Newspaper Page Text
Volume XLIV No
www.spelmanspotlight.com
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
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Youth spend time
at Spelman
Spelmanites show young
students a day in their lives.
Redfish cooks up »
creole cuisine
Spotlight’s Shayla Ball
reviews Atlanta restaurant. SWinQS into
Softball season
action
JL.
T T T
n i
A, A,
BAM Poets inspires Spelman’s campus
Goapele wants to
‘Change It AH’
Gina Lawrence interviews Goapele
about her new album and
website.
P5
Summer livin’
Summertime means summer
internships. Now that you have
the job, you need the housing. The
Spotlight has some suggestions.
P3
CNN launches
touring fitness
initiative
Pic
Jr D
Nicole Barden
Staff Writer
Brittny Ray, junior, reads Mari Evans’ “lAm A
Black Woman”.
March 17, 2006, Spelman
hosted part two of the series
“Conversations with Black
Arts Movement Poets” featur
ing Haki Madhubuti with
Jessica Care Moore. The
Spelman community came to
Cosby Auditorium to hear the
poets.
The event was sponsored by
the English Department with
assistance from the Georgia
Humanities Council and the
National Endowment for the
Humanities.
“It’s a wonderful
thing to see the next
generation ol
Spelman students
influenced,” said
President, Dr.
Beverly Daniel
Tatum who delivered
the welcome. She
commended the
English Department
for their efforts to
bring the poets to
campus.
“Many of us forget
S how widespread the
<-> Black Arts
Movement was,” said
— Sharan Strange, the
£ coordinator of the
event and a professor
from the English
Department. Most of the
attention is directed towards
the Northeast which Amiri
Baraka and Sonia Sanchez rep
resent. Being from the
Midwest and focusing much
of his work in that area,
Madhubuti widens the scope.
Madhubuti has published
26 books, and is noted for his
numerous essays and poems.
He is the chairman and pub
lisher of Third World Press,
which he founded in 1967.
He is one of the major figures
of the Black Arts Movement.
In the introduction of the
panelists, Strange quoted Mari
Evans, who had to cancel her
appearance due to a family
emergency. “This [the Black
Arts Movement] is the litera
ture of love, the legacy of love.
It is energized by the love of
Black people.”
The Black Arts Movement
was a time period from the
mid 1960s to the mid 1970s
characterized by the influx of
Black art. The work embraced
Black culture, defined Black
identity, and was politically
charged. The movement is
sometimes labeled as homo-
phobic and sexist, but it is gen
erally seen as a prolific time in
Black literature.
The event also acknowl
edged poets from Spelman.
Brittny Ray, a junior, English
major and creative writing
minor, read I Am A Black
Woman by Mari Evans. Then
Ray and Charla Johnson, a
member of the class of 2005,
read poems from their collec
tions.
The featured poets were
then heard from. Moore read
Not Your Average Angry Black
Woman Poem, a petition for a
national holiday for Black
women. Butt for Sale, a criti
cism ol assimilation, and Art, a
praise ol art’s role in society,
were read by Madhubuti.
“What essentially saved me
was literature and music,” said
Madhubuti. Reading Black
Boy, by Richard Wright was
monumental, he revealed.
“That started me on this long
journey,” he said.
Madhubuti credits his
mother, who was in the sex
trade business, as a major
influence in his life. She was
beaten to death when he was
16.
“It’s nothing more painful
than to see your mother servic
ing men,” he said.
Spriggs credits the Brown
vs. Board of Education ruling
in 1954 with setting the stage
for the Black Arts Movement.
The movement gained support
due to a series of events that
were not all centered on art he
added.
“It was not Baraka by him
self. It was a context ol what
had been going on in our lives
prior to that time,” said
Spriggs.
“We don’t have this incredi
ble movement,” said Moore,
“we are lost in a lot of ways
see Bam Poets on Pg 2 »>
How do you
stay fit?
"I'm in the Diabetes program
at Spelman, where I excer-
sise by walking, doing yoga,
and African dance."
Tersheria Mitchell,
freshman, biology major
‘Herstory’
Miriam Archibong
Staff Writer
The First Year Class
Council co-sponsored the
Sunday worship service in
honor of Women’s Herstory
Month, at Sisters Chapel
Sunday, March 19. Reverend
Melva L. Sampson was the
keynote speaker for the serv
ice.
Rev. Sampson, WISDOM
center project manager,
encouraged Spelman women
to remember that God has a
plan for everyone, and reliance
on Him sustain them and pre
vent them from misusing,
program celebrates Sisterhood
Manager of Sisters Chapel, who spoke at the
Herstory program.
abusing or hurting one anoth
er.
Sampson asked students to
be civil and courteous to one
another as they walk across
campus talking on their cell
phones or sidekicks or as they
listen to their MP3 players.
She encouraged everyone to
instead, make eye contact with
each other and acknowledge
one another as they walk to
and from classes to show a
kinship bond.
At the close of Rev.
Sampson’s sermon, she asked
the audience to imagine a
world wherein instead of
thinking evil thoughts
about others, people
spoke of love. She
described a world
absent of prayers and
wishes for material
things, where people
allow God to provide
for their every need.
“Imagine how sister
hood could be
strengthened, instead
of being frustrated,
upset and anxious...
we should recognize
the gift that God has already
equipped us with. We need
one another.”
Rev. Sampson built on her
theme of sisterhood, by asking
see Herstory on Pg 2 »>