EDITOR'S NOTE Gwendolyn Brooks What shall I give my children? who are poor, Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land, Who are my sweetest lepers, who demand No velvet and no velvety velour... —Annie Allen In Annie Allen as in her other poetry over the last sixty years, Gwendolyn Brooks offers powerful insights into the human experience. In this issue of Humanities we look at the life and work of Brooks, who has been chosen as the 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. She is the twenty-third recipient of the honor, which is the highest Gwendolyn Brooks, 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in award the federal government bestows for distinguished achievement the Humanities. — © 1994 by Jill Krementz in the humanities. Brooks calls Chicago her home. The South Side, where she grew up and still lives, has become her poetic world as well. Vivid characters have come to inhabit it: Satin-Legs Smith in "wonder-suits in yellow Humanities and in wine,/ sarcastic green and zebra-striped cobalt." Gas Cady, "the A bimonthly review published by the man who robbed J. Harrison's grave of mums/ and left the peony bush National Endowment for the Humanities. only because it was too big (said Mama)..." Mary, the gang girl, Chairman: Sheldon Hackney "a rose in a whiskey glass." The sixtyish sisters of the Mecca, Director of Communications Policy: "the twins with the floured faces, who dress in long stiff blackness,/who Gary L. Krull exit stiffly together and enter together/ stiffly,/ muffle their Mahler, finish their tea..." Brooks gives "a view of life," writes Blyden Jackson in Black Poetry in Editor: Mary Lou Beatty Assistant Editors: Constance Burr America, "in which one may see a microscopic portion of the universe Susan Q. Jaffe intensely and yet, through that microscopic portion see all truth for the Ellen Marsh human condition wherever it is." Writer-Editor: Amy Lifson The first collection of her poems, A Street in Bronzeville, appeared in Editorial Assistants: Nicole Ashby 1945, followed by Annie Allen, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. More Steven Snodgrass books of poetry appeared: The Bean Eaters, In the Mecca, Riot, Family Pictures, Beckonings, To Disembark, Black Love, The Near-Johannesburg Boy, Editorial Board: Marjorie Berlincourt, Winnie, Children Coming Home among them, as well as a novel, Maud George F. Farr, Jr., Guinevere Griest, Martha, and an autobiography, Report from Part One. Marsha Semmel, James Herbert, Along with writing poetry, Brooks has been a teacher of poetry, and Carole Watson as Poet Laureate of Illinois for the last twenty-five years, has paid for Marketing Director: Joy Evans prizes out of her own pocket to encourage promising talent. She has more than seventy honorary degrees, and is currently Distinguished Design: Crabtree & Jemison, Inc. Professor of English at Chicago State University, where a chair and cultural center have been named in her honor. The opinions expressed in Humanities are those Her concern for the rising generation of poets carries echoes of Brooks's of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Endowment policy. Material appearing in this own childhood. Her first four poems were published in the Hyde Parker publication, except for that already copyrighted, when she was just eleven; she recalls in her autobiography her mother's may be freely reproduced. Please notify the belief in her work, and being taken to church meetings where she met editor in advance so that appropriate credit can be given. Humanities (ISSN 0018-7526) is pub­ two of the greats of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson and, lished bimonthly by the National Endowment later, Langston Hughes. From Johnson the young Brooks got advice on for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, how to develop a critical sense by reading the modernists—T.S. Eliot and N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. Telephone: 202/606-8435; fax: 202/606-8240. Ezra Pound and e.e. cummings. From Langston Hughes came encour­ agement and something deeper—an example. Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C., "Mightily did he use the street," Brooks was to write years later. "He and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to United States found its multiple heart, its tastes, smells, alarms, formulas, flowers, Government Printing Office, Superintendent of garbage and convulsions. He brought them all to his table-top. He Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402. New crushed them to a writing-paste. He himself became the pen." subscriptions and renewals: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, The words were ones that could describe Brooks herself. P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Annual subscription rate: $13.00 domestic, —Mary Lou Beatty $16.25 foreign. Two years: $26.00, $32.50. For subscription questions or problems, telephone: 202/512-2303; fax: 202/512-2233. 2 MAY/JUNE 1994 HUMANITIES THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Page 4 Page 14 Page 21 - The 1994 Jefferson Lecture Other Features Departments 4 A Cc Jacob Lawrence: 17 Noteworthy Poet Gwendolyn Brooks and The Migration Series Endowment Chairman Sheldon By Constance Burr 35 Calendar Hackney discuss the art and Vivid images tell the story of power of poetry. black workers moving north. 44 In Focus By Elizabeth Horne 7 Gwendolyn Brooks: 18 Shaping the Future Gary Holthaus: Challenging An Appreciation By Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Popular Myths By D. H. Melhem Richard Newman A humane vision, a heroic voice. A new research guide to African-American history 1 The Humanities Guide 8 Beari and culture. 45 Centers and International By Rita Dove 21 "Pleading Our Own Cause" By precept and example, Brooks Research Organizations inspires generations of artists. By Janis Johnson By Ken Kolson Periodicals in a Wisconsin library chronicle African- 10 Excerpts American life. 46 Annual List of NEH- Supported Books and 12 Taking Gwendolyn Brooks Rediscovering the Humanities Museum Catalogues Back to Her Neighborhood in Ukraine By Matthew Kiell 54 Deadlines By Martha Bohachevsky Chomiak Teachers at Dunbar Vocational An American history professor High School explore the utility describes the changing academic of poetry. climate in Kiev. 24 Black Woman in Russia By Gwendolyn Brooks Impressions at an international writers' conference. HUMANITIES 3 A Conversation with GWENDOLYN BROOKS —Courtesy of The Contemporary Forum 4 MAY/JUNE 1994 Sheldon Hackney: You are quoted as arm to lean on is implicit. Implicit: do having said that being both an Ameri­ not make plans to do any leaning. can and a black person, you felt you Remember for example, Beirut, had the riches of two cultures as a remember Bosnia. It is not so easy for writer, that that was a great advan­ an American to abstain from 'being an tage. This is really taking W. E. B. American.' However roots-proud you Du Bois's comment about the two- as a Black may be, and my roots are in ness of American blacks, and turning the sweet earth of Africa; when asked it to advantage in some way. Do you 'what are you' in Dublin, Devon, Lon­ feel that it has been an advantage to be don, Israel, Iran, Ghana, in Moscow or black in America as a writer? Madrid, it is expedient and 'natural' to reply, twingelessly, 'American.' It is Gwendolyn Brooks: I'm won­ the only answer that will interest the dering where I said that, but I questioner. The questioner is impa­ believe I can still endorse it. tient. The questioner is ready for the It's not perhaps something that Definer behind you. The questioner I would have elected if I had has small time, and no time for your a choice. efforts at self-clarification." Don't you think that you can understand my saying that it Hackney: I have had not the same would have been right, perhaps, experience, but I have had a similar with a capital R, to have been experience of never having felt more hen NEH Chairman Sheldon Hackney spoke born in Africa and stayed in American than when abroad. Africa. I feel right about saying oks: Yes, yes. It's interesting. that to you. I'd like to quote from a couple of paragraphs Hackney: I would guess from what with Gwendolyn Brooks, the 1994 Jefferson that I have here that I've titled you say that you would endorse the "On Being An American." positive aspects of America, that is the ideal of America, but also caution Hackney: Good. Lecturer in the Humanities, the conversation Americans not to neglect their his­ >oks: "In America you feel a tory. The history is there. It is what little or a lot disoriented so far as has happened.... 'being an American' goes. In the oks: Positive and negative. turned to "the delicious agony" of writing last few decades many Ameri­ cans have learned an easy con­ Hackney: Positive and negative, yes. tempt for America; and true, a Is that an authentic stance for a writer country that for so long to take? poetry. Brooks is the author of nineteen vol­ endorsed slavery, endorsed oks: Well, I can't speak for other lynching, endorsed official seg­ writers, I just said what I feel. Other regation, endorsed the Vietnam writers are saying all kinds of things 'action,' and could be capable of umes of poetry, among them ANNIE ALLEN, these days. judging political conspiracy acceptable, is not to be blue­ Hackney: You're exactly right. Let me ribboned across the board. But go back into some of your biography. which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. traveling to other countries You won the Pulitzer Prize at the age helps you italicize American of thirty-two in 1950 for Annie Allen.