A Look to the Past: Professor Antenor Publishes Memoir on the Immigrant Experience

Life stories can be compelling for many reasons, but for Professor Mildred Antenor, her memoir serves as a voice for the often-overlooked immigrant experience. Born in Brooklyn to Haitian immigrant parents, Antenor has lived between cultures and understands the complexities of identity and overcoming adversity. Her book, The Gladioli Are Invisible: A Memoir, dives deep into her experiences growing up in a predominantly immigrant community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

In her narrative, Antenor shares the struggles of immigrants, the hidden stories and the invisible battles many have faced for survival in the face of discrimination, drugs, poverty, mental health struggles and more. Years ago, she realized the importance of telling her story. “I found going to school and then later on working in the United States, when I talked to people about my experiences in the Haitian community, there was this ‘deer in the headlights’ reaction. They didn’t understand and didn’t know. Some even negated what I was saying, as if it couldn’t be true,” she recalled. “As a Black woman, when someone tells you their truth, you don’t negate them. That’s their truth. You didn’t go through it, so you can’t tell them what happened.”

The memoir, she says, is a tribute to the people she grew up with—particularly women without a voice or recognition in society, to whom she refers as “gladioli” in her title. “The gladioli were invisible,” Antenor wrote. These individuals, largely women, were immigrants like her mother, who struggled in the face of poverty, domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse. Some survived despite the challenges, while others did not.

Antenor was inspired to write the book after sharing her stories with a close friend. “One day, she said to me, ‘Mildred, you should organize those stories and put them in a book.’ I recognized good advice when I heard it,” Antenor said. She wrote towards the goal of honoring the people who shaped her and helped her develop resilience.

This began the nine-year process of writing The Gladioli are Invisible, much of which took place into the night after Antenor finished with her days as a Seton Hall professor and radio journalist and host for WBGO. “I'm pretty much a night owl, you know, and I'm one of those people who will be at my computer at three in the morning writing,” she said. “I think what's interesting is when I sat down to write the book so many years ago, I never thought that the immigration issue would be like a first-tier news item. You know, in our news cycle [...] I wrote the book because I wanted to shed some light on the difficulties that immigrants go through.”

Her voice as a writer and storyteller began to emerge much earlier. By age eight, Antenor had developed an active imagination and a love for storytelling. “I would write a lot in class,” she shared, remembering her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Shad, who encouraged her to write. “Mrs. Shad suggested I write my stories in a folder and give them to her at the end of the year for feedback. That’s what I did. It was a way for me to escape, even back then.” Her imagination, coupled with the social and economic challenges she observed, then evolved into a lifetime of storytelling and sharing knowledge for a living.

Antenor’s memoir also touches on the important role that educators play for young people. A first-generation college student herself, Antenor wrote about how certain teachers in the New York City school system impacted her. “Some teachers, through their selflessness and sheer kindness, changed my life,” she noted. And so, as part of Antenor’s commitment to honoring what came before, she pays it forward. She helps teach a free summer SAT prep course for high school students at Seton Hall, and as a long-time professor in the English department, teaches Business Writing.

Antenor has also taught in the Core, which she says has given her "a remarkable opportunity to present complex, historical and philosophical concepts to students." "It also allows me to combine what I value as an educator," she told Nancy Enright, Ph.D., after being honored in 2023 at St. John’s University. 

"Her students find her tough, but inspiring and real," said Jonathan V. Farina, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "She brings important topics that affect individuals and businesses alike into the classroom to foster lively discussions about how organizations respond to current events, whether political, economic, or social."

Professor Antenor has never stopped sharing stories. For over 16 years, she has hosted “The WBGO Journal” on WBGO 88.3 FM radio, where she reports on women’s matters, race, equality and justice. She says she loves the work in part because it enables her to foster understanding in listeners who may not know about or understand the immigrant experience.

The Gladioli Are Invisible has been praised by readers for its candid portrayal of immigrant life in America. One reviewer on Amazon wrote, “Mildred Antenor has a tremendous gift for taking the reader into the very soul of each one of these real-life characters. You will feel what they feel as they are taken through their personal struggles and triumphs.”

In all her work, Professor Antenor remains focused on the value of the past as a teacher. “It’s important for people to hear these stories,” she emphasized. “It’s a way to understand, to empathize and to ultimately change.”

Categories: Arts and Culture