Vy Higginsen: A Common Ancestor

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Go back to [Vy Higginsen: A Common Ancestor} Episode. 
 

Host: Dan Kennedy

 

Dan: [00:00:02] Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Dan Kennedy. So, today is a really big day. On this day, exactly 20 years ago, our founder, George Dawes Green, held the first Moth Night here in New York City in his living room. And that night was inspired by the evenings that he used to spend on his friend's porch on St. Simons Island in Georgia. They would drink bourbon and tell stories. 

 

As I remember him telling it, there was a little hole in the screen, and moths would get in and flutter around the light. So, they started calling their little group of friends The Moths. Of course, since then, we've had the opportunity to share hundreds of stories on our radio hour and podcast. We've gotten to listen to thousands more. I think we've had over 20,000 stories shared by folks on stage at this point, which is really cool. 

 

I love the idea that The Moth is in so many places, and I love the idea that we have an open-mic storytelling night, The Moth StorySLAM, where anyone can get on stage and tell a story. And it just feels like The Moth is this thing that can just come to wherever you are, and pick you up and take you around the world. 

 

On today's episode, we want to play a story that was told just last month at the Apollo Theater here in New York City. And the theme of the night was Jumping at The Sun. 

 

[cheers and applause] 

 

We love this story, and we really think you'll enjoy it too. Here's Vy Higginsen.

 

Vy Higginsen: [00:01:33] I grew up in Harlem.

 

[cheers and applause] 

 

Surrounded by music. Music came from the church, it was gospel. Music came from the clubs on Lenox Avenue, it was jazz. And music came from the Apollo Theater. All of the greats, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Aretha Franklin. Music. But there was music on the street corners, underneath the street lights. There was doo-wop. [sings] Well, of course, it was in harmony. [audience chuckles] 

 

My music and my heritage and my identity was important to me. Where I lived was important to me. I lived on 126th street between Lenox and 7th Avenue, just down the street from the Apollo Theater. [audience applause] 

 

My grandmother lived on that block too. My grandmother, she worked every day at a French Cleaners on Madison Avenue. She ironed clothes for rich people. But she'd come home every day, and she'd walk down that block and she would visit me. And I would say, "Grandma, grandma, you got anything good?" And she'd always come up with something. She went in her pocket. It was a peppermint candy or chocolate or a half a tuna fish sandwich. [audience chuckles] 

 

My grandmother passed away at the age of 97. She always wore this velvet scarf around her head. When she died and I went to the funeral, I looked in the casket, and the scarf was gone. And there she was. Her hair was long and down to her waist, black and straight. I looked at her, and I didn't know who she was. I'd never seen her without that scarf. And I said, "Who is she? What blood is running through her veins?" I wished I had asked her more questions.

 

That's when I began my journey to find my roots. I began to ask questions of family members who came to the funeral from Virginia. I began to search through records to find more information. I found that in the county she was born in, those records were burned and no longer available. But I kept searching, kept asking questions. 

 

And then, some years later, 2009, I took a DNA test, because the rumor in the family was that we were Native American. So, I took this test. When the results came back, it said zero [audience chuckles] Native American, 30% European. [audience chuckles] I am so shocked. I'm like, "What? What does this mean?" I'm confused. I want to know now who am I and what blood is running through my veins? So, I entered the information in a database, and I continued my search.

 

A few months later, I get a telephone call. And the person on the other end says, "I want to speak to Vy Higginsen." And I say, "I'm Vy Higginsen." And the voice says, "Hello, kiddo. [audience chuckles] My name is Marion West. I'm a cattle rancher from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. And I hear we're cousins. [audience laughter] We share a common ancestor." And clearly, the man is white. I'm just wondering whether he knows I'm Black. [audience chuckles] 

 

We exchange photographs, and then he invites me to Poplar Bluff, Missouri. [audience laughter] And I say, “I don't think so. [audience laughter] No way.” [audience laughter] Now, I'm a real city girl, okay? I didn't even see a cow, a real cow, until I was 22. [audience chuckles] So, there are rules in the city. I know those rules. I know what's dangerous and what's not. And there are rules in the country that I don't know. And I was terrified.

 

Well, unidentified flying objects and pickup trucks. [audience laughter] But I was curious. I wanted to know, who was that voice on the other end of the phone. Now, history tells us that one 16th of Black blood makes you 100% Black. But I wanted to know who I was. And before then, I couldn't claim any other heritage. So, I went to Poplar Bluff, Missouri. [audience chuckles] 

 

When I got there at the airport, there was Marion West, a full 6’5” cowboy. [audience chuckles] He has a cowboy hat, snakeskin boots, cowboy tie, cowboy shirt and a black vest. Straight out of central casting. [audience chuckles] A real John Wayne type. He throws open his arms and he says, "I've been praying for this day." And I say, "I've been searching for my family roots for 25 years, and I found you. [audience laughter] Happy to meet you." [audience laughter] 

 

 We drive in the car and we get to the ranch. There's a sign on the gate, and it says, "West Family Cattle Ranch." I meet his wife. As far as the eye could see, there was land, there were cows, there were horses and donkeys. And I was scared. You know, the stories of the Old South. But before we left the ranch, he told me about this tree on his land, and he told me that he would go to that tree every morning. And at that tree, he would pray and he would meditate. We walked up to that tree and he started to pray. I could see that praying was important to him. As we left to go and meet other friends and family, we're having a good time.

 

That night, there was a banquet at the hotel. There's over 100 people there. There were brothers, and sisters, and uncles, and aunts, and nieces, and nephews, and grandparents, and great grandparents and children. And they started telling stories about their family and how they got to Missouri. Then they asked me to get up and talk about my grandma. I stood up and I said, "My grandmother's name was Anna West. She was one of 13 children born to Robert and Mary West from Hanover County, Beaverdam, Virginia." 

 

In that moment, something came over me. I began to get this kind of lump in my throat. And tears started welling up in my eyes. My brain was full of memories of my grandma. She was kind, she was gentle. And as I looked into the audience and I saw the family members, I could see that they were hardworking. I could see that they were community leaders. I could see they were educators and religious people, the same as the people back home. And standing in a sea of white people, I realized that we had more in common than what was different. 

 

As I stand here now and I reflect back, I never found any more of my Black relatives, but I sure found a lot more white relatives. [audience chuckles] But I'm still searching and I'm still looking. You know, I got to know Marion very well. We talk almost every day. We would plan the yearly family reunion. And Marion died. But before he died, he constructed a monument. And on that monument, he named all of the West family and their pictures and my picture on this monument. And in his will, he said that monument will remain on that land forever. And so, there are many stories and many legacies that I have, but I've come to believe with what Martin Luther King said. "It's not the color of your skin, it's the content of your character."

 

[cheers and applause]

 

Dan: [00:15:34] Vy Higginsen is an author, playwright, and radio and TV personality. She also co-wrote, produced and directed the gospel musical, Mama, I Want to Sing!. She's the founder of the Mama Foundation of the Arts, where she continues her creative work as its Executive Director. 

 

From everyone here at The Moth, we'd like to thank you for listening and especially for sharing your stories over the past 20 years. It's been a pleasure to listen, and we're just humbled and amazed to be part of that process. So, from all of us here at The Moth, we're going to wish you yet again a story-worthy week.

 

Mooj: [00:16:11] Dan Kennedy is the author of the books, Loser Goes First, Rock On and American Spirit. He's also a regular host and performer with The Moth.

 

Dan: [00:16:20] Podcast production by Timothy Lou Ly. The Moth Podcast is presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, helping make public radio more public at prx.org.