But without calling or explaining, she never arrived. It was traumatic — but to be left with our crazy dad, doubly so. On finishing school she fled her father's house in Los Angeles for a new start. The first thing she did on arrival in New York was to renounce her birth name and change it to Sapphire, "the name of a strong black woman". Then she got a job as a topless dancer in the gentlemen's clubs around Times Square.
How does she view that episode now? She is surprisingly upbeat. Afterwards you could go with punters and do anything you wanted, which," she laughs, "I did. At the time I was young and beautiful and I felt lucky to make my living that way, but now I look back and wonder: why didn't I have a bigger vision for myself?
And, yes, the abuse I suffered as a child must have made it easier for me to do it. In her twenties and still feeling the pain of her mother's no-show, Sapphire decided to hunt her down to try to understand why. She told me she'd been terribly unhappy in her marriage and could not see a way out, except to leave all of us. There was no great revelation, no feel-good happy ending, although in the 10 years before she died of cancer, we managed to reconcile and partially rebuild our relationship.
In the meantime, Sapphire had started writing and performing poetry, and had begun her first novel. She showed the first pages to her college mentor, the novelist Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, who loved its raw, unique voice and insisted that she send it to the renowned feminist agent Charlotte Sheedy. Push sold an impressive , copies and instantly attracted the attention of young film-maker Lee Daniels but Sapphire refused to sell the movie rights. She was more involved with the screenplay than she expected, she says.
He's made a wonderfully sensitive film that challenges our prejudices and somehow makes you feel hopeful. In Utah, a white woman came up to me after a screening and said: I will never look at an overweight black woman in the same way again. Actually, what it's really about is the transformative power of literacy. At the end of the film, Precious is still black, still poor and still fat but what's changed is that she can read and write and has begun to re-invent herself.
She has left her abusive home environment, and has gone from feeling stupid and worthless to embracing a positive vision of her future. Some children, however, are in fact abused by the parents who are supposed to love and protect them. That reality is not defined by race or poverty. Ask Mackenzie Phillips , who says her singing legend father, the late John Phillips , sexually abused her. When it comes to "Precious," I hear people asking: Why do they only push the films that perpetuate the same old stereotypes?
I worry about stereotypes and exploitation. Life is not all "Cosby Show" any more than it is all "Precious. They are two African-American success stories who have helped to shatter stereotypes about what black men and women are capable of doing.
They are also both survivors of childhood abuse. I prefer the book to the movie. I love to see children who love reading, not just watching movies or TV where everything gets wrapped up in a neat package just before the last commercial break.
The abuse that Abdul suffers in the Catholic Church is in the media now. But it has existed as long as I can remember. When asked how she keeps such graphic images in her head, Sapphire explains that she doesn't hold onto them.
I can't stay in it. Sapphire refuses to concede a step to critics who claim her writing is so graphic as to occasionally be regarded as unrealistic.
I choose to write this way," she says. Copyright NPR Skip to main content. Close close Donate. Listen Live: On Point.
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