Cicely Tyson: from the Perspective of André Leon Talley Cicely Tyson Is Indelibly Etched Into Our African-American Cultural Compass
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Cicely Tyson: from the perspective of André Leon Talley Cicely Tyson is indelibly etched into our African-American cultural compass. As one of the most significant Black actresses during her ninety-six years, she established a moral compass: she became the standard bearer, raising her bar to the highest level of excellence, and exceptionalism and brilliance. She refused to cave in to the Hollywood system, and said she would rather "starve" than accept demeaning, stereotypical roles. At every moment, in her existence, she was a proud lady; she demanded respect and she treated everyone with respect. I would like to speak about how she walked, how she spoke, and how she revealed (in her fine acting roles) a universality of strength, determination, sheer force of will, independence, and her natural blackness, the soaring tower, the Black woman. She became the woman, through her confidence, and her power, every woman. One could watch her in her roles and find in her performance, one's own mother, one's own grandmother. One's favorite aunt, that cousin, that sister, your niece, that favorite neighbor who inspired you by her sense of grace. Ms. Tyson bore on her small, elegant shoulders, the weight of her entire race. She bore it, not as a burden, but as a proud duty. She walked with simplicity and in her career and her personal life, she was a great lady. She was our Queen. She spoke like a Queen, in exacting cadences. Her voice was incandescent, it illuminated and gave light. Our Queen, born Cicely Tyson, in East Harlem, New York in 1924, was from a family of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis. The youngest of three children, she graduated from the Charles Evans Hughes High School. Her first job was a typist; she quickly rose up from that typewriter and declared to herself, "God didn't mean for me to spend the rest of my life in front of a typewriter." Then, she became a successful model. That was not enough for her; so she began to study acting. By 1963, she landed the first role, for a man or a woman, (the first Black character) on a CBS weekly show. She kept going and she kept studying. Somehow, Cicely Tyson knew, from her strong mother, who was a woman of Faith, that she had more to give to the world. Tyson's response to her world, began, at all times, with an engaging smile. It was a smile as warm as a peach cobbler on a wooden table, in the middle of a family Sunday meal. Then followed, her spoken words. Her articulation of the English language; in its eloquent and precision delivery was artful, it was magic. It was as if she had within her use of her thoughts and words, the supreme power of some ancient Delphic oracle. She used the delicacy of her fine features, in her beautiful face; she created a plethora of emotional rainbows with her eyes, her quiet knitted brow, her simple blink of her eyes. In her nearly 100 works of films, plays and television, her face becomes so many incredible rainbows, of laughter, love, disdain, joy, and unconditional love. PHOTO: © Annie Leibovitz At the age of forty-seven, Tyson was cast in her breakout role, in Sounder, as Rebecca. In this film, for which she was nominated as Best Actress, in 1972, she portrays a Louisiana sharecropper mother, and wife: she is broke down by racism, brutality, and poverty. Her house has no luxury, her kitchen has no fresh fruit. She has one pair of shoes, yet her house is rich in unconditional love. She is living her hardscrabble life, with three children and a husband she greatly loves and respects. This film is the seminal Hollywood film, that shows with dignity, the life of sharecroppers, choked by the systemic white racist landowners. Every scene Tyson is in, she portrays dignity, and pride. She holds her head up high, underneath that sweat stained straw hat, as she exchanges a sack of walnuts she has picked for one dollar and twenty cents. She then barters with the white store owner to buy two eggs, some flour, some sugar, vanilla extract and nutmeg and chocolate to bake a cake to take to her husband in jail. This cake and her baking it, is symbolic of all the cakes cooked by any Black woman, who understands food is a conduit of love. It is a supreme moment in the history of Black film. Another is when she runs out in the field to welcome home, her husband, who has been sent off to a prison camp. As she runs quickly in the noonday heat, her arms like huge giant sails, filled with a powerful wind, propels her into her husband and her children's loving arms. The director got this in one take; Cicely Tyson communicated through her soul and her mind, the necessary flawless diamond of a performance. A member of The Abyssinian Baptist Church, we as a member of a large church family, always welcomed her when she glided down the aisle to her seat, up front, behind the officers of the church on Sunday morning. When she was photographed by the great American photographer Annie Leibovitz, for Vanity Fair, she asked could the portrait be taken in the sanctuary. And so it was, days before she transitioned, that she came back to the sanctuary to be interviewed by Gayle King, the television journalist, for her memoir, Just As I AM. She loved her church; she loved gracefully gliding,on her perfectly balanced Manolo Blahnik heels to her pew, she donated in honor of her church loving mother, Fredricka Theodosia, a domestic worker. She was always escorted by her dear friend, couturier, B. Michael. He was not only her friend, but was her exclusive couture designer. She wore the most elegant, yet dramatic hats, a throwback to a tradition and a time, when ladies dressed to the hilt. Her stockings, her gloves, her coats were chosen with great discipline, and personal attention to quality and luxury. When she received her honorary Oscar in 2018, she wore gray and silver crystal pleating and superb silver lamé leather opera length gloves. Total elegance. I always looked forward to greeting B. Michael and Cicely in church, after service: just to have that warm smile and that golden perfect diction, like fresh butter flow over me. I know Cicely Tyson is communing with the great ones now; people she worked with and loved. As well as icons, and legends and divas and personalities who changed the world. She is now up there with the giants: Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Marion Anderson, James Baldwin, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Louis Armstrong, and Alvin Ailey, and jazz genius, Miles Davis, to whom she was married for seven years. On Wednesday, January 27th the day before she died, Ms. Tyson appeared on a television morning talk show. The host asked her with profound respect, "Ms. Tyson, what is your secret to a long, great life?" Her answer: "I never smoked, I never drank and I never took drugs. Upon the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, I was so shocked, that I had to do something. I became a vegetarian. So for half of my life, I have only eaten vegetables." She also lived a healthy life of giving back to mankind and to others. She helped found the Dance Theater of Harlem, after 1968 and the death of Dr. King. And, there is a magnet school in East Orange, New Jersey, so aptly named The Cicely Tyson High School of Performing and Fine Arts, which she supported generously during her life. She received all her great tributes while she lived: President Barack Obama, awarded her the highest honor of the land, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition to her honorary Oscar, she won three Emmys, a Peabody Award for career achievement and was inducted into The American Theater Hall of Fame (2018) and The American Television Hall of Fame (2020). What does Cicely Tyson want to be remembered as? Not as Madame Icon? Not as Legendary Civil Rights advocate? Not as a woman who shattered all existing norms in her work? She simply shared with Gayle King, on that last CBS interview in the sanctuary of Abyssinian Baptist Church, exactly one week before her death, she said with great clarity, she wished to be remembered by these words. "I done my best." Cicely Tyson was better than best. She was the Best. She shall endure through the ages. ~ André Leon Talley .