Friday Speak Out: Lucille Clifton

Originally Thelma Lucille Sayles later Lucille Clifton was born June 27, 1936, in Depew, New York although she moved to Buffalo, New York with her family early on in her life. She won a scholarship to Howard University in Washington D.C. but transferred to Fredonia State Teachers College. At Howard, Clifton was exposed to the dramatist and poet Amiri Bakara, also know as LeRoi Jones and another poet, Sterling Brown. Its when Clifton was attending Fredonia State Teachers College that she was experimenting and exploring poetry, drama, and other various things that went on to shape her writing. Clifton held positions at Coppin State College in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1974 to 1979; the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1985 to 1989; Distinguished Professor of Literature and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College, Maryland, from 1989 to 1991; and professor of creative writing at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, beginning in 1998. She served as Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland from 1979 to 1985.

Clifton is the owner of Pulitzer Prize nominations for poetry in 1980, 1987, and 1991, the Lannan Literary Award for poetry in 1997, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1997, the Los Angeles Times Poetry Award in 1997, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award in 1999, and the National Book Award for Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000 (2000) also a National Book Award nomination for The Terrible Stories (1996). NO only that but she has been awarded honorary degrees from Colby College, the University of Maryland, Towson State University, Washington College, and Albright College. Lucille Clifton’s work shows true passion for the things of everyday and she was rightfully recognized for her talents.

(Bio, revised)

Poetry reading on April 3, 2007 at SUNY Fredonia
Download mp3 here
Or click here and scroll down to "Poetry reading by Lucille Clifton"

Friday Speak Out: Alice Walker

In honor of karnythia's share of Alice Walker's "open letter to my sisters who are brave" below is her audio speaking at the Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization event in New York, October 2004.

Click Here

Friday Speak Out: Mary Frances Berry

Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. She was appointed by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. After President Reagan fired her for criticizing his civil rights policies, she sued him and won reinstatement in federal district court. In 1993, President Clinton designated her Chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission. She was reappointed to a six-year term in January, 1999. She resigned from the Commission on December 7, 2004.

Keynote Address given at Minnesota's 23rd Annual
Human Rights Day Conference, held Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 in Saint Paul

CLICK HERE

Friday Speak Out: Toni Morrison

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four children in a black working-class family. Displayed an early interest in literature. Studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities, followed by an academic career at Texas Southern University, Howard University, Yale, and since 1989, a chair at Princeton University. She has also worked as an editor for Random House, a critic, and given numerous public lectures, specializing in African-American literature. She made her debut as a novelist in 1970, soon gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and richly-expressive depictions of Black America. A member since 1981 of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has been awarded a number of literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

Beloved is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Jazz and Paradise are also classic. I learned somewhere that Beloved, Jazz and Paradise are actually supposed to be a trilogy on the post-emancipation African American experience....

Listen to the speech Morrison gave when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1993 here.


(Courtesy for bio and speech)

(Belated) Friday Speak Out: Michelle Obama

Sorry!

With all of the happenings in the last two weeks, I am two weeks and a day late on a Friday Speak Out.

And in honor of all the happenings in the last two weeks, here is a woman who is rapidly becoming my hero.

Now watch the speech and try and tell me you don't want Mrs. Obama to tell you how she really feels about the State of the Black Union? Oh yeah, and she can tell us how Obama feels too--but I really want to know what she thinks. She is the "liberating figure" that Hillary Clinton can't be for me.

Introducing fellow Chicagoan and Whitney Young High School alumnus, Michelle Obama.

part 1


part 2


part 3


part 4


part 5


part 6


part 7 (last)

Friday Speak Out: Amina Wadud

First Muslim woman to lead mixed Friday prayers...and has lived with threats to her life because of it.

Listen (and watch) to it here

Friday Speak Out: Barbara Jordan

New series. I'm going to try to do this every Friday--mainly for myself. I am still trying to figure out what kind of speaker and teacher I want to be.

And, like any performance, that means working with what I've got. I look young, colored and female. Now I won't always look young to most people. But I'll probably always look black. And it presents interesting problems when I'm trying to get my students to listen to me, never mind my professors and the wider world of elite (white male) academics.

Still, I've got to deliver. And the best way to figure how to deliver is to look at some examples.

So this week, and in honor of the election fracas, let's check out Barbara Jordan's keynote address to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. (Courtesy)

Click Here

(If you can't here the audio or don't see the link, click here)

For the text version and more details on whozit/whatzit/where, see American Rhetoric.

Maybe I'll do "Baba Food for Thought" next week.....