Reach for the stars, count on the clouds
Tomi Thomas’ ‘Hopeless Romantic’
Caribbean Life, JUNE 18-24, 2021 55
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
One, two, buckle my shoe.
We Three Kings, cheaper
by the dozen, it’s a Catch
22 and double jeopardy, then
we’re back to Square One. In
every corner of our lives, we
use numbers, we count, we
cypher. And in the new book
“My Remarkable Journey” by
Katherine Johnson (with Joylette
Hylick and Katherine
Moore), we know a career takes
true calculations.
When Katherine Coleman
was born in 1918, Model T cars
were selling for $350, fresh
off the assemby line. Women
couldn’t vote, TV hadn’t been
invented, and Black Americans
lived under strict Jim Crow
laws. Knowing that schooling
was the best way to survive the
latter, Coleman‘s parents, who
owned a farm near the town of
White Sulpher Springs, West
Virginia, insisted that their
children all get educations.
Precocious Coleman was the
youngest, but by the time she
graduated high school at age
fifteen, she was old enough to
Book cover of “My Remarkable Journey” by Katherine
Johnson.
see that success would require
more classwork and that teaching
at a Black school was the
likeliest goal. College spoke
to Coleman’s innate curiosity
and she loved it; she planned
to major in French until “the
math professors had their say.”
One of them challenged her
to become a “research mathematician.“
Unsure what, exactly, that
was, Coleman stepped off the
career track to marry and raise
three daughters before heading
back to work as a teacher,
then landing a position at the
National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics (the “predecessor
to NASA”) at Langley Field
(now Langley Air Force Base)
in Virginia. Her job, at first,
was as a “computer” – literally,
one who computes so that
the program’s engineers didn’t
have to do it. Coleman (then
Goble, later Johnson) quickly
worked her way into the
research division involved in
the Space Race, and when the
Soviets launched Sputnik, she
felt “that competitive American
spirit” deep inside herself.
“We’ve got to do something,”
she remembered thinking. “Little
did I know then that ‘we’
soon would include me.”
So you saw the movie, Hidden
Figures, and you loved it.
So did author Katherine Johnson,
on whom the movie is
modeled, and here, she explains
what parts were right and what
Hollywood got wrong. Moreover,
she takes you back to the
beginning in “My Remarkable
Journey.”
Lively and with great detail,
Johnson tells her story in a way
that frames her accomplishments
in humble neon, never
letting readers forget who she
was or what she did, but not
bragging on it without giving
ample credit to others. The
warmth and grace of that is
impressive; so is the fact that
she admits to having endured
racism, patriarchy, and Jim
Crow laws but she waves them
away like a fly on a June afternoon,
as if they weren’t even a
part of her equation.
“My Remarkable Journey”
puts the movie about Johnson
into keener perspective, bringing
the full story, as Dr. Yvonne
Cagle says in her introduction,
to a new generation of young
women. Find it, share it with
your daughter. Or catch it on
an audiobook. That counts,
too.
“My Remarkable Journey:
A Memoir” by Katherine
Johnson with Joylette
Hylick and Katherine
Moore
c.2021, Amistad
$25.99 / $31.99
Canada 235 pages
“My Remarkable Journey” author, Katherine Johnson. Annie Leibovitz
“Likewise, the industry
reception has been positive,
with many in Tomi’s corner
as he advances his career,” she
said, adding that the “Again”
music video garnered well over
half a million views within the
first month of release alone.
Freiseis said the project in
its entirety is a unique mix of
modern sounds of modern African
music.
It showcases six distinct
tracks to include the upbeat
tune “Gogo Dancer” and the
debut of “Hurricane,” featuring
reggae legend Buju Banton,
Freiseis said.
“Africa is a hotbed of talent
with unmatched creativity, and
Tomi Thomas is at the forefront
of the movement,” Freiseis
said.
“This project is classical
African art,” Thomas said.
Freiseis said “The world is
taking notice as Tomi plants
his flag as one of the hottest
Nigerian acts on the scene.
“After years in the popular
musical group Loud On Sound
(LOS), he branched out on his
own and, in releasing his debut
album, embarked on a fruitful
solo career,” she said.
Continued from Page 53
Cover of Tomi Thomas’ EP “Hopeless Romantic.”