About the Book:
Torch in the Dark
tells the moving story of how Hadiyah Joan Carlyle, a single mother haunted by
memories of her own traumatic childhood, pioneered as one of the first women
since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish
immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s
colorful Haight-Ashbury in the sixties to arrive at Fairhaven Shipyard in
Bellingham, Washington. For Hadiyah, welding become a metaphor for healing from
the dark past as well as a path to self-reliance and economic survival.
While providing insightful perspective on the culture of the
1960’s and 1970’s, Torch in the Dark
offers profound inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and
oppression.
Publisher:
Book Publishers Network; 1st edition (March 20, 2012)
ISBN-10:
1937454231
ISBN-13:
978-1937454234
Genre: Memoir
Available in Print & eBook
What Readers are Saying:
“Torch in the Dark" tells the author's story through a
series of tightly crafted vignettes and flashbacks. As many women of her era,
Joan Carlyle was raised without defined ambition or skills, even the domestic
ones. Estranged from her parents, she often felt alone and out of place. She
entered adulthood not knowing who she was. She drifted and drifted. Her stories
remind us how "freedom" isn't always free. Eventually she became an
activist, a mother and a welder.” ~Lucky Charlie
“In prose as hot as her welding torch, Hadiyah Carlyle
transports the reader to a time early in the women's movement that must never
be forgotten. As one of the first female welders in the West Coast shipyards,
Carlyle paved the way for women working in the trades today. You will applaud
her strength in sharing this powerful story.” ~Arleen Williams, The
Thirty-Ninth Victim
Our Thoughts:
This isn't a memoir for those who aren't fans of reading true-life
stories. The verbiage at times is harsh and brass with still that rhythmic lyrical
beat to keep you turning the pages. Hadiyah doesn’t hold back the truths, which
haunted her for years, subconscious steered her path and confronts later as
being a single mother and welder in darkness force her to confront, reflect and
revile her inner self and strength.
We applaud Hadiyah for sharing the deepest and sometimes
darkest moments of her life, along with the joys of being a mother, female
welder and the struggles of both worlds. Her memoir not only shows the reader
about her journey, but also of a time in history where young adults were
breaking away from the traditions of their parents, country and the 1950s
values.
Excerpt
from book:
Moving
Metal-Shifting Shapes (p. 109)
Spring 1966. Welding.
I first hear the word from Robert, my next door neighbor on San Pablo
Avenue. New baby. No job.
No money. No husband. I pick up stuff on the street, a cardboard
box for a coffee table, a mattress for my bed. I see two bicycle wheels. I carry them upstairs with the baby on my
back. I look at them. I want to pull the wheels apart. I want to twist them, bend them. I want to dig in there and make my hands move
the metal. I want a different shape than
the round rim, the symmetrical spokes. I
want to move what’s inside—the chaos, the crying out, the burning inside me. I want to move what I can’t. I am the steel-hardened on the outside. I need to break open. I thought I could do it with my hands. They don’t move, no matter how hard I
try. I bring the bicycle wheels to
Robert, who supplies dope and who rides a motorcycle.
“Oh,
you have to cut and weld them,” he says
“What’s
that?”
“Welding—putting metal together. Can’t do it with bare hands. You need a torch. You need equipment.”
“Welding?”
I say.
“It’s
called welding,” he says again.
I
know I have to learn to weld.
Today Hadiyah lives in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood
close to her son, Washington State 36th district Legislator Reuven
Carlyle, his wife Dr. Wendy Carlyle and their four children. Activist, hiker,
devoted grandmother, Hadiyah delights in the wild beauty of the Northwest while
remaining connected to her gritty urban East Coast roots.
Though welding is no longer a part of her life, she
continues to carry the torch for the empowerment of the oppressed.
You can find out more about Hadiyah Joan Carlyle,
Torch in the Dark and her World of Ink
Author/Book Tour at
http://tinyurl.com/chrfo3t
Follow Hadiyah Joan Carlyle at
Twitter @CarlyleHadiyah
