Unabridged Interview: Danielle Chapman

**Lee C. Camp** (0:02)
Hello, friends, Lee C. Camp. You're listening to No Small Endeavor. This is our Unabridged Interview with Danielle Chapman.
Danielle is a lecturer at Yale University, a poet, a memoirist, and today we're discussing her memoir, Holler, A Poet Among Patriots. This is genuinely, to me, a beautiful memoir that has numerous twists and turns interwoven with a lot of remarkable military and southern history, southern folklore, and some of the darkest nuances of American southern history, and yet trying to find a way to tell stories that respect the human beings who play key roles in all of these stories. Truly a beautiful memoir. I love this conversation with Danielle. I hope you enjoy it. Hey, friends, Lee here. If you enjoy our conversations at the intersection of faith, purpose, and living well, then I have the perfect podcast recommendation for you, With and For, hosted by Dr. Pam King. With and For's latest season brings together psychology and spiritual wisdom in a way that feels thoughtful, grounded, deeply human, and it's hosted by my friend Dr. Pam King, a developmental psychologist and ordained minister who offers practical guidance towards a life of thriving.
I'd recommend starting with their episode featuring Parker J. Palmer, world-renowned writer, speaker, activist, Quaker elder, who focuses on issues in education, spirituality, and social change. A moving and instructive conversation. Can't recommend it enough. Also check out With and For's special summer series of wisdom practices, released each Monday. They're short exercises shared by guests that will become a toolkit for thriving. Consider them your experiment in becoming more fully alive. So go ahead, follow With and For, hosted by Dr. Pam King, wherever you're listening now.

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**Danielle Chapman** (2:35)
So order more pizza.

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**Danielle Chapman** (2:38)
Get the Venmo debit card.

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**Lee C. Camp** (2:50)
Danielle, welcome to No Small Endeavor.

**Danielle Chapman** (2:53)
Thank you so much for having me.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:54)
Delighted to have you.

**Lee C. Camp** (2:55)
Yeah.
Your memoir, Holler, A Poet Among Patriots. It's really deeply moving and I found myself eager to continue to follow the story line in here where this was going to go, and it's lovely and it's beautiful and I thank you for it. You say in the opening chapter, not the introduction but the opening chapter, that by the time you were five or six, you knew the story of your father's death and your mother's salvation by heart. Would you recite that story for us as you recollect it in your mind?

**Danielle Chapman** (3:35)
Yeah. Well, in the book, the first chapter starts with the story as a poem, I think because I heard it often but also because it's so intense. My mother and father were scuba diving. My father was a Marine who was stationed in Okinawa, and scuba diving was a regular activity. And typhoons are pretty regular in Okinawa. However, that's not actually what this was. It was, while they were scuba diving, there was an earthquake and it caused a small tsunami.
They were with friends.
And while in the midst of scuba diving, they basically became trapped not too far out from the shore. And I was there, and I remember it amazingly. I mean, I was less than three years old, but I was with a babysitter and watched from shore as they just repeatedly were pushed underwater and came back up. And that happened many, many times. Every time a wave would come, they would go under and, you know, just have to keep treading water because they couldn't get back to shore. And eventually, my father was, we don't know exactly what happened, but you know, whatever kind of riptide or whatever it was that pulled him under made it so that he couldn't get back up again. But my mother was able to keep treading and stayed alive.