My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 108

Between 1969 and 1984 my life was
linked to Sterling Brown’s in several
ways. His life in many ways shaped my
own literary career and resulted in my
decision to become a literary activist.
Perhaps even the idea of becoming a
poet might be linked to hearing Brown
read his poems on campus around 1969.
Growing up in the South Bronx,
I had never attended a poetry reading
or heard someone read poetry in
public. What I recall about my first
Brown reading was the fascinating “lies”
he told in between poems. The “lies”
were an introduction to his skill as a
storyteller; listening to them, one
became witness to Brown’s wit and
wisdom. Brown introduced me to what
one might define as a distillation of
the black experience. My introduction
to what Brown called his Southern
Road occurred at a time when I had
just left New York and my family’s
West Indian roots. I became aware of
Brown’s poetry at the same time I had
started reading books like Black Power
by Stokely Carmichael and Charles
Hamilton, Soul on Ice by Eldridge
Cleaver, The Wretched of the Earth and
Black Skin White Masks by Frantz
Fanon and the early poetry books of
Sonia Sanchez, Don L. Lee, Norman
Jordan and Amiri Baraka.

I recall in 1969, Sterling Brown being
mistaken for a white man during
the evening activities of the “Towards
A Black University Conference.”
His entrance into the Howard gym
for a cultural evening was met
with opposition from black militant
security guards. This incident
(if nothing else) perhaps begged the
question — if this was indeed a
“Towards A Black University
Conference,” in which direction were
black people actually heading?

In his own words, Brown saw himself
as a minor poet and a major teacher.
His legacy, some believe, can best be
appreciated by looking at his students
or the numerous intellectuals he
influenced. I find it difficult to accept
the idea of Brown as a minor poet
and I believe it is important to
continue to examine and write about
his life. One might ask what did
Brown consider to be his best poetry
and whether others agree.
In his own anthology, The Negro
Caravan, (1941) co-edited with Arthur
P. Davis and Ulysses Lee, we find
the following poems included: “Long
Gone,” “Slim in Hell,” “Southern
Road,” “Old Lem,” “Break of Day,”
and “Strong Men.”
Did Brown select these poems or did
his co-editors?
In 1971, when Arthur P. Davis and
Saunders Redding edited Cavalcade:
Negro American Writing From 1760
to the Present, they included Brown’s
poems: “Odyssey of Big Boy,” “Old
Lem,” “Sister Lou,” “Memphis Blues,”
“Slim in Atlanta,” and “Remembering
Nat Turner.”
How an author’s work is represented
in anthologies plays a significant role
in how a writer will be taught and
remembered. However, anthologies
capture not only the views and politics
of the editor, but they also reflect the
times during which they are edited and
published. We see this happening to
the poetry of Sterling Brown around
the time I met him.

BLACK RENAISSANCE NOIRE

It took place ten days after his 83rd
birthday and 15 years after I first met
him on the campus of Howard
University. Sterling A. Brown a native
of Washington, D.C. had a long
distinguished association with the
university. When describing his
relationship with Howard University
he often said he was a man “hired,
fired and rehired.”

The Sterling Brown poems I found
memorable were “Long Gone,” “Ma
Rainey,” and “Old Lem.” These were
the poems I enjoyed hearing Brown
recite. These are the Sterling Brown
poems I now and then read at my own
readings. Not included on my list
is “Strong Men” which many might
consider Brown’s signature poem.
It was a poem he would often conclude
his readings. According to a comment
made by Michael Thelwell (one of
Sterling’s students), Brown once ended
his readings with the poem “Old Lem.”
This change probably took place in
the late sixties and early seventies.
It might be interesting to speculate why
the change. The poem “Strong Men”
can be viewed as a long riff on a line
composed by Carl Sandburg. It is a
poem, however, that should be noted
for its historical summary of the black
experience as well as being visionary.
Brown refers or gestures to the future
by describing how the strong men
cannot be held back and that they are
coming on.. The result is a poem
that unlocks the door of transformation
and embraces a future of infinite
possibilities. Little did I know this when
I was an undergraduate student at
Howard University.

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