leona in another country by james baldwin

Audre Lorde, Lucille Clifton, Frances Harper-these poets and others appear on every syllabus I create, though the vast majority of students who enter my classroom every fall and spring are white. Nor had I suggested that Lorde was only of use to poets who happened to be female and Black. After all, I had not suggested the young sister not read Yeats or Longfellow, only that she also consider a poet I was pretty certain she would not learn about in school (who was also an American, by the way, but never mind). The VIP and I went at it, hammer and tongs, audience squirming. I am my mother’s daughter, constitutionally incapable of backing down from a fight. Man in Detroit (or wherever) whose heart burned brightly for William Butler Yeats. The VIP went on to babble about some kind of shared, American identity and also his pet poetry project in which he had recorded thousands of Americans reading their favorite poem and among these was an old Black man in Chicago (or wherever) who loved Longfellow and another old Black Shame on me for suggesting Lorde, because of her intertwining identities, might speak to that young woman in a way the others would not. That, it turned out, was recommending a Black female poet to an aspiring Black female poet. She nodded.Ī little stunned, I tried to regain my footing.

When he finished, I asked the young woman if I could add to that. He went down his list I don’t remember who he said, only that they were all fine poets, and also white and male. Or maybe she asked the Very Important Poet for some poets she should be sure to read. The event was a fundraiser our job was to sit pretty before an audience and be interviewed by several high school students, aspiring writers all.Īfter the usual round of questions-When did you know you wanted toīe a writer? Where do you get your ideas?-one student, a young Black woman, asked us each to recommend a poet she should be sure to read. I once sat on a panel with a Very Important Poet, a former US laureate.

Leona in another country by james baldwin