When Your Hand is in the Lion’s Mouth: The Life and Wisdom of a Man named Green (Releasing on June 19, 2022 (Father’s Day/ Juneteenth), by acclaimed singer Nita Whitaker, is a narrative non-fiction story and a father-daughter memoir. Revealing the foundation of paternal love, wisdom and life lessons, at 96 years young, Whitaker’s father keeps inspiring and teaching with his foundational practical wisdom. Green is the last surviving of his large family and is the portal to his family's history and legacy. Essays from his daughter provide a recollection of unpolished gems of wisdom about how to have better values, sharing ways to be more kind, loving, and honest to foster a life of riches not measured in dollars but in sense and in peace.
“My dad has lived most of his life with his hand in the lion’s mouth,” says Whitaker. “Being born a black man in the rural south, there was always the desire for a better life and big dreams against the lion’s trampling oppression of the Jim Crow era. Watching his parents and other siblings navigate a way forward to become independent of the systems that held them in a place of inferiority somehow didn’t leave him bitter—it made him better. He lived through and witnessed times I’ve barely read about in our history books but in honoring his name and his family, he embodies the best of us. He taught me and my siblings the ultimate lesson of loving and respecting ourselves in the pursuit of carving out our lives. This is how you pat the lion’s head, and how you make a mark, and how you quietly win at being human.”
I had a chance to learn more in this interview.
Why did you write this book?
I wrote the book because my father has shared so many gems of life lessons and practical wisdom with me and my siblings over the years, that I thought they should be shared with a greater audience. And at the young age of 96, he is the last living portal to his large Louisiana family’s history. The youngest of 19, he has seen the widest expanse of our world from the sharecropping days of the 1920’s to now, and brings a wealth of knowledge and a succinct perspective. We don’t hear enough stories of steady, good, strong black fathers in the media or in print, and my dad’s character is unique like his name Green Whitaker, which matches his unique persona, his kindness, and worldly common sense. He is a southern gentle man and his words and stories are worthy of learning from and listening to.
Can you share a little bit about the title and what it means?
Can you share a little bit about the title and what it means?
The Title, When Your Hand is in the Lion’s Mouth, was a lesson my father gave me when I found myself in a situation where someone had something I needed but they were withholding it. That phrase has helped me stay calm in all sorts of situations in life, to not blow my top or overreact until I get thing that I need or want. It is one of those lessons that I have used over and over again that came directly from him. And the book is full of many such lessons that bear repeating.
How is the memoir enriched by the father-daughter collaboration?
How is the memoir enriched by the father-daughter collaboration?
My Dad and I have always shared a close and loving relationship. The book also share that aspect and I delight that he has been my greatest teacher and a fantastic father in every way that I wish for every child. I had the blessing of a great Dad. The father-daughter bond has been essential to the foundation of my life and my dreams, and his presence is my life and of my siblings and countless other has been an anchor and a root.
The father daughter collaboration was absolutely necessary because I wanted to be sure to get the stories and facts correct when re-telling them. This required several hours of interviews, sorting through the many stories and lessons and deciding which ones to share, and calling him many times to clarify details of a story he’d shared or I remembered so that the attention to detail was precise. I am so blessed that I can call him up anytime to ask him all these questions and his memory is perfect as he recalls it like it happened yesterday with vivid detail. Often he will give even more details with each telling of the story. Most all have life lessons within them. He is also a part of the audiobook because each chapter title is something my dad has said. He announces each chapter in the audiobook and because he too is a singer, I have included some of his recordings within the audiobook as a bonus!
Nita Whitaker is a former ICU registered nurse-turned Miss Louisiana, an accomplished singer, and award-winning actress and author. A favorite singer of legendary producer David Foster, Whitaker has sung with some of the most famous voices of our time. She sang the original demos for Whitney Houston’s standards, “I Will Always Love You,” “I Have Nothing,” and “I Look to You” working with producers David Foster and Walter Nelson Jr. Having toured with Andrea’ Bocelli as a guest duet artist, as well a featured vocalist on tour with jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, Whitaker has performed with some of the great singers of our time including Michael Bolton, Lionel Ritchie, Yolanda Adams, Patti LaBelle, Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin, Josh Groban, and Michael Bublé. Whitaker’s first independently published memoir, Finding My Voice: My Journey through Grief to Grace, won the Indie Discovery Book Award (Aging/Death and Dying) and two National Indie Excellence Book Awards in the Grief and Memoir Categories. Born in Shreveport, LA, she champions literacy through her 501c3 non-profit In A World With Books (www.inaworldwithbooks.org) which has put 18,500 new books in the hands of underserved children and counting.
The father daughter collaboration was absolutely necessary because I wanted to be sure to get the stories and facts correct when re-telling them. This required several hours of interviews, sorting through the many stories and lessons and deciding which ones to share, and calling him many times to clarify details of a story he’d shared or I remembered so that the attention to detail was precise. I am so blessed that I can call him up anytime to ask him all these questions and his memory is perfect as he recalls it like it happened yesterday with vivid detail. Often he will give even more details with each telling of the story. Most all have life lessons within them. He is also a part of the audiobook because each chapter title is something my dad has said. He announces each chapter in the audiobook and because he too is a singer, I have included some of his recordings within the audiobook as a bonus!
Nita Whitaker is a former ICU registered nurse-turned Miss Louisiana, an accomplished singer, and award-winning actress and author. A favorite singer of legendary producer David Foster, Whitaker has sung with some of the most famous voices of our time. She sang the original demos for Whitney Houston’s standards, “I Will Always Love You,” “I Have Nothing,” and “I Look to You” working with producers David Foster and Walter Nelson Jr. Having toured with Andrea’ Bocelli as a guest duet artist, as well a featured vocalist on tour with jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, Whitaker has performed with some of the great singers of our time including Michael Bolton, Lionel Ritchie, Yolanda Adams, Patti LaBelle, Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin, Josh Groban, and Michael Bublé. Whitaker’s first independently published memoir, Finding My Voice: My Journey through Grief to Grace, won the Indie Discovery Book Award (Aging/Death and Dying) and two National Indie Excellence Book Awards in the Grief and Memoir Categories. Born in Shreveport, LA, she champions literacy through her 501c3 non-profit In A World With Books (www.inaworldwithbooks.org) which has put 18,500 new books in the hands of underserved children and counting.
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