I met this month’s guest via the Women in Publishing Summit. Leslie Powell Ahmadi discovered her attraction to language and all manner of cultural traditions in her parents’ home at age four. There—between the jazz, the spirituals, the classical music, and the rock ‘n roll—she heard folk songs in languages from around the world. Thirty years later, she had a doctorate in foreign language and culture education from the Ohio State University, and her sights set on teaching Spanish or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the USA. Little did she know that she’d meet a man from Iran who would change the trajectory of her life. Leslie explains it all in her memoir Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran, currently in search of a publisher. I’ve had the privilege of reading the manuscript and was enthralled from beginning to end. I’m delighted she agreed to drop by and chat today.

Hello Leslie and welcome. Let’s start by taking you back to the classroom. What was your favourite subject at school—and which was the lesson you always wanted to avoid?

Hands down, my favorite subject in school was Spanish, which I started learning at age 13 and continued learning through graduate school. Recognizing it as the electric language of flamenco music, I was drawn to its drama, rhythm, and musicality since I was three or four. And learning it was like turning a golden key that has opened a door to amazing worlds.

As for a subject I always wanted to avoid: Oddly enough, I never enjoyed learning history when I was in school. It felt like having to memorize facts and dates about things that had little relevance to my world—a useless exercise that filled my brain with sawdust and old dry bones. Now that I’m older, I believe there were things my teachers could have done and topics they could have chosen to make history come alive for me.

But come to think of it, there was one teacher I had in high school—Mr. Stiles—whose world history class I never missed a day of. I’m sure the fact that I had a terrible crush on him had absolutely nothing to do with it! But all kidding aside, it strikes me that the unit I found most intriguing was the one he taught on ancient Egypt—especially the part where Mr. Stiles spoke enthusiastically of “the Black Queen Nefertiti—renowned beauty of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean worlds,” as he put it. Later I learned that the question of Queen Nefertiti’s race was up for debate to some scholars. Still, as a young Black teenager, I always appreciated how Mr. Stiles, my White history teacher, spoke so straightforwardly about her Blackness, her royalty, and her beauty in the same breath, without hesitation. Anyway, little did I know at the time that two decades later I would find myself living and working in the Middle East: A Black woman who (while not a queen) married an Iranian, moved to Iran for a while, and had her own story to tell.

Talking about yourself, how would you finish the sentence “Not a lot of people know…”?

Not a lot of people know the place that chess has had in my life, or even that I know how to play it. How well do I play? While I don’t play much anymore, I generally beat my opponents when challenged. And when I was in my mid-twenties, I could play well enough to beat the vice-president of the reputable Hartford Chess Club, and then to secure a stalemate (tie) with the club president, once he heard of the vice president’s loss and so took our game seriously.

The truth was that my late father, a brilliant man who was officially ranked a chess master, began teaching the game to me when I was just seven. He continued teaching me the principles and strategies until I was well into my teens. All those years I played against the master without winning a single game—he never let me win; I would have to earn my own victory. But each time I played, I kept getting stronger and stronger—until no one could beat me except my father. When the day finally came when I truly beat him—using the very same strategies he had taught me so well—no one was prouder of me than my father.

Playing chess was not only incredibly fun and absorbing—drawing me deeply into another world; it also taught me incredible analytical skills and the rewards of applying them. Maybe most of all, it taught me the patience, determination, and discipline not to give up, even when the odds were against me. But for me, the very best thing about learning chess was the hours upon hours it allowed me to spend time with my father, this complex and sometimes difficult man, and to find a heart and mind connection between the two of us.

To this day, chess remains my absolutely favorite game—I think it’s amazing! And perhaps I have chess to thank (well, my father, actually) for helping me develop the perseverance a writer needs. Plus, the trust that one day it will all pay off—while in the meantime I’m enjoying learning and getting better!

What is your favourite place on earth—and why?

A sun-baked spot beside the sea, where I can lie on the soft white sand, feel the sun’s radiance on my skin, and hear the hypnotic sound of the tide, again and again. It feels like God is calling me.

 

 

If you knew you only had 24 hours left, how would you spend them?

I would spend them walking through a stunning, lightly-scented field of wildflowers with my husband, two grown children, and their significant others—then later huddling quietly with them, asking God to make His presence known among us.

If you could meet one person from history, who would it be — and why?

It would be the Black singer/composer, actor, and civil rights activist, Harry Belafonte, whose music has influenced and inspired me greatly, and whose legacy I’ve followed my entire life. I feel we may share a lot in common—and by that, I don’t mean “both of us gorgeous, immensely talented, and extremely wealthy.” 

Still, one of the commonalities that has seemed obvious to me was our love for collecting and sharing folk songs from all countries, all cultures. I do seem to recall a comment Mr. Belafonte once made in his autobiography, however, that almost sounded like a dismissal of his singing career, like something he never took seriously. He said that he sang for the sole purpose of supporting himself (not for the joy of it) while earnestly pursuing his civil rights activities and acting career. Having felt so indebted to him and inspired by his exquisite handling of such varied song traditions world round, including Caribbean, African, and Black American, I couldn’t help but feel sad that Mr. Belafonte himself might not value his own contributions to the music world. And yet, when I hear the exquisite beauty of the lyrics and music he’s written, or the songs of others he’s brought new life to with his tender, or angry, or laughing, or reverent voice, a side of me wonders if his singing doesn’t mean far more to him than he lets on. I hope so.

So, I would love the honor of sitting down with Mr. Belafonte (now age 95), hearing more of his personal story and feelings about his singing career, and letting him know what his musical art and legacy has meant to me.

Finally, tell us a little more about the memoir you’ve written, called Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran. In essence, what is it about, and what compelled you to write it?

Road Between Two Hearts is the story of my intercultural, interracial, and interfaith journey while living and working in post-revolutionary Iran—and what I learned along the way, both about myself and the Iranian people I met there. I felt compelled to write it because I wanted to provide a glimpse into some of the culture, lives, and perspectives of everyday people of Iran that most of my fellow non-Iranians are not privy to experience or see for themselves. At the time of my journey, I liked to think that my academic background (in teaching culture) and my personal experience as a Black American would give me a head start in avoiding preconceptions, biases, and cultural blunders. I soon discovered that I had a lot more to learn than I had initially supposed. But what I learned, whether easy or hard to swallow, raised additional questions for me—and hopefully the reader—that are worth chewing on.

It is the story of an American, African American, and Christian woman who is too ashamed to admit she is terrified to start a new life with her husband in his homeland: post-revolutionary Iran. The rest of the story is what happens when she denies her true feelings, leaves Columbus, Ohio, and goes to Iran anyway (1992-1996).

Leslie, thank you so much for spending time with us today. Readers, for a sneak preview of the first two chapters, Leslie invites you to click here to sign up for her monthly newsletter (with cultural insights and book-related updates) and to download the free chapters.

When not writing and speaking about navigating across differences, Leslie finds pleasure in playing chess, eating wonderful food, being with family, traveling domestically and internationally, and singing songs from diverse traditions. Her next goal is to learn to sing and play a folk song in Persian! Her author website is www.leslieahmadi.com. You can also find her on Facebook; on Instagram; or on LinkedIn.