“We bumped between Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia. My mom was a native Southerner and always considered Savannah to be ‘our capital city,’ and she could trace our ancestry back through eight generations,” Green said. “When I was young, my mom would put me in our huge Chevrolet Bel Air station wagon, she’d have on one of her fancy hats, and we’d drive from Brunswick to Savannah. The city was in ruins in those days, sort of ethereal, haunted, and crumbling, dripping in Spanish moss.”
He continued the memory. “...we would gather with various relatives or cousins. My mom was Inez… and, in fact, it seemed a number of our cousins were also named Inez, a popular name in our family. All of the Inezes would sit around and talk about the old days. They’d talk of—long-deceased—Big Inez, who was sort of the matriarch of the family from Waynesboro, Georgia.”
Green said he realized the importance of every person’s experience, every person’s story.
“Story shapes the character of Savannah. Savannah is a living creature, proving stories shape a place. I got a real dose of this idea of the old Georgia and it sort of drove me crazy. When I was 15, I dropped out of high school and hitchhiked to New York City. Every now and then, over the years, I would come back to Georgia for a while. I did eventually buy a house in Savannah and I have relatives here. Although I live in Brooklyn, I still think of Savannah as my home.”
Green was able to not only find great success in New York, but he discovered so much about story when he founded The Moth, a nonprofit organization celebrating the commonality and diversity of the human experience through the art and craft of true personal storytelling. The Moth podcast garners over 90 million downloads a year.
“When I was in New York,” he began, “I had just published ‘The Juror.’ They made it into a movie with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin, which was a big success. [Afterwards], I wanted to get involved in a project I’d thought about it for years and decided there was a need for a night where people could just come together and tell stories.”
“The problem in Manhattan,” Green said with a snicker, “is you go to parties and there are these conversation vultures that interrupt everything within two sentences, so no one could ever tell a full story. I knew there were good raconteurs in New York. I wanted to set up sessions that were reminiscent of the nights on porches in the South in Savannah.”
Green started in his living room by gathering a bunch of friends to tell stories.
“Then, that became very successful. We started having nights in various bars and in bigger and bigger venues to now… we’re in the Lincoln Center, as well as all over the world. There are Moth groups all over the United States, in England, India, Australia, just everywhere.”
Listening to others’ stories was what led to the inspiration for his new release.
Green discussed his use of the area’s homeless camps in his novel.
“I’ve always had friends here who have lived in the encampments. I’ve spent a lot of time in them drinking and sharing stories. Some of the best storytellers I’ve met have come from those encampments, especially a particular friend who is gone now, James Kitchens. He and I spent a lot of time wandering around Savannah together. I’ve always been very interested in those encampments. There’s an awful lot of them. I think at last count, there were about 40 of them.”
“Writing a thriller,” Green said, “there’s a story and structure and I love the scaffolding of a good thriller. A lot of people tell me this is page-turner … and I love it better than any other compliment.”
In addition to the launch of his new book, the event will celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Moth.
“It will be an event with E. Shaver, Bookseller at The Gingerbread House on July 18. It’s a celebration of the book’s publication, but also stories, in general… and Savannah stories, in particular. There will be several great Savannah raconteurs. Edgar Oliver is perhaps our greatest raconteur. He’s world-renowned and will be coming that evening to share his own Savannah stories. Opollo Johnson who works for the Deep Learning Center is going to tell a story about being incarcerated in federal prison for 18 years and how it came to pass. Another storyteller is Aberjhani, a poet, who has lived in Savannah all of his life and has a story to share,” he said.
“The event will talk about how story shapes the character of the city of Savannah. Savannah is a character itself, like a living creature.”
As someone who grew up around here and has a long knowledge of the area, Green stressed the importance of Savannah’s true story being heard.
“The true story of Savannah has never really been told,” he stated. “For years and years, we’ve been getting these myths handed down to us, generation after generation. There are extraordinary stories about Savannah, but they’re seldom told. These days, they seem to be told less and less. There are more ghost tours that get farther and farther away from the truth of Savannah. So, I’m trying to talk about the reality in Savannah, but I’m also riveted by a handful of characters and what they do.”
“If Savannah starts taking a look at its real history, it becomes a closer-knit town, a more successful town. I love the Savannah community because it’s been so welcoming to outsiders unlike other southern communities,” he said. “In the 1850 census, the majority of people in Savannah were born in the North or in Europe. It’s always been a place that welcomed the world. More so now than ever.”
“The Moth helped me to see stories as the core of human experience: Our cultures are woven around the stories we tell. But I think I’m not so much of a storyteller as a listener. At The Moth, I’ve heard literally hundreds of stories, from all over the world, many that have touched me profoundly and maybe altered my voice. Yet, to me, the best tales, the ones with the deepest rhythms and the most moving turns, come from my old Savannah—stories told by Edgar Oliver and Brenda Mehlhorn and Cornelia Bailey and Jane Fishman and Vaughnette WalkerGoode.”
“And, my mother, of course,” he added. “And, all those Inezes.”
For more information and tickets to the book release event on July 18, visit eventbrite.com and search for the event. “The Kingdoms of Savannah” is available in hardcover, eBook, and audio formats on July 19, 2022.For more on The Moth, visit themoth.org
