The Negro Speaks of Rivers

In honor of National Poetry Month... Langston Hughes poetry:

The Negro Speaks of Rivers 

by Langston Hughes

I've known rivers: 

I've known rivers ancient as the world and 
older than the flow of human blood in human veins. 

 My soul has grown deep like the rivers. 

 I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. 

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. 

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. 

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

 went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy 

 bosom turn all golden in the sunset. 

I've known rivers: 

Ancient, dusky rivers. 

 My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Listen to Langston read it himself here:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722

The Poetry and Leadership of Langston Hughes:

Langston Hughes
1902 - 1967

First published in The Crisis in 1921, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", which became Hughes's signature poem, was collected in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues (1926). Hughes's life and work were enormously influential during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas. Except for McKay, they worked together also to create the short-lived magazine Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists. Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties.   As one of the founders of the Harlem Renaissance, which he practically defined in his essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (1926).

Langston was more than a poet, he was an activist as well. Hughes was unashamedly black at a time when blackness was démodé. He stressed the theme of "black is beautiful" as he explored the black human condition in a variety of depths. His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience. His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Permeating his work is pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind," Hughes is quoted as saying. He confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America’s image of itself; a “people’s poet” who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality. An expression of this is this poem:

"My People" picture book by Charles R. Smith

"My People"

by Langston Hughes

The night is beautiful,

So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,

So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.

Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of black people who went to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet-controlled regions in Central Asia, the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. While there, he met African-American Robert Robinson, living in Moscow and unable to leave. In Turkmenistan, Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian polymath Arthur Koestler. Hughes also managed to travel to China and Japan before returning to the States.

Partly as a show of support for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, in 1937 Hughes traveled to Spain as a correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American and other various African-American newspapers. Hughes initially did not favor black American involvement in the war because of the persistence of discriminatory U.S. Jim Crow laws existing while blacks were encouraged to fight against Fascism and the Axis powers. He came to support the war effort and black American involvement in it after deciding that blacks would also be contributing to their struggle for civil rights at home. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept." In 1953, he was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known “Simple” books: Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Stakes a Claim,Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple's Uncle Sam. He edited the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro and The Book of Negro Folklore, wrote an acclaimed autobiography (The Big Sea) and co-wrote the play Mule Bone with Zora Neale Hurston.

In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

Read more about Langston Hughes and his work here:
http://episoderapture.blogspot.com/2012/04/negro-artist-and-racial-mountain.html

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes
http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313

Gil Scott-Heron, A Voice of Black Culture

Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and recording artist whose syncopated spoken style and mordant critiques of politics, racism and mass media in pieces like “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” made him a notable voice of black protest culture in the 1970s and an important early influence on hip-hop, passed away yesterday, May 27, 2011 at the age of 62 in Manhattan, NY.

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois, but spent his early childhood in Jackson, Tennessee, the home of his maternal grandmother Lillie Scott.^{[citation needed]} Gil's mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, sang with the New York Oratorio Society. Scott-Heron's Jamaican father,Gilbert "Gil" Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow", was a football player who, in the 1950s, became the first black athlete to play for Glasgow's Celtic Football Club. Gil's parents divorced when he was young and Gil was sent to live with his grandmother Lillie Scott.^[4] When Scott-Heron was 13 years old, his grandmother died and he moved with his mother to The Bronx in New York City, where he enrolled in DeWitt Clinton High School. He later transferred to The Fieldston School after one of his teachers, a Fieldston graduate, showed one of his writings to the head of the English department at Fieldston and he was granted a full scholarship.

Scott-Heron attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, as it was the college chosen by his biggest influence Langston Hughes. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture and The Nigger Factory.^[5] He returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan. The Vulture was published in 1970 and well received. Although Scott-Heron never received his undergraduate degree, he had a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University.  Read the full article here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron

Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, and white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influencesRichie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.  The album also included a live recitation of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” accompanied by conga and bongo drums. A second version of that piece, recorded with a full band including the jazz bassist Ron Carter, was released on Mr. Scott-Heron’s second album, “Pieces of a Man,” in 1971.

Mr. Scott-Heron often bristled at the suggestion that his work had prefigured rap. “I don’t know if I can take the blame for it,” he said in an interview last year with the music Web site The Daily Swarm. He preferred to call himself a “bluesologist,” drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics.

Yet, along with the work of the Last Poets, a group of black nationalist performance poets who emerged alongside him in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Mr. Scott-Heron established much of the attitude and stylistic vocabulary that would characterize the socially conscious work of early rap groups like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions and has remained part of the DNA of hip-hop by being sampled by stars like Kanye West. Read full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/music/gil-scott-heron-voice-of-black-culture-dies-at-62.html

http://episoderapture.blogspot.com/2011/05/revolution-will-not-be-televised-gil.html

I Think I'll Call It Morning...

I Think I'll Call It Morning

I'm gonna take myself a piece of sunshine

and paint it all over my sky.

Be no rain. Be no rain.

I'm gonna take the song from every bird

and make them sing it just for me.

Be no rain.

And I think I'll call it morning from now on.

Why should I survive on sadness

convince myself I've got to be alone?

Why should I subscribe to this world's

madness

knowing that I've got to live on?

I think I'll call it morning from now on.

I'm gonna take myself a piece of sunshine

and paint it all over my sky.

Be no rain. Be no rain.

I'm gonna take the song from every bird

and make them sing it just for me.

Why should I hang my head?

Why should I let tears fall from my eyes
when I've seen everything that there is to see

and I know that there ain't no sense in crying!

I know that there ain't no sense in crying!

I think I'll call it morning from now on.

Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949) is an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word soul performer and his collaborative work with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron’s recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. On his influence, Allmusic wrote “Scott-Heron’s unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists”.



For more about Gil Scott heron, visit his website, http://gilscottheron.net/about/.


http://www.afropoets.net/gilscottheron.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron

Maya Angelou, John Lewis and Bill Russell Receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom

"the best of who we are and who we aspire to be" 
President Barack Obama

Today, President Obama honored fifteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House. As the President said, “These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they’ve excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place. I look forward to awarding them this honor.”The Nation’s highest civilian honor, the 2010 Medal of Freedom is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.  The following individuals received the Presidential Medal of Honor Today:

•President George H. W. Bush - George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States.
•Chancellor Angela Merkel - Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

•Congressman John Lewis - John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the Civil Rights Movement.
•John H. Adams - John H. Adams co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970.
•Maya Angelou - Dr. Maya Angelou is a prominent and celebrated author, poet, educator, producer, actress, filmmaker, and civil rights activist, who is currently the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
•Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett is an American investor, industrialist, and philanthropist. He is one of the most successful investors in the world.

•Jasper Johns - American artist Jasper Johns has produced a distinguished body of work dealing with themes of perception and identity since the mid-1950s.

•Gerda Weissmann Klein - Gerda Weissmann Klein is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who has written several books about her experiences.
•Dr. Tom Little (Posthumous) - Dr. Tom Little was an optometrist who was brutally murdered on August 6, 2010, by the Taliban in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, along with nine other members of a team returning from a humanitarian mission to provide vision care in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan.

•Yo-Yo Ma - Yo-Yo Ma is considered the world’s greatest living cellist, recognized as a prodigy since the age of five whose celebrity transcends the world of classical music.

•Sylvia Mendez - Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.

•Stan Musial - Stan “The Man” Musial is a baseball legend and Hall of Fame first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals from 1941 to 1963.

•Bill Russell - Bill Russell is the former Boston Celtics’ Captain who almost single-handedly redefined the game of basketball.

•Jean Kennedy Smith - In 1974, Jean Kennedy Smith founded VSA, a non-profit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center that promotes the artistic talents of children, youth and adults with disabilities.

•John J. Sweeney - John J. Sweeney is the current President Emeritus of the AFL-CIO, and served as President of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.


Maya Angelou is an internationally acclaimed author and poet with over thirty books in print and has received three Grammy Awards for spoken word. Dr. Angelou serves as the Northern Coordinator for The Southern Christian Leadership Conference – she was appointed by the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her Memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” was published in 1970. She received a Pulitzer Prize Nomination in 1972 for “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie.” Her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning,” was written at the request of William Jefferson Clinton for his Inauguration as the 42nd President of the United States and was presented on January 20, 1993. In 1993 Random House published her book “Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems for Women.” In 1995, her poem “A Brave and Startling Truth,” was recited at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Maya Angelou has written plays, screenplays and performed as an actor in television programs, series and films, receiving an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the television series “Roots.” In 1998 Maya Angelou presented her directorial film debut for the film, “Down in the Delta.”
Maya Angelou is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and West African Fanti. With over 1,000,000 Facebook Fans, she is known as “the people’s poet” and her voice continues to reach across lines of age, race, sexual preference and religion. Maya Angelou champions diversity and her belief that “we are more alike than unalike.”  http://mayaangelouonpublicradio.com/bios/maya-angelou/

John Lewis is often called "one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced," John Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties, and building what he calls "The Beloved Community" in America. His dedication to the highest ethical standards and moral principles has

He was born the son of sharecroppers on February 21, 1940, outside of Troy, Alabama. He grew up on his family's farm and attended segregated public schools in Pike County, Alabama. As a young boy, he was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which he heard on radio broadcasts. In those pivotal moments, he made a decision to become a part of the Civil Rights Movement. Ever since then, he has remained at the vanguard of progressive social movements and the human rights struggle in the United States.

As a student at American Baptist College, John Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Lewis risked his life on those Rides many times by simply sitting in seats reserved for white patrons. He was also beaten severely by angry mobs and arrested by police for challenging the injustice of Jim Crow segregation in the South.  Check out EH Post here:  http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/2009/02/cowards-and-heroes.html
While still a young man, John Lewis became a nationally recognized leader. By 1963, he was dubbed one of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. (The others were Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer and Roy Wilkins). At the age of 23, he was an architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in August 1963.   Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence.   In 1977, John Lewis was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to direct more than 250,000 volunteers of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency.

John Lewis holds a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University, and he is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been awarded over 50 honorary degrees from prestigious colleges and universities throughout the United States.  Lewis is the recipient of numerous awards from imminent national and international institutions, including the Lincoln Medal from the historic Ford's Theatre, the Golden Plate Award given by the Academy of Excellence, the Preservation Hero award given by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Capital Award of the National Council of La Raza, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize, the President's Medal of Georgetown University, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, the National Education Association Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award, and the only John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage Award" for Lifetime Achievement ever granted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. The Timberland Company has developed the John Lewis Award, which honors the Congressman's commitment to humanitarian service by acknowledging members of society who perform outstanding humanitarian work. And the company has established a John Lewis Scholarship Fund.
John Lewis authored his biography with writer Michael D'Orso, entitled Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (June, 1998). http://johnlewis.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31

Bill Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a twelve-time All-Star, Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won eleven NBA Championships during Russell's thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career, Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.

Russell is widely considered one of the best players in NBA history. Listed as between 6'9" (2.06 m) and 6'10" (2.08 m), Russell's shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' success. He also inspired his teammates to elevate their own defensive play. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds four times and tallied 21,620 total rebounds in his career. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than fifty rebounds in a game. Though never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, Russell also scored 14,522 career points and provided effective passing.

Playing in the wake of pioneers like Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, Russell was the first African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first African American NBA coach.[1] Frequent battles with racism left Russell with a long-standing contempt for fans and journalists. When he retired, Russell left Boston with a bitter attitude, although in recent years his relationship with the city has improved. Russell is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was selected into NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, into NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980 and named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players that selected into all three teams. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2009, the NBA announced that the NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Russell.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Russell

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/feb/15/winston-salems-maya-angelou-received-medal-freedom-ar-785837/?sc_cid=WSJ-NEWS-PMDlyNews
http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/15/watch-live-president-obama-honors-presidential-medal-freedom-recipients

Harlem Renaissance

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me." 

Zora Neale Hurston

It’s been almost 100 years since the Harlem Renaissance started in New York and Black people in America are experiencing a similar renaissance today. In the spirit of the Renaissance, this year I’ll spotlight some of today’s experience while honoring our past as well. (scroll to bottom of this post to see 2 Cab Calloway Performances) Each month, the posts and pages on this blog will feature contemporary artists, writers and leaders.

Let’s start with a little history about the Harlem Renaissance itself…

"The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. After the American civil war, liberated African-Americans searched for a safe place to explore their new identities as free men and women. They found it in Harlem which became home to some of the best and brightest minds of the 20th century, gave birth to a cultural revolution, and earned its status as "the capital of black America." At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance." 

June 1925 Cover of Opportunity

During this time, arts and venues such as the Cotton Club as well as literature flourished such as "Opportunity:  A Journal of Negro Life" which was published from 1923 to 1949 by the National Urban League. The editor, Charles S. Johnson, aimed to give voice to black culture, hitherto neglected by mainstream American publishing.  To encourage young writers to submit their work, Johnson sponsored three literary contests. In 1925 the winners included Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen. Ebony and Topaz, A Collectanea (1927) was an anthology of the best works published in the magazine.  Other organizations and movements such as the NAACP and Marcus Garvey's "Back to Africa" movement were also birthed during this time as well.

Timeline:  http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/circle/harlem-ren-sites.html



Fauset, Washington, Hurston, DuBois, Garvey

A Few Key Figures:
James Weldon Johnson
Jean Toomer
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Claude McKay
Zora Neal Hurston
Langston Hughes
WEB DuBois
Alain Locke
Marcus Garvey
Lena Horne
Duke Ellington
Ma Rainey
Cab Calloway
Marian Anderson
Louis Armstrong
Booker T. Washington
*******************************************************
See these two videos of Cab in the 50's and Cab 30 years later....he still had it!




http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/430250/Opportunity#http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/harlem-renaissance.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance 

A Negro Love Song

"Heart and Soul" by John Holyfield

"Seen my lady home las' night,

Jump back, honey, jump back.

Hel' huh han' an' sque'z it tight,

 Jump back, honey, jump back.

Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh,

Seen a light gleam f'om huh eye,

An' a smile go flittin' by -

Jump back, honey, jump back.  



Hyeahd de win' blow thoo de pine,

 Jump back, honey, jump back.

Mockin'-bird was singin' fine,

Jump back, honey, jump back.

An' my hea't was beatin' so,

When I reached my lady's do',

Dat I could n't ba' to go -

Jump back, honey, jump back.

Put my ahm aroun' huh wais',

Jump back, honey, jump back.

Raised huh lips an' took a tase,

Jump back, honey, jump back.

Love me, honey, love me true?

 Love me well ez I love you?

An' she answe'd, "'Cose I do"-

Jump back, honey, jump back."

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American to gain national eminence as a poet. Born in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio, he was the son of ex-slaves and classmate to Orville Wright of aviation fame.



Although he lived to be only 33 years old, Dunbar was prolific, writing short stories, novels, librettos, plays, songs and essays as well as the poetry for which he became well known. He was popular with black and white readers of his day, and his works are celebrated today by scholars and school children alike. 

1975 US Postage Stamp

His style encompasses two distinct voices -- the standard English of the classical poet and the evocative dialect of the turn-of-the-century black community in America. He was gifted in poetry -- the way that Mark Twain was in prose -- in using dialect to convey character.

In Paul's short life, he produced 12 books of poetry, four books of short stories, a play and five novels. 

Read more about Paul Laurence Dunbar at:  http://www.dunbarsite.org/biopld.asp



Gathering Sounds

"I gather up each sound you left behind and stretch them on our bed.

each nite I breathe you and become high."  

Sonia Sanchez



Sonia Sanchez

 Renown poet and professor, Sonia Sanchez has been known for her innovative melding of musical formats - like the blues - and traditional poetic formats like haiku and tanka.  Sanchez was the first to create and teach a course based on Black Women and literature in the United States.

Here's Sonia reciting, "Put On the Sleeves of Love" from her upcoming book, Morning Haiku, which will be published January 25, 2011.  Check out her website at http://www.soniasanchez.net/.

I was first introduced to Sonia Sanchez in the movie, love jones when Nina quoted the poem above to when talking to Darius on a date.  Nina's character said that Sanchez's poems made her want to burn her notebook...and I thought, "now I just HAVE to read those poems."

Stay tuned as we highlight black poets monthly.

And This is for Colored Girls....

"When I die, I will not be guilty of having left a generation of girls behind thinking that anyone can tend to their emotional health better than themselves."

Ntzoke Shange

We have to tell our stories..in the telling comes understanding...and with understanding comes healing and power. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf, shares 20 poems, stories of black women that speak to the fabric of a portion of the African diasporic experience. In 1975, this choreopoem was brought to the stage and 35 years later it was brought to the big screen telling the story of colored girls who have considered suicide.

It has been said that suicide is what happens when the pain excees the resources for coping. Other research has shown that people are most suicidal when they enter a state of psychosis and misinterpret reality perceiving there is no hope. In the poem, "A Night With Beau Willie Brown" it says, "she could only whisper, and he dropped them." In the midst of all the abuse, this colored girl had lost her voice, her power. In the movie we see that this was a woman who had definitely considered suicide at a point when all hope was lost.

What's most hopeful about the movie is that the stories are brought to life in such a way as to highlight the power of the black woman. Each story's tragedy teaches lessons of what could have been done with the power these women possessed. Crystal had the power to protect her kids. Tangie did have the power to protect her sister. Juanita and Jo both had the power to protect themselves.

"I LOVED YOU ON PURPOSE..."

African-American women also have an amazing gift of love...love that heals, grounds and attracts love from others. Through all 20 of the poems, each black woman realizes that her love is too delicate, too beautiful, too sanctified, too magic, too saturday night, too complicated and too music to be thrown back into her face. Our love is too vital to the fabric that weaves us together to have it wasted. My love is too powerful to allow someone else to "walk off wid alla my stuff." Each black woman needs to speak her own truth:
"MY LOVE IS TOO..."

The author, born as Paulette Williams, changed her name to Ntzoke (she who comes with her own things) Shange (who walks like a lion) in 1971. The stories Shange shares with us in "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf" shows that each colored girl comes with her own things...the power of love, a voice and the power to protect...and these gifts enable her to walk as a lioness.

"& this is for colored girls who have considered suicide/but are movin to the end of their rainbows"