BUILDING THE YELLOW HOUSE
The newly drained swampland that became New Orleans East touted a promising future when Sarah M. Broom’s mother bought their family’s shotgun house in 1961. “The Yellow House” became home to the family’s 12 children, as well as the most unruly child and symbol through which Broom viewed herself.
In her debut memoir The Yellow (Aug. 2019, Grove Press), Broom extends the map of New Orleans beyond the famous sites visited by tourists to include the stories of the city’s natives that came before her; investment in and divestment from New Orleans East and her family’s life growing up there; the journeys she and her family took away from home only to be pulled back again; and the massive storm that changed everything. Broom talked with WD about her process of creating the ambitious new work.
