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Spelman Spotlight December 18, 1979 Page 7
Interview with Beverly Guy-Sheftall:
Book Produced
on Black Women
Interview with Sterling Brown:
Harlem Renaissance Revisited
By Adele S. Newson
Sterling A. Brown,
distinguished folk poet, writer,
critic and anthologist associated
with the Harlem Renaissance
visited Spelman Nov. 26 at the in
vitation of his former student,
Ms. Teta Banks of Spelman’s
English department.
Brown spoke to an informal
assembly of center wide students
at the Helen T. Albro guest
house. The 78 year old writer en
tertained his admirers with comic
tales and anecdotes of the
celebrated era. He also read
some of his poetry from the
Southern Road’s collections
Brown is one of the few
remaining writers who dominated
the generation of artists respon
sible for the cultural revolt
known as the Harlem Renaissan
ce. “He is a living legend,
remarked Mrs. Milicent J ordon,
English instructor at Spelman, “It
must be a lonely position he’s oc
cupying, ” Ms. J ordon continued.
Theatre Review
Brown brought to the
movement a high degree of race
consciousness. His poetry reflec
ts Negro folk literature. Brown
describes himself as a “blues
poet.” In addition, as a critic
Brown was among the first to
respond to the disturbing charac
terization of the Negro by white
authors.
Brown maintains that .the
phrase “Harlem Renaissance is a
misnomer. He sited the leading
artists of the era as being neither
from or of Harlem. I dialectic
English Brown said “Ain’t no
such thing...It should be (called)
the New Negro Renaissance.”
Brown blasted today’s black
student for his political inactivity.
“I am very glad that “black” is no
longer a term of contempt.”
Brown said in response to the
common phrase “black is
beautiful.” “But it has also made
us complecent,” he added.
Brown’s advice to students is “To
read important books, think and
keep your nose clean.”
Voices, Visions, Voices
By Tracey M. Willard
The drum sound seemed to
originate from out of the dark, as
the audience is seanced by
“Voices, Visions, Voices.” The
stage is dimly highlighted and
grace with the mirage of five dark
figures.
One of the sculptured statues
moves in dance across the stage,
then slowly releases the melodic
tunes of a universal song, “I’m All
You Need”. The audience feels
their souls join in.
This was the setting for
Theatre Without Walls’ first
production “Voices, Visions,
Voices”, which appeared in mid-
October at the Performing
Arena, on St. Charles and N.
Highland.
You might ask yourself, “Why
the name, Theatre Without
Walls?” When first hearing the
name, my own mind began to
wonder in imagination.
“Our idea was to develop a
theatre without boundries,” ex
plained one of its talented mem
bers, Sherryl Bradford. “We want
to ask the people to come in and
get involved, to share in this ex
perience with us.” This is exactly
what Sherryl and the group’s four
other members, Carolyn Gres
ham, Bobby Redding, Jamil El-
Shair, and Alice Lovcelace achi
eve.
“Voices, Visions, Voices”, the
group creatively arranges poetry,
dance, music, and dialogue into a
soulstirring piece. Each axt por
trayed the realities of joy and
pain found in love. But the
presentation was a change from
the usual “man hurts woman syn
drome”. This time the
magnetizing concept was por
trayed universally, with emphasis
given to all people of the world
who hold the power to “feel”.
The acts begin with the
primary stages of love,
“Imagination”, where one first
realizes their capacity to love.
“Too Young Blue”, “Old Man
Looking Glass” and “Messages to
My Sister” reflect some of the bit
ter sorrows experienced when
one is deprived of love. In the last
scene “Let There Be Light” and
“Blossoming”, an inspiring
resolution for peace and
peoplehood is offered to the
audience.
Theatre Without Walls is a
unique change for ordinary
theatre. Its members fulfill their
dream with a sincerity and talent
which is beyond compare. The
audience can not help but
become involved.
“Our basic idea is “LOVE”,
says Sherryl. “Through our
energies of poetry, movement,
and song, we would like to make
others aware of that familiar
feeling which circulates
throughout us all. We want to
spread the word.”
I, myself, felt my blood stir as
the five members reached out to
their audience with a “Universal
Prayer” sounding, “WE ARE
YOUR ‘VOICES, SPEAKING
TO YOU OF ‘VISIONS’ OF
YOUR FUTURE, SPEAKING
IN ‘VOICES’ AS OLD AS
TIME.... WE ARE ‘VOICES’ OF
THE PEOPLE.”
By Michelle D. Dacus
STURDY BLACK BRIDGES:
Visions of Black Women in
Literature is an anthology edited
by and about Black women. A
current release, STURDY
BLACK BRIDGES is edited by
two former members of the
Spelman College Faculty,
Beverly Guy-Sheftall and
Roseann P. Bell, along with Betty
J. Parker of Northeastern Illinois
University. It is the first an
thology of its kind-that is, focused
on Black women as positive
literary artists. Also, it is the first
Black anthology to make use of
oral materals.
During an interview with one
of the editors of STURDY
BLACK BRIDGES, Mrs. Guy-
Sheftall said, “The main thing the
book set out to do was to expose
Black women writers to the
public. Secondly, to make
readers aware that there is a
Black female literary tradition
that can be identified. I think the
book has done those two things
very well.”
STURDY BLACK BRIDGES
is a collection of essays, in
terviews, and poetry complied on
Afro-American, Afrikan and
Carribbean female writers. Part
One, “The Analytical Vision”, is
a collection of critical essays on
Gwen Brooks, Ousmene Sem-
bene, Phyllis Wheatly, Alice
Walker, Lucy Terry, Margaret
Walker, Maya Angelou, Zora
Neale Hurston and Carolyn
Rodgers (whose poetry was the
inspiration for the title of the
book).”
The second section of the
book, “The Converstional
Vision”, is a composite of in
terviews. James W. Ivy in-
Third World Film Festival
terviews Ann Petry about her fir
st novel; Arthenia Bates Millican
and Toni Morrison are in
terviewed by Bettye J. Parker;
Roseann Bell gets perspective
from Addison Gayle and Gayl
Jones and substance from
George Kent; Mrs. Guy-Sheftall
interviews Toni Cade Bambara;
L. Anthony Welch interviews
C.L.R. James and Parker does a
very special interview with five
Mississippi Mothers.
“The Creative Vision”, section
three, includes actual literary
selections from Black women
writers and/or on Black women
writers. The Creative Vision in
cludes short stories, poems and
excerpts by writers such as
Gloria Gayles, Marvin Williams,
Mari Evans, Haki Madhabuti,
Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez and
Nikki Giovanni.
STURDY BLACK BRIDGES
was the original concept of Shef-
tall and Bell. “The initial concept
of the book just came from our
frustrations at not being able to
provide for our students a text
that had a primarily black female
focus,” Mrs. Sheftall, and English
teacher, said. “Bettye Parker
came into it later about midway,
she added. “We divided
bibliographies into various sec
tions. We did it based on where
we were, and our areas of ex
pertise. For example, I took the
Afro-American (perspective)
because it was a strong suit of
mine; Roseann and Bettye took
Afrikan and Carribbean.
“The main thing that makes
this anthology different is that
most Black anthologies focus on
men. This one is focused on
Black women as literary artists.”
Mrs. Sheftall said and adds, with
a notable sense of pride, that
“This anthology includes critical
essays on Black female artists, as
well as actual selections.”
Besides having an un
mistakable sense of pride in
STURDY BLACK BRIDGES,
Mrs. Sheftall, who is now doing
work in a doctorate program at
Emory University, admitted, “I
do think there are some problems
in the book which are more
related to the fact that there were
three editors than anything else.”
Speaking objectively, Mrs. Shef
tall said, “The book does not
have a feminist focus, which is
what I would have liked.” “The
critical essays are edequate, the
interviews are adequate, but I
would have liked to see more
selections in the third section.
That is, more selections from
Black women writers.”
All in all, Mrs. Beverly Guy-
Sheftall is a very interesting,
multi dimensional and aware
Black woman and STURDY
BLACK BRIDGES: Visions of
Black Women in Literature is an
anthology representative of just
such women. “This book is a
beginning and it can lead studen
ts and general readers elsewhere
because of its extensive
bibliography” is what Mrs. Shef
tall feels is an ultimate purpose.
She feels that it is a book that
“can make people aware of some
places they can go and issues they
can get involved in that have to
do with Black women writers.”
Concluding the interview with
a comment on reactions which
the book has been received with
Mrs. Sheftall says, “The main
reaction of the book has been
that, while it is not perfect, it is a
book which was needed at this
time as being very useful.” And it
is.
Movies Come to Spelman
By Anthony R. Smith
When most of us anticipate
going to the movies we visualize
ourselves walking into a theatre,
devouring a bucket of pre
popped, butter-soaked popcorn,
then relaxing to approximately
two hours of non-stop film.
What we see on the screen is
usually a barrage of visual
representations of ideas that were
once in some author’s, scrip
twriter’s, or producer’s creative
mind. Usually we find the creator
is an American, writing stories
about other Americans in an
American setting.
Well believe it or not,
Americans are not the only film
makers making feature-length
movies, and Hollywood isn’t the
only place that produces them.
Evidence can be found at
Spelman College which has been
the spotlight of the Third World
Film Festival.
You may have already
recognized the bright red fist-the
trademark of the festival-on
posters hanging on many campus
walls from Morehouse to Emory.
If you are fimiliar with the
trademark, have you ever taken
the time to read the fine print un
derneath? If you have, then you
should be abreast of the festival’s
events. If not, what you don’t
know won’t exactly hurt, but
what you could learn may be in
spiring.
Since it’s beginning in late
October, the festival has been
showing, for a three-month
period, a special collection of
films from various Third World
countries; Nigeria, Cuba, Brazil,,
and Angola to name a few.
In addition to the films, the
festival has invited some of the
producers of the films and guest
lectures.
Harold Weaver, founder of
The Third World Images and
authority on filmmaking, made
an appearance to support the
festival. Nigerian producer Fran
cis Oladele, who put into film the
book Things Fall Apart, spoke on
his experiences before the
screening of his film. Ethiopian
native, Haile Gerima, producer
of the documentary Wilmington
10, spoke on his theory of film-
making and the development of
his own film. From Senegal,
Ousmane Sembane, who is con
sidered the father of African
Cinema and the producer of an
unforgettable drama called Black
Girl, made a rare appearance at
the festival
These 1 bird World filmmakers
have erased, through their
images the stereo-typical foreign
film; the poorly produced, poorly
acted, poor imitations of
Hollywood’s popular style. These
films are totally unique, not just
because they are from different
countries and cultures, but
because they are produced by in
dependent artists who, with their
own theories of filmmaking, are
trying to survive in a commercial-
oriented industry.
The National Endowment of
the Humanities and the city of
Atlanta has worked with the
Bureau of Cultural Affairs to
bring this international event to,
not only the city of Atlanta, but
to the Atlanta University as well.
Unfortunately, the attendance
to these festivities has been
nothing to brag about. What’s
ironic is that all of them take
place in the A.U. Center. About
seven times out of ten the num
ber of students in the audiences
can be counted on one hand.