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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.