REBEL: Actor and Author Karyn Parsons on the Power of Storytelling

Actor and author Karyn Parsons has made it her mission to bring stories about black Americans to young folks in new ways, and as early as possible. "It would change the way they looked at the world as they entered it," she says.

Whether through her organization Sweet Blackberry, which produces short animated films narrated by black celebrities like Queen Latifah, or in her debut novel, How High the Moon, Parsons is charting a new path for learning about the history of black America.

How High the Moon, which was just released on Tuesday, was inspired by Parsons' own family. "My mother always talked about her childhood, in the South, in South Carolina in the 1940s, and how she had this very happy childhood," Parsons explains. "I wanted to visit where she grew up, combine it a little with my growing up, and what it would have been like maybe for me as a biracial girl growing up in the South at the time."

However, as she investigated her history, Parsons realized there were "all the little things" her mother "didn’t talk to me about" and "skirted past... so I started to have to dig a little bit deeper."

REBEL is Rebecca Carroll's regular conversation on race and pop culture. You can hear Rebecca talk about these issues with guests on Wednesday mornings on WNYC, or participate in one of Rebel's regular conversations in The Greene Space.