into, simply she could modify her beliefs in club to be treated more respectfully and as. That's something she always talked to me about, the importance of beingness polite and kind, of having good manners and to deport in a certain way that will control respect from others.

JJM  We're living during a time when interracial matrimony is accepted, and in many communities it's even commonplace. While you'd hear about the occasional interracial wedlock, and celebrities like Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte would make the news for dating white women, 60 years ago it was much more than noticeable and an incredibly controversial cultural phenomenon.  So I'm sure your mom must have paid a cost within the Blackness community when she married a white man…

KS  Aye, she did, and she struggled a lot with racist behavior as well, even after she became a famous person.  For example, she would talk to me about the difficulties she had in buying a home in Beverly Hills in 1957 due to the fact she was a Black person.  This wasn't unique to her, of course – Nat Rex Cole famously had a similar feel. So fifty-fifty though she had the money, it was challenging, and that'due south the irony, correct?

JJM  Do you lot recall witnessing episodes of racism that were directed at your mom?

KS  Past the time I was born my mother was already internationally famous, and people are more impressed with celebrity status and fame than they are worried well-nigh race.  You could be the most racist person in the world, but if someone like Beyonce or LeBron James walked in the room, you lot'd desire to talk to them and ask for their shorthand.  I witnessed that every bit Eartha Kitt'southward daughter.  That being said, she would talk about how frequently she'd open the door to her abode in Beverly Hills, and the people there to deliver a bundle or ask a question would think she was the maid.  I didn't personally witness seeing her treated badly or differently, but nosotros lived in the heart of a bubble in Los Angeles.  Beverly Hills, California is not exactly what the rest of the United States is like.  Information technology would have likely been different if we lived in Missouri.

.

A musical interlude…Heed to the 1959 recording of Eartha Kitt singing "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch" (Universal)

.

JJM  During a 1968 tiffin at the White Business firm, your mom told Lady Bird Johnson and the other women assembled; "You lot transport the all-time of this country off to be shot and maimed.  They don't want to go to school considering they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to exist shot in Vietnam."  This was one of the nigh direct and powerful anti-war statements of that menses.  You were but seven years sometime at the time, simply perhaps y'all remember about how your female parent characterized this event?

KS  I exercise remember because she talked near it privately as well every bit publicly. I recall her annotate had a lot to do with my male parent having returned from Korea in his land and her seeing what the ramifications of war are, and also of her visiting with typhoon resisters and the young people who were opposed to our interest in Vietnam.   She didn't believe that young men should be drafted and dragged into a war they didn't believe in, and she wasn't agape to express that to anyone.  She felt if you asked for her opinion that you lot wanted to hear how she felt.

She was surprised at the incredibly negative response she received from the comments she fabricated at the White Business firm considering she didn't feel she was disrespectful to Mrs. Johnson – she didn't yell or scream at her, nor did she run into her beingness brought to tears as the press had reported.  That being said, when my mother felt very strongly about something, she would speak in a very powerful tone. So I recall the fact that her words were taken in such a style, it was probably due to what she said and not how she said it.  She was taken aback by the mode things unfolded, with President Johnson taking information technology personally so attacking her personally.  She felt hurt and confused.  She too felt that freedom of speech communication is what separates the United States from many other countries in the world, and here she was in the White House where information technology should especially exist a place to say what you lot feel, simply discovered that wasn't necessarily the case.

JJM  President Johnson immediately engaged in a smear entrada to protect himself and his wife'southward accolade, and Eartha Kitt was an like shooting fish in a barrel target because she was strong, outspoken and Black – all components that helped enhance the cultural temperature against her.

KS  Correct.  She wasn't going to get a lot of people running to her defense given that she was a beautiful, middle-aged Black adult female.  All the planets aligned in Johnson's favor.

JJM  This was conspicuously a life-changing event, non just for her, but for you also, because as a result of Johnson'south smearing of your mother, she was "blacklisted" in Hollywood, and the 2 of yous had to travel overseas extensively considering that's where she could discover work.  You lot traveled all over the world…

KS  The positive piece of that is because my mother was already internationally known she could observe work beyond the United States.  She was a single female parent who had to support her family unit, and she had to do what she had to do, which was to work overseas, which she was able to do consistently.  While she was lucky in that regard, she would accept preferred to have worked in the Usa.  That incident unraveled her globe, and it stayed with her for the rest of her life.  That beingness said, she would not accept inverse what she said in the White House – she had no regrets considering she e'er felt that if y'all speak your truth from your heart, you lot can't brand a mistake.

JJM  The two of you were incredibly close, literally and figuratively.  Yous had a deep female parent/daughter connectedness, and you lot were dear friends too.    Did this create challenges for you every bit y'all got into your teenage years, trying to individuate and create your own life separate from her?

KS  Yep, we were very close, and we were a very practiced fit for each other.  She would often introduce us to others as "I'm Eartha and this is Kitt," as if I completed her somehow, and I retrieve in many ways I did.  I gave her roots, I give her a foundation, and I gave her a sense of family she had yearned for her entire life.  But it's not like shooting fish in a barrel carrying a parent'south name your entire life, and information technology'south non piece of cake growing upwards as a child of a celebrity.  My biggest event was probably that my mother loved me and then much that it was almost likewise much, and it certainly felt that way every bit a teenager.

She often said that you lot can't dear a child too much because we all yearn to exist loved – that is our nature equally human beings.  But as a immature adult, too much honey could experience overwhelming.  As I became older and tried to separate from her a chip – for example, I didn't desire to travel as much with her as she toured the globe, and I wanted to stay habitation and exist with my friends – my female parent took that very personally at times.  So, even though she could rationalize that equally an developed and empathise that's the way it'due south supposed to be, information technology was still hard for her, and it was subsequently hard for me as well.

Because my mother had such a hard childhood, she always carried that fearfulness of being rejected, of being left behind, then that was some other consequence of her complex by that I oft encountered.  She would become emotional at times when I told her I didn't want to exercise something or go somewhere with her, and it was specially difficult when I got married!  I don't think I ever lived more than xxx minutes away from her, just at times the way she acted you'd retrieve I lived on the other side of the world.  She struggled with my separating because I wanted and needed to be my own person, and as much as she encouraged that for me it wasn't easy for her.  But nosotros were very lucky because we adult such a bond while I was growing up, and she showed me such unconditional dearest early on that we were never not going to love one some other.  We were incredibly close until the day she died.

JJM  What practise you miss most about your mom?

KS  I miss how she thought I was the funniest thing on the planet.  She loved everything I did.  When I was a little daughter I would entertain her by putting on shows for her.  I remember learning Ruddy Skelton's unabridged Gordon'due south Dry Gin routine, pretending that I was drunk, then performing it for my mother, and she would roll on the floor in hysterics.  I was probably all of nine years old at the fourth dimension.  So I miss her laughter – even when she was sick and in her final days, we laughed together.  I'grand lucky to have had that experience, and I'm blessed that I understood how lucky I was while she was still alive.  I also miss her voice, and I miss the way she'd smile at me as an developed, just beaming with pride.  As a child, at that place is nothing like having a female parent who loves you.

JJM  What exercise you want people to call back near about your mom?

KS  She always felt that people should stay truthful to themselves, and to follow their hearts.  She also felt it is important to care for others with kindness, respect and empathy, and when you do so, you acquire most each other.  She felt that we all share a small planet and anybody has a correct to be here.  Y'all don't take to honey each other, but we all have to have the fact that we all accept a right to be, and the right to be who we are, that beingness unique is something to embrace and exist grateful for.  And I also want people to know that this woman who they saw upward on the stage as this glamorous sex symbol was a fascinating, downwards-to-earth, loving human beingness.

.

.

photo courtesy of the writer

Eartha Kitt

.

….."She closed all of her concerts with the song "Here's to Life," by Artie Butler and Phyllis Molinary, considering the lyrics captured so well who she was.  They spoke to every part of her essence.

No complaints and no regrets
I will believe in chasing dreams and placing bets
And I accept learned that all you give is all you get
And then requite information technology all you got…

….."That was truly my mother.  She did give it all that she had, and with her, it was "Take me warts and all."  She made no excuses for herself."

-Kitt Shapiro

.

.

Listen to the 1994 recording of Eartha Kitt singing "Here's to Life" (DRG)

.

.

___

.

.

Eartha & Kitt:  A Daughter'south Love Story in Black & White (Pegasus Books)

by Kitt Shapiro (with Patricia Weiss Levy)

.

.

Praise for the book

.

"Revealing, poignant, and beautifully told, Eartha & Kitt  does exactly what it sets out to do. The book non only provides even more context behind the incredible woman that her mother became despite an incredibly difficult young life, just information technology also revels in the shared stories of Eartha'due south and Kitt'south lives together in an intimate way that, prior to the release of this book, had yet to be told. The memoir is entertaining and heartfelt, and fans volition absolutely love information technology."

-Scott Neumyer Shondaland

.

"With this memoir, Kitt'due south daughter Shapiro wants to communicate to readers that her mother was more than her sexual practice kitten professional person persona—Kitt was also an outspoken civil rights activist [who] considered her daughter to be her greatest accomplishment. An inspiring story of the strong bail between a famous mother and her daughter."

-Library Journal

.

"In a richly detailed and loving memoir of vocalist and extra Earth Kitt, her girl describes her successful career and the special bail they shared."

-Shelf Awareness

.

.

___

.

.

Kitt Shapiro is the just child of legendary entertainer Eartha Kitt.  She managed her mother's performances and recording career for many years, and now manages her estate.  She is the founder and owner of Simply Eartha, "accessories that SAY something," a lifestyle and accessories make honoring her mother'southward words, wisdom, and dazzler, and the owner of Due west, a women'southward manner boutique, located in Westport, Connecticut.

.

Patricia Weiss Levy  is an award-winning writer and journalist who has been nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. Her memoir, The Adulterer's Daughter: The Life, Loves, and Longings of a Girl Whose Male parent Strayed , was published in 2016. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times ,  New York Magazine,  Usa Today, The Hartford Courant , and Good Housekeeping . She spent 12 years as a staff writer at the Sunday magazine of The Hartford Courant , where she penned more than fifty profiles, investigative pieces, and other comprehend stories. Her personal blog, NiceJewishMom.com, is read worldwide

.

.

___

.

.

This interview took identify on Nov 9, 2021, and was hosted and produced by Jerry Jazz Musician editor/publisher Joe Maita

.

.

.

lohrjonster.blogspot.com

Source: https://jerryjazzmusician.com/interview-with-kitt-shapiro-author-of-eartha-kitt-a-daughters-love-story-in-black-white/

0 Response to "Book of Famous Black People in Arts With Eartha Kitt on the Cover"

Post a Comment

Iklan Atas Artikel

Iklan Tengah Artikel 1

Iklan Tengah Artikel 2

Iklan Bawah Artikel