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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Wednesday 2 OctOber 2024
After playing Weird Barbie, Kate McKinnon’s new children’s book

also celebrates being uniquely you

By ALICIA RANCILIO and writing a sketch for
Associated Press “SNL,” but then you just
If you find it odd that Kate have a lot more time to re-
McKinnon chose her first vise. I absolutely love it. I’m
book to be for middle- an introvert, so writing by
grade kids, the former “Sat- myself does not bother me.
urday Night Live” star says, As much as I miss my col-
think again. leagues, it suits me in some
“I find sketch comedy and way.
middle school to be very AP: In the book, the Porch
similar,” she said recently sisters find a true mentor in
over Zoom. “There can be Millicent who encourages
an unabashed silliness in them to be who and how
middle grade that I have they want. Who was your
found only in sketch com- Millicent growing up?
edy.” MCKINNON: I had parents
“The Millicent Quibb School who celebrated my weird,
of Etiquette for Young La- little activities and let me
dies of Mad Science,” now take the clamshells home
available, follows the three when we had linguine and
Porch sisters, Gertrude, Eu- clams at a restaurant. They
genia, and Dee-Dee, who bought me little archeo-
feel that they don’t fit in logical kits and just really
their hoity-toity town. They fostered whatever esoteric
live with their snooty aunt interest I had. I also had
and uncle and equally teachers who helped me
snooty seven cousins all and supported me. Some-
named Lavinia. When the Kate McKinnon arrives at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, times a magical adult
Porch girls are kicked out Calif. swoops in and fosters the
of school, they find a new Associated Press gifts you were born with
mentor in an outrageous that other people are tell-
scientist with worms in her basically,” she laughed. MCKINNON: I started writ- for doing that. ing you are bad.
hair named Millicent Quibb. The plan is that this is book ing this before “SNL,” and AP: What was it like going AP: The book is silly and
In a Q&A, McKinnon spoke No. 1 in a series. worked on it throughout, from the hectic, repetitive funny. Did you ever make
about her childhood and Answers have been edited whenever I had a moment, pace of “SNL” to writing yourself laugh while writ-
“The Millicent Quibb School for clarity and brevity. and picked it right back up fulltime? ing?
of Etiquette for Young La- AP: Some themes in this after I left. I like weirdos. I MCKINNON: I was surprised MCKINNON: I do. I enjoy
dies of Mad Science,” book are about identity. It am a weirdo. I like playing by how much it felt like per- names. I think funny names
which she wrote mostly would be fitting if you wrote weirdos, and I like reaching forming. I felt like I was im- are a whole art in and of
from her bed. “I ended up this while filming “Barbie.” out to fellow weirdos. And provising. itself. I was proud of the
staying in bed for a year, Did you? this was just another venue It felt like sitting in a room names I came up with.q

Book Review: Ta-Nehisi Coates visits Senegal, South Carolina and

the Middle East for ‘The Message’

By ROB MERRILL addressed these notes di- ground his powerful writing casian” when they read it.
Associated Press rectly to you, though I con- about race. As he reflects Supporters of the teacher
Ta-Nehisi Coates always fess that I am thinking of on his visit to Gorée Island, manage to show up in
writes with a purpose, so young writers everywhere the place from which tens enough force to defeat the
naming his latest collection whose task is nothing less of millions of Africans de- ban, but Coates sees in it
“The Message” is nothing than doing their part to parted into a lifetime of the power of story. A mid-
if not on-brand. But what’s save the world.” slavery, he confesses to dle-aged white teacher
the actual message? Con- Coates features snippets “welling up, grieving for in Chapin, South Carolina,
sisting of three pieces of of his biography in each something, in the grips of read his book a letter to his
non-fiction, the book is part essay, but always returns some feeling I am still, even teenage-son about the re-
memoir, part travelogue, to lessons for writers, as in as I write this, struggling to alities of being Black in the
and part writing primer. It this reflection during his first name.” United States and decided
covers his recent trips to ever visit to Africa: “There The second essay exam- to use it as an example of
Dakar, Senegal; Columbia, are dimensions in your ines racism closer to home, how to write a persuasive
South Carolina; and vari- words rhythm, content, as Coates journeys to a essay.
ous cities and towns in the shape, feeling... The accre- South Carolina town where “We have lived under a
Middle East. tion of imperfect, discomfit- the school board was con- class of people who ruled
This cover image released He writes in the introduc- ing life must be seen and sidering banning his 2015 American culture with a
by One World shows “The tion that the essays fulfill felt so that the space in book “Between the World flaming cross for so long
Message” by Ta-Nehisi a promise to a Howard your mind, gray, automatic, and Me” because, in part, that we regularly cease
Coates. University writing class he and square, fills with angle, students in an Advanced to notice the import of
(One World viaAssociated taught in 2022: “I bring my color, and curve.” These Placement English class being ruled at all,” writes
Press)
belated assignment… I’ve pilgrimages, for him, help felt “ashamed to be Cau- Coates.q