Writer’s Quote Wednesday 2015
During this last week of Women’s History Month, I set as a goal to write about an African-American female author that I had never heard of. And, instead of a few, I found many both past and present.
My lack of knowledge in this area is partially reflective of being miseducated in a public school system where there was little or no opportunity to learn about the history, literature and culture of African-Americans in this country.
Added to the equation, I grew up within a family, church and community that either were unaware or failed to share what they knew about the accomplishments and achievements of African-Americans.
Lastly, before retiring five years ago, I focused on learning and working in order to succeed. In doing so, I failed to venture out of my comfort to seek out those things that could have inspired and uplifted me spiritually and emotionally.
So, here I am at the seasoned age of seventy-two attempting to self-educate in literature, especially the works of African-American authors. This is something I choose to explore with the hope that future generations in my family will have access to that which I did not.
Selected Quote and Author
After Googling and reading a number of biographies, Jessie Redmon Fauset peaked my interest and this is the quote I selected.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was a poet, essayist, novelist and mentee of W.E.B. DuBois. For seven years, she worked by his side as the Literary Editor for The Crisis, a magazine published by the NAACP. While working there, she collaborated and supported famous authors like Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes. College literature and English courses introduced me to the works of these men.
Now, it is time for me to get acquainted with the woman referred to as the Literary Midwife who guided and supported these authors and many others during the Harlem Renaissance period.
Her Writings
A talented wordsmith in her own right, Jesse Redmon Fauset, from 1912 through 1933 produced:
- Novels
- There is Confusion
- Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral
- The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life
- Comedy American Style
- Poems
- “Rondeau,” The Crisis
- “La Vie C’est La Vie,” The Crisis
- “‘Courage'” He Said,” The Crisis
- Short Stories
- “Emmy,” The Crisis
- “My House and a Glimpse of My Life Therein,” The Crisis
- “Double Trouble,” The Crisis
- Essays
- “Impressions of the Second Pan-African Congress,” The Crisis
- “What Europe Thought of the Pan-African Congress,” The Crisis
Where Do I Go From Here?
I view this post as the first encounter with Jessie Redmon Fauset; and, I plan to open my space up to learning more. All of her novels are available through Amazon.com. Today, I purchased, “Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral,” and the other three went on my Wish List.
In this season of life, I am grateful for the opportunity to open up my space to exploring the “little known” and “unknown” literary works of authors that peak my interest.
Thank you, Silver Threading, your Writer’s Quote 2015 cracked the door; and, it is exciting to open it and begin this new literary learning experience.
Blogging, Why?
After 2+ years of blogging, am I really a Blogger? Maybe not because I still have difficulty in coming up with a good answer when a non-blogger asks, “Why Do You Blog?”
I pause for a couple of minutes, process the question, and then try to think of an answer that will put me in good favor with the non-blogger.
Low-self esteem and a need to seek the approval of the non-blogger is what I must learn to overcome. I have to Let Go of Ego before I can fully embrace the title of Blogger.
I never asked those who posed the question, “Why Do You Blog” what they thought of blogging. However, I did pose the question to www.answers.yahoo.com to see what non-bloggers thought of bloggers and found the following negative comments:
- “They don’t have an outside life and can’t socialize in real life, so they are trying to socialize on the internet.”
- “Why do people blog if they’re not going to be read? Nobody reads or comments on them.”
- “Bloggers think others care about their lives”
- “People wanna be popular and some want to get money.”
- “People who blog like to tell people about there life -AKA attention seekers.”
- “So that some people can ask bulls…. questions and others can answer?
- “Bloggers think that others care about their life.”
- “Boredom.”
- “I mean personal blog. They’ll write a new post a few times a week, every day, or even a couple of times a day about themselves but the topics are always mundane.”
- “Simple, for some reason these people seem to think they have something useful to say. Unfortunately what they post is nothing more than mindless drivel which does nothing more than highlight their sad little existences.”
- “Simply because they want to, and probably do not have much of a life,”
- “I understand journaling but why would you make it public?”
- “Is it because they have a HUGE need for attention and to let others know they exist?”
- “Because people are narcissistic and honestly think other people are interested in hearing about what they did during the day.”
- “They want to feel that someone is interested in hearing about their lives. It all goes back to being a little kid and jumping up and down screaming, ‘Hey look at me! LOOK AT ME! Are you looking ?? LOOK!!!”
- “What makes people expose their thoughts in online diaries.” Why the heck would you want people to read your diary.”
There were some positive comments. However, I didn’t expect to see the number and severity of the negative comments.
Is it possible that the people, including family members, who asked me over the past two years, “Why Do You Blog”, have views similar to one or more of the above non-bloggers?
I no longer wish to struggle with answering the question, “Why Do You Blog”; so I will take time in the coming week to BE STILL, LOOK WITHIN and WRITE A POST about WHY I BLOG.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh
Photo 101 – Day Fifteen: Landscape and Cropping
Photo 101 – Day Fourteen: Scale and Observation
Photo101 – Day Thirteen: Moment and Motion
Photo 101 – Day Eleven: A Pop of Color
Photo101 – Day Ten: Mystery and Lighting Effects
Writer’s Quote 2015
This week, I selected a quote by Shirley Graham Du Bois.
While still a student at Oberlin College, DuBois wrote and produced a three act opera, “Tom-Toms: An Epic of Music and the Negro.” Featuring an all black cast, it opened at the Cleveland Stadium in 1932. The first performance drew ten thousand and the second fifteen thousand including the Governor of Ohio. DuBois is the first African-American woman to write and produce an opera with an all-black cast.
According to the Oxford Companion to African-American Literature, DuBois other “theater works included:
- Deep Rivers (1939), a musical;
- It’s Morning (1940), a one-act tragedy
- I Gotta Home (1940), a one-act drama
- Track Thirteen (1940), a comedy for radio and her only published play;
- Elijah Raven (1941), a three-act comedy; and
- Dust to Earth (1941), a three-act tragedy.”
Because of the obstacles she faced, as an African-American female, in getting her musicals and plays produced and published, DuBois transitioned to literature.
From 1944 until her death in 1977, she wrote biographical books targeted to reach young African-American elementary school readers. She felt elementary schools lacked access to quality educational resources about African-American and African heroes.
On a personal note, in the late 1940’s and 50’s, my elementary school library as well as the neighborhood public library had books written by DuBois (aka Graham) on:
- Dr. George Washington Carver
- Benjamin Banneker
- Paul Robeson
- Booker T. Washington
- Jean Baptiste Pointe duSable
However, the classroom text books, as I recall, had only 1-2 pages about two African-Americans — Dr. George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington. So, I am very appreciative of the books written by DuBois; and, I regret that the Chicago Public School system did not, apparently, feel it was necessary to include African-American history and literature into the curriculum during the 1940s and 1950s. Hopefully, this is no longer the case.
In addition to her biographical books, DuBois wrote and published two novels:
- There Once Was a Slave (1947)
- Zulu Heart (1974)
In 1951, she married writer and Civil Rights Leader, W.E.B. DuBois. Shirley Graham DuBois died of breast cancer on March 27, 1977.
In this season of life, I seek to open up my space to the “new and different”; and participating weekly in Writer’s Quote, 2015 is, indeed, a “new and different” experience for me. Thank you, Silver Threading, for hosting this event.
SeasonedSistah 