Rest in Peace, Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (July 18, 1918-December 5, 2013)

Erna Brodber: Closing the Circle

"Born April 20, 1940 in Woodside, St. Mary, Jamaica, Erna Brodber grew up the daughter of a family acitve in the community affairs of their small town. She immersed herself in academia perhaps more than most other Caribbean authors, gaining a B.A. from the University College of the West Indies (now simply University of the West Indies) and ultimately attaining an M.Sc and Ph.D. She pursued many other professions before focusing on writing, including the posts of civil servant, teacher, sociology lecturer, and fellow/staff member of the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Mona, Jamaica. While at the ISER Brodber worked to collect the oral histories of elders in rural Jamaica, a project that would later inspire her novel Louisiana. 

"While studying as a young woman in the United States, Brodber encountered two powerful forces she had not previously been exposed to: the Black Power and Women's Liberation movements. Coupled with her early familial indoctrination to the importance of community, these social concerns formed a background for her interest in social research and seeking out those who possess untold stories. Her novels too deal with the healing power of the community. Female protagonists struggle both to understand the past, in the form of the historical lineage they possess, and the present, in terms of their own ambiguous roles in the community. But successes in these quests for understanding allow acceptance into a unified if diverse community. Not surprising given her interest in the larger social world, the need to accept diversity and link seemingly opposing groups (white and black, rich and poor) commonly appears in Brodber's work."1

Quoted in its entirety from Postcolonial Web

     Brodber's novel, Louisiana focuses on the journey of a woman named Ella Townsend, who was born in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. After attending school in New York state, she is awarded a grant to venture into the depths of Louisiana culture to interview Sue-Ann Grant (Mammy) King. At first she is dismayed when the elderly woman dies suddenly following their first interview. However, Ella experiences a strange and otherworldly experience at Mammy's funeral. When she returns to her tape recorder, she discovers the emergence of ghostly voices belonging to King, and to her companion known only as "Lowly." Steadily, by compiling trace fragments of information through the tape recorder, Ella weaves together a narrative of these women's lives. In the process, Ella transforms into her new self: one who is spiritually attuned, and intrinsically tied to the ancestors who had brought her to the parish. Ella then changes her name to "Louisiana" to herald her transformation, and to signal the completion of her life coming to full circle. 

    Keeping in mind the trends we have discussed that began with Alice Walker's rediscovery of Zora Neale Hurston, how does Brodber's project in Louisiana contribute to the movement to steer the focus of Africana women's literature toward reconnection with community? How does the excerpt we read from Louisiana engage Morisson's concept of "ancestor as foundation"?

 

1Written by David P. Lichtenstein '99, Brown University, Contributing Editor, Caribbean Web

In Memoriam: Fred Shuttlesworth

"They were trying to blow me into heaven, but God wanted me on Earth." (*usatoday.com/news)

Fred Shuttlesworth, the intrepid Civil Rights activist fought alongside the Reverends Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama. Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, he was well-known for his firebrand style of preaching, and for his devotion to human rights. After a long and eventful life, Shuttleworth passed away from a stroke Wednesday, October 5th. He was 89 years old. During the Civil Rights Struggle, Shuttlesworth gained renown for his undaunted courage and staunch commitment to the Movement. He survived two attempted bombings--one of which destroyed the parsonage alongside the church where he preached. On another occasion in Birmingham, he and his wife were mauled by members of the Ku Klux Klan, where he was viciously beaten with brass knuckles, baseball bats and bicycle chains when the couple attempted to enroll their daughters in the segregated Phillips High School. Miraculously, Shuttlesworth survived intact, suffering only minor bruising; but his wife and daughter, Ruby, were also badly injured in the incident. Among his attackers was the infamous Bobby Cherry, one of the men responsible for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls, aged eleven and fourteen. Though perhaps not as widely known as King and Abernathy, Shuttlesworth's devotion to and sacrifices for the Civil Rights Movement earned him a place of auspice in the history of the Struggle.

In a moving reflection on Shuttlesworth's career, Barry M. Horstman of the Cincinnati Inquirer observes of the Reverend that "...Shuttlesworth brought the struggle into the living rooms of white America through a series of combustible showdowns with the Ku Klux Klan, Southern segregationists and Birmingham's infamous commissioner of public safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor. On the matter of Shuttleworth's run-ins with the notorious "Bull" Connor, he remarks "A guest at Bull's house" — more commonly known as the Birmingham jail — on more than two dozen occasions, Shuttlesworth was viewed by King himself as the person who, because of his confrontational boldness and willingness to put himself in harm's way, was likely to become the movement's first major martyr" (Full text article accessible here. Several years ago while I was a student at the University of Memphis, Reverend Shuttlesworth spoke at the opening night of the University Theater's production of a play dedicated to King's role in the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. Following his presentation, I felt very privileged and fortunate to have met and shaken hands with this man. I was most impressed with his kindness, gentleness, and patience with eager attendees who clustered around him for an opportunity to thank him, to speak to him, or for a picture opportunity. I was deeply saddened to hear of Reverend Shuttlesworth's passing, but I still cherish the opportunity to have met this remarkable man and icon of the Civil Rights Movement.

For those of you unable to access the text, follow this link and you can read Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

Alice Dunbar Nelson: Creole Poet and Renaissance Woman

Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson was born in New Orleans in 1875 to Patricia and Joseph Moore and raised in the Creole culture of the Crescent City. Her childhood in New Orleans is described by scholars as humble; however the precocious and fair-skinned daughter of a former slave rose to become one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance (Gates 936). From early on in her life, she exhibited varied interests and aptitudes at the cello, mandolin, and violin; as well as writing and acting (Gates et al. 936). In 1892 she graduated from Straight University (now Dillard) and began a career as a teacher in the school system of New Orleans. By 1895 she had published her first volume of short stories and poems entitled Violets and Other Tales. She achieved local recognition for her poetry, which garnered her the affectionate attentions of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. It was the common subject of poetry that precipitated an ongoing correspondence between Alice Moore and the accomplished poet from Ohio, whom she married shortly thereafter in a "secret ceremony" in New York. However, their marriage only lasted eight years, from 1898-1906 (Modern American Poetry ). When her marriage to Dunbar dissolved, she moved to Wilmington, Delaware and resumed her teaching.

Dunbar Nelson gained distinction for achievements in multiple genres: poetry, narrative, literary criticism, journalism, and sketches of Creole life. Though she made a clear distinction between imaginative work and the political task of journalism, Dunbar Nelson occasionally 'violat[ed] her dictum, by exploring themes concerned with suffrage and ethnicity in her literary pieces. In her educational and political life, as well as in her art, she was concerned with issues affecting women and African Americans--issues that led her into the almost exclusively journalistic category that characterized her later career. Gloria Hull of the The Modern American Poetry site observes the currency of Dunbar Nelson's literary oeuvre, saying that:

"Dunbar-Nelson addressed the issues that confronted African-Americans and women of her time. In 1915, she served as field organizer for the woman's suffrage movement for the Middle Atlantic states; she was later field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense in 1918 and, in 1924, she campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill" (Hull). 

In an autobiographical piece entitled "Brass Ankles," Dunbar Nelson discloses the issues she encountered concerning the Color Line. She reveals that during her upbringing in the Creole culture of New Orleans, that she often found herself excised from white cultures for her African American heritage; and to near the same extent, ousted by the African American culture for her complexion as near-white. Furthermore, scholars observe that Dunbar-Nelson's poetry was often rejected by publishers the more decidedly political and racially centered, it became(W). 

Dunbar Nelson died in 1935, some six years after the Harlem Renaissance period had died; yet she left behind a body of work--both political and lyrical--that reflects the life and work of a woman dedicated to the concerns of her gender and race. In what ways does Alice Dunbar Nelson's life and career build on or speak to the other texts we've discussed?

Wallace Thurman: Renaissance Man

Among one of the most prolific artists of the Harlem Renaissance was Wallace Thurman. Author, novelist, publisher, editor, dramatist and all-around intellectual, his colleague and friend, Langston Hughes said of Thurman that he was a "strangely brilliant black boy who had read everything, and whose critical mind could find something wrong with everything he read" (1). Thurman would become one of the principal contributors to and sponsors of the Harlem Renaissance creative energy. Among the first to initiate a 'salon' of artists who included Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McCay, Arna Bontemps, and Bruce Nugent, Thurman tried twice to create a literary publication that would capture the energetic zeitgeist of the time. He was asked to edit a literary magazine called Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life--which lasted only two issues; and Fire!! with Hughes and Hurston, but the magazine unfortunately ended after one issue was published. Scholars have reflected that the short life of the publication may have been attributable to Thurman's critique of W.E.B. DuBois's credo that all African American art should serve a propagandist role.

On his own, Thurman offered terse commentary on the literary age and context of the Renaissance. His novel, Infants of the Spring caricatured many of the major figures of the time, one of whom was Zora Neale Hurston--recast as the fictitious Sweetie Mae Carr--a vapid would-be artist and hanger-on who was all flash and little substance. His other notable work was The Blacker the Berry: A Story of Negro Life, which took a hard and critical look at intra-racial discrimination and color consciousness within the black community.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Students,

I hope this post finds you well--and that you were able to find it. For today's discussion, you were to have read selections from Marcus Garvey, and "The Criteria of Negro Art" by W.E.B. Dubois. 

The post that follows this one contains some information and a video concerning Garvey. It is entitled "Marcus Garvey: Pan-Africanism and the Rise of the New Negro Movement." You can follow the link to the right to reach it. I hope you will read and enjoy.

Choose one of the items below to answer in a comment to this post. Give some thought to what you write, and be sure to answer thoroughly the question you choose:

1. Explain what the speaker here means by his comment, "We who are dark can see America in a way that white Americans cannot"? Think about his positioning as a philosopher, writer, and leader of African American arts.

"What do we want? What is the thing we are after? As it was phrased last night it had a certain truth: We want to be Americans, full-fledged Americans, with all the rights of other American citizens. But is that all? Do we want simply to be Americans? Once in a while through all of us there flashes some clairvoyance, some clear idea, of what America really is. We who are dark can see America in a way that white Americans cannot. And seeing our country thus, are we satisfied with its present goals and ideals?" (W.E.B. Dubois).

2. Choose from Marcus Garvey's selections and identify a line or passage that for you demonstrates a changing tide in the way African Americans thought of themselves and their positioning in American society. How does Garvey's words build upon, extend, or continue the projects of iconoclasts like David Walker and Ida B. Wells before him? How might he represent a "new tide" of African American thought?

I look forward to reading your thoughts and responses to this reading, and I will see you Monday! Have a lovely weekend.

Correction!: Read-In Celebrating African American History Month

Carter G. Woodson 1875-1950

Often referred to as "the father of black history," writer, journalist, and historian Carter G. Woodson was one of the first African American intellects to study black history and to challenge the widely held assumption that African Americans had no history. It is to Woodson we owe the tradition of African American History Month. 

Born to former slaves in New Canton, Virginia, Woodson was self-taught, having mastered a rudimentary education by the age of seventeen. At the age of twenty, Woodson earned a high school diploma in the span of two years at Fayette High School(1).

According to the website, African American History Month: Profiles, Carter G. Woodson, "In 1915, Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). The organization was the platform that launched Woodson's mission to raise awareness and recognize the importance of Black history. He believed that publishing scientific history about the black race would produce facts that would prove to the world that Africa and its people had played a crucial role in the development of civilization. Thus he established a scholarly journal, The Journal of Negro History, a year after he formed the ASNLH"(2).

In honor of Woodson's legacy, and that of all contributors to African American History and historical research, my colleague, Dr. Malinda Wade is hosting a "Read-In" in which volunteers may come and read a sample from any text in the African American literary or historical canon. The Read-In takes place on February 14th at 10:45 a.m. in the Verities Sales gymnasium. I urge all who are interested to take part if at all possible.