On Demand
Survival Kit Archive
February 2004
Nikki Giovanni
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Nikki Giovanni has always forged her own path through life. She self-published her first volumes of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgement, because they were considered out of the mainstream at that time. And as a result, she became a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s. Over the years she's developed a loyal readership for the 2 dozen adult and children's books that followed; she became a single mother by choice long before it became fashionable, and in recent years she's revealed her fight against cancer (which she's faced with courage and humor.) Let’s see what this iconoclastic, independent woman has put into her Survival Kit.
Kinky Friedman
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Kinky Friedman has made a career out of offending people. With his band, the Texas Jewboys, he toured the country performing classics like “They Ain’t Makin Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,” before turning his hand to writing bestselling novels like Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola, Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned, and Roadkill. His mysteries feature a country-singer-turned-detective named (surprise!) Kinky Friedman, who seems to spend more time drinking, doing drugs and chasing women than solving crimes. Let’s find out what outrageous items jump out of his Survival Kit.
Joyce Carol Oates
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates wrote her first novel at the age of 15, but it was rejected by publishers who felt it was too bleak. That didn’t discourage her; she’s written over a hundred works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays, all of which examine the dark underbelly of American life. She won the National Book Award for her novel Them, and critical acclaim for such works as A Garden of Earthly Delights, We Were The Mulvaneys, Blonde, Black Water and Rape: A Love Story. If I listed all her books we wouldn’t have time for an interview, so let’s find out what she’s chosen to put in her survival kit.
Carl Reiner
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Carl Reiner has written, directed, produced and starred in some of the funniest TV shows and movies of the past half century, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Your Show of Shows, The Jerk, Where’s Poppa?, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, and Oh, God. He’s performed standup in the Borsch Belt, toured in Broadway shows, entertained the troops overseas, written novels and plays. Let’s find out what this multifaceted comic would need to keep him occupied during a long retreat, by taking a peek in his survival kit.
Amy Tan
Sunday, February 01, 2004
I think Amy Tan might take the idea of survival more literally than most of us. As a teenager, she watched her father and brother die of brain tumors a few months apart; a close friend was murdered just hours after she left his apartment; she has almost drowned, she’s been stalked and received death threats. The stories of her grandmother, who committed suicide rather than live as a rich man’s concubine, and her mother, who was jailed after leaving her abusive husband, are woven into her novels, which include The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. And in her book The Opposite of Fate, she recounts her battle with Lyme disease. Let’s find out what she would consider the essential components of her survival kit.
