tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/maya-angelou-10704/articlesMaya Angelou – The Conversation2023-03-02T13:24:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915532023-03-02T13:24:11Z2023-03-02T13:24:11ZThe brief but shining life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet who gave dignity to the Black experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496205/original/file-20221118-20-deoymx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C329%2C3666%2C5164&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1902 portrait of Paul Lawrence Dunbar. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/black-and-white-portrait-of-paul-lawrence-dunbar-american-news-photo/532291018?phrase=paul%20lawrence%20dunbar&adppopup=true">Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/daav/learn/historyculture/paullaurencedunbarslifestory.htm">Paul Laurence Dunbar</a> was only 33 years old when he died in 1906.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/wellesley30593">short yet prolific</a> life, Dunbar used folk dialect to give voice and dignity to the experience of Black Americans at the turn of the 20th century. He was the first Black American to make <a href="https://blogs.libraries.wright.edu/news/outofthebox/2022/02/04/celebrating-150-years-of-paul-laurence-dunbar/">a living as a writer</a> and was seminal in the start of the <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/power-poetry-new-negro-renaissance-black-arts-movement">New Negro Movement</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/daav/learn/historyculture/paullaurencedunbarslegacy.htm">Harlem Renaissance</a>.</p>
<p>Dunbar also penned one of the most iconic phrases in Black literature – “I know why the caged bird sings” – his poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46459/sympathy-56d22658afbc0">Sympathy</a>.”</p>
<p>“… When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings –
I know why the caged bird sings!”</p>
<p>Published in 1899, “Sympathy” inspired acclaimed Black writer and activist <a href="https://www.mayaangelou.com/">Maya Angelou</a> to use Dunbar’s line as the title of <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/3924/">her seminal autobiography</a>.</p>
<p>But Dunbar’s <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/what-to-do/events/keeping-his-legacy-alive-dunbar-brought-humanity-to-the-black-man/3EAQPV36IRE2NOHJLIUCMKPFXU/">artistic legacy</a> is often overlooked. This, despite the fact that his work influenced a number of other great African American literary giants, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/03/archives/scholars-compare-2-black-poets.html">Langston Hughes</a>, <a href="https://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_1B73D0E4B0124AB7B5804E07F076DC24">Nikki Giovanni</a>, <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2016/04/lift-evry-voice-and-sing-james-weldon-johnson-and-national-poetry-month/">James Weldon Johnson</a>, <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/zora-hurston">Zora Neale Hurston</a> and <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/margaret-walker">Margaret Walker</a>.</p>
<p>In a very real sense, Dunbar is your favorite poet’s favorite poet.</p>
<h2>A blooming life of writing</h2>
<p>Born on <a href="https://poets.org/text/paul-laurence-dunbar-150">June 27, 1872</a>, to two <a href="https://www.ohiomagazine.com/ohio-life/article/class-of-'90">formerly enslaved</a> people from Kentucky, Dunbar was <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/story/lifestyle/travel/2023/02/10/paul-laurence-dunbar-house-in-dayton-now-a-museum-and-memorial/69884540007/">raised by his mother</a>, and they eventually settled in Dayton, Ohio.</p>
<p>While there, Dunbar <a href="https://www.ohiomagazine.com/ohio-life/article/class-of-'90">attended the integrated Dayton Central High School</a>. An exceptional writer, Dunbar was the <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/did-you-know-two-dayton-most-famous-people-ever-were-high-school-buddies/syUINkAejvrv28fDDfQDcM/">only Black student</a> in his class and became editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper as well as a member of the literary and drama clubs and debating society.</p>
<p>He also <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/did-you-know-two-dayton-most-famous-people-ever-were-high-school-buddies/syUINkAejvrv28fDDfQDcM/">became friends</a> with a white classmate who, with his brother, would later invent the airplane – <a href="https://www.nps.gov/daav/learn/historyculture/orvillewrightslifestory.htm">Orville Wright</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A postage stamp bearing the image of a black man resting his chin on his hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496219/original/file-20221118-26-fy7zgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A U.S. postage stamp of Paul Laurence Dunbar issued in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/dunbar-1975-royalty-free-image/176786645?phrase=paul%20lawrence%20dunbar&adppopup=true">Lawrence Long/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The two <a href="https://wrightstories.com/paul-laurence-dunbar-the-wright-brothers-friend/">knew each other well</a>.</p>
<p>Their friendship led to business as the Wright brothers, who owned a printing press, were the first to print Dunbar’s writings, including the newspaper Dunbar started and edited, the<a href="https://lithub.com/how-one-of-americas-most-influential-black-writers-a-pioneering-american-aviator/"> Dayton Tattler</a>, the first Black newspaper in that city.</p>
<p>After high school, the lives of Dunbar and Wright took different turns. </p>
<p>Unable to find consistent pay for his writing, Dunbar worked a variety of jobs, including as a janitor in one downtown Dayton office building and as <a href="https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2017/02/22/paul-laurence-dunbar-elevator-boy-accomplished-poet/#.Y_0AhOzMLt0">an elevator operator</a> in another. Not one to miss a business opportunity, the 20-year-old Dunbar sold his first book of poetry, “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oak-and-Ivy">Oak and Ivy</a>,” to passengers he met on the elevator.</p>
<p>He found another such job after he moved to Washington, D.C., and worked stacking shelves at the Library of Congress. According to his wife, <a href="https://poets.org/poet/paul-laurence-dunbar">Alice Dunbar</a>, an accomplished writer in her own right, it was there that <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2020/02/caged-bird-inspired-by-the-library-of-congress/">her husband</a> began to think about a caged bird. </p>
<p>“… The torrid sun poured its rays down into the courtyard of the library and heated the iron grilling of the book stacks until they were like prison bars in more senses than one,” Dunbar <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2013/06/the-caged-bird-sings-paul-laurence-dunbar-at-the-library-of-congress/">wrote</a>. “The dry dust of the dry books … rasped sharply in his hot throat, and he understood how the bird felt when it beats its wings against its cage.”</p>
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<img alt="A young black man dressed a dark suit sits in a chair with a book and pen resting in his lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512518/original/file-20230227-1260-iaxnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1901.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dunbar-paul-laurence-poet-usa-27-06-1872-published-by-news-photo/541080427?phrase=Paul%20Laurence%20Dunbar&adppopup=true">ullstein bild/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Dunbar’s first break came when he was invited to recite his poems at the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40192873">1893 Worlds Fair</a>, where <a href="https://www.paullaurencedunbar.org/2022/s097">he met Frederick Douglass</a>, the famous abolitionist. Impressed, Douglass gave Dunbar a job and <a href="https://poets.org/poet/paul-laurence-dunbar">called him</a> the “the most promising young colored man in America.”</p>
<p>Dunbar’s second break came three years later. On his 24th birthday, he received a glowing <a href="https://bindings.lib.ua.edu/gallery/dunbar_harpers.htm">Harper’s Weekly review</a> of his second book of poetry, “<a href="https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/dunbar/3/">Majors and Minors</a>,” from the prominent Ohio-raised literary critic William Dean Howells. </p>
<p>That review cam with a mixed blessing. Howells’ praise of <a href="https://www.bu.edu/cas/magazine/fall09/jarrett/essay-jarrett.pdf">Dunbar’s use of dialect</a> limited Dunbar’s ability to sell his other styles of writing.</p>
<p>But that same review <a href="https://www.flcourier.com/townnews/literature/author-digs-deep-to-give-unprecedented-view-of-renowned-writer/article_9caf6b92-1a5c-11ed-b36f-3f13201efa98.html">helped catapult</a> Dunbar to international acclaim.</p>
<p>His stardom didn’t last long, though.</p>
<p>Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, Dunbar died from complications of the disease on Feb. 9, 1906. </p>
<p>But his work survives.</p>
<h2>Dunbar’s musical legacy</h2>
<p>In all, Dunbar wrote 600 poems, 12 books of poetry, five novels, four volumes of short stories, essays, hundreds of newspaper articles and lyrics for musicals.</p>
<p>His poetry has been continuously set by composers, from his contemporaries to living composers still living today, including <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/241/">Carrie Jacobs Bond</a>, <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/35/">John Carpenter</a>, <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/99/">Harry Thacker Burleigh</a>, <a href="https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=music_etds">William Bolcom</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8YIKzzohNU">Zenobia Powell Perry</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://songofamerica.net/song/sympathy/">Florence Price’s</a> numerous settings of his texts include popular and advertisement music, while <a href="https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/sgo/texts/dunbar.html">William Grant Still’s</a> “Afro-American” symphony features spoken epigraphs of Dunbar poems before each movement.</p>
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<img alt="In this image of a poster for the 1900 musical Casino Girl, a song written by a black man is listed underneath a white women riding a horse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496200/original/file-20221118-12-frj8kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Image of song written in 1900 by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Will Marion Cook.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sheet-music-cover-image-of-down-de-lovers-lane-by-paul-news-photo/551557189?phrase=paul%20lawrence%20dunbar&adppopup=true">Sheridan Libraries/Levy/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Dunbar’s legacy in apparent not only in the concert hall, but on the theatrical stage as well. </p>
<p>Dunbar was librettist for an operetta by <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/358/">Samuel Coleridge Taylor</a>, “Dream Lovers,” written specifically for Black singers. </p>
<p>Dunbar’s own extraordinary life became the subject for operas as composers <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/320/">Adolphus Hailstork</a>, <a href="https://songofamerica.net/song/the-shadow-of-dawn-five-poems-by-paul-laurence-dunbar/">Richard Thompson</a>, <a href="https://www.stevenmallen.com/the-dunbar-operas">Steven Allen</a> and <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/361/">Jeff Arwady</a> composed works depicting Dunbar’s legacy.</p>
<p>The collaborations of Dunbar and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038839/">Will Marion Cook</a> produced the first examples of contemporary musical theater.</p>
<p>Without Paul’s contributions with “<a href="https://www.broadwayblack.com/in-dahomey-first-black-broadway-musical/">In Dahomey</a>” and “<a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/372/">Jes Lak White Fo'ks</a>,” in my view there would be no “<a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/hamilton-musical-true-story-a4487101.html">Hamilton</a>,” the modern Broadway musical written by <a href="https://www.linmanuel.com/about/">Lin-Manuel Miranda</a> in 2015.</p>
<h2>‘We wear the mask’</h2>
<p>Dunbar’s works celebrated all of humanity. </p>
<p>He turned the plantation tradition on its head by using dialect to not only offer critical social commentary, as in his poem “<a href="https://poets.org/poem/when-malindy-sings">When Malindy Sings</a>,” but also to portray oft-ignored humanity, as in “<a href="https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/192/lyrics-of-love-and-laughter/4026/when-dey-listed-colored-soldiers/">When Dey ‘Listed Colored Soldiers</a>.” </p>
<p>Dunbar’s works provide historical snapshots into the everyday lives of working-class Black Americans.</p>
<p>None were as poignant as his poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/we-wear-the-mask">We Wear the Mask</a>.”</p>
<p>“We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Minnita Daniel-Cox has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation. </span></em></p>Paul Laurence Dunbar became the first Black writer to earn international acclaim through his poetry, essays and musical lyrics.Minnita Daniel-Cox, Associate Professor of Music, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978512023-01-13T19:31:56Z2023-01-13T19:31:56ZFrene Ginwala remembered: trailblazing feminist and first speaker of South Africa’s democratic parliament<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504487/original/file-20230113-14-ka7h5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Frene Ginwala addressing the media in 2017, tireless in her fight for justice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gulshan Khan/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Frene Ginwala, feisty feminist, astute political tactician and committed cadre of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (<a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">ANC</a>), has <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-pays-tribute-%C2%A0dr-frene-ginwala-founding-speaker-parliament-13-jan">died at the age of 90</a>. In a country blessed with exceptional leaders, Ginwala must surely count among the best. Typically for her, but unusually for the ANC leadership, she will be laid to rest in a private ceremony. While she was modest about her achievements, she has left an indelible mark on South Africa’s constitution and democratic institutions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/frene-noshir-ginwala-1932">Frene Noshir Ginwala</a> was born in 1932 in Johannesburg. Her <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dr-frene-noshir-ginwala">Parsee grandparents</a> immigrated from Mumbai in India in the 1800s and made a life for the family in Johannesburg. Ginwala left South Africa after high school, to pursue an LLB degree <a href="https://www.mandela.ac.za/Leadership-and-Governance/Honorary-Doctorates/Frene-Ginwala-2003">at the University of London</a>. She qualified as a barrister at the Inner Temple. Around this time her parents moved to Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique. She returned to South Africa after graduating and moved to Durban where her sister, a medical doctor, had settled.</p>
<p>Although she supported the ANC, she was not politically active in any significant way until 1960, when the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville Massacre</a> set off a crisis for the ANC, and the <a href="https://pac.org.za/">Pan Africanist Congress of Azania</a>, both of which were banned and many of whose members went into exile. Ginwala’s family links to east Africa suddenly became a valuable resource, as did her political obscurity. </p>
<h2>Life in exile</h2>
<p>She was asked by ANC leader <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/walter-ulyate-sisulu">Walter Sisulu</a> to go to Mozambique to facilitate the exit of ANC members and supporters into exile. One of those exiles was <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/oliver-tambo">Oliver Tambo</a> president of the ANC. Ginwala helped him get across the border into Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and into a safe house. It was the beginning of a long and important comradeship. Ginwala became assistant to Tambo, who went on to lead the exiled ANC <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-anc-is-celebrating-the-year-of-or-tambo-who-was-he-85838">for 30 years</a>. She was instrumental in setting up the ANC office in Tanzania. </p>
<p>Ginwala’s work in creating a politically effective ANC in exile – arguably the most powerful exiled liberation movement in the world – was invaluable. She loved to point out the ANC had more missions abroad <a href="http://www.freedomcollection.org/interviews/frene_ginwala/">than the apartheid government had embassies</a>.</p>
<p>In the early 1960s, she created a newspaper, <a href="https://www.tambofoundation.org.za/trustees/frene-ginwala-acting-chairperson/">Spearhead</a>, wrote articles for a variety of international media outlets, wrote speeches for Tambo and gave speeches herself. Her time in Tanzania was interrupted when she was suddenly banned herself by the government of Tanzania for her critical commentary, and she left for the UK. President Julius Nyerere lifted her ban in 1967 and asked her to return to Dar es Salaam to establish a new national newspaper, <a href="https://www.tambofoundation.org.za/trustees/frene-ginwala-acting-chairperson/">The Standard</a>.</p>
<p>But her independent and forthright views – a hallmark for all of her life – got her into hot water and once again she was banned. This time she returned to the UK, where she registered for a <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/graduations/2022/dr-frene-ginwala-remembers-wits.html">PhD at Oxford University</a>. Her doctorate, awarded in 1976, was a sharp reading of the relationship between class, race and identity among Indian South Africans. She continued to build the ANC’s external profile. Her writing on the South African situation was prodigious, well-informed and hard to ignore. She was soon sought after by the United Nations to advise on peace-building globally. </p>
<h2>Return from exile</h2>
<p>When the ANC was unbanned <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/place-of-thorns/unbanning-of-the-anc-political-violence-and-civic-politics-19901995/505D6A37A01673DFB67D2458D4A71A44">in 1990</a>, Ginwala returned after an absence of 31 years. She became the first speaker in the National Assembly in 1994, creating the office as a democratic institution and ruling parliament with a firm, authoritative and fair hand for a decade. Later, she was the prime mover behind the formation of the <a href="https://au.int/en/pap">Pan-African Parliament</a> and one of the most prominent supporters of the <a href="https://www.advocacyinternational.co.uk/featured-project/jubilee-2000">Jubilee 2000 Campaign</a>, which successfully lobbied for the scrapping of the onerous debt incurred by the world’s poorest countries. </p>
<p>Others will write about her many contributions to the ANC and to her status within the liberation movement. My generation of feminists will remember her, above all, for her remarkable championing of the struggle against patriarchy. This began when she was in exile, when she worked with ANC Women’s Section to ensure that ANC principles included non-sexism. It was a long and conflictual process, but by the mid-1980s all ANC documents carried the commitment to a <a href="https://repository.uwc.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10566/5829/Non%20racialism%20and%20the%20African%20National%20Congress%20views%20from%20the%20branch.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">“nonracial, nonsexist democracy”</a>. This was so much more than a linguistic shift; it enabled feminists within the ANC to demand that the commitment be followed through in programmes and policies.</p>
<p>Ginwala was always somewhat impatient and to the left of the <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/anc-womens-league/">ANC Women’s League</a>. She feared that there was a conservative streak in the league that caved in to the patriarchal assumptions of the movement’s leaders. She was worried this made it ineffective in pushing for gender equality. She worked from the side – cajoling comrades (ANC activists), and when that did not work badgering them, into action. </p>
<p>She set up the <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/49th-national-conference-commission-on-emancipation-of-women/">ANC’s Emancipation Commission</a> in 1991, dedicated to advancing gender equality and combatting sexism in the movement. Although not intended to compete with the Women’s League, it did have strategic status that was ensured by placing it under the authority of then-ANC president Tambo. It was a base from which Ginwala could drive the demand for gender equality unconstrained by the Women’s League.</p>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/convention-democratic-south-africa-codesa">multiparty negotiations</a> to end apartheid in the 1990s, when it became apparent that gender concerns would sink to the bottom of the ANC’s list of priorities, she led the process of forming an independent women’s organisation – the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066477">Women’s National Coalition</a> – that would unite women across political parties and ideological lines. She described it as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40971570.pdf">“conspiracy of women”</a>. </p>
<p>It was a remarkable body that coalesced around two key demands: the inclusion of women in all decision-making about the shape of the post-apartheid state and constitution, and an end to violence against women.</p>
<h2>Impatience and integrity</h2>
<p>Ginwala understood power and politics better than most ANC leaders; her analysis of the balance of forces on any given issue was rapier-like. She knew that the transition process offered an opening to insert feminist principles into the new state, but understood that the window of time was fleeting. This made her impatient at times with other feminist leaders who wanted to build the Women’s National Coalition from the bottom up. </p>
<p>She was clear in her views and at times obstinate, but there was never any doubt about her integrity. Inevitably, there were bitter struggles over the pace of development of the flagship document of the Women’s National Coalition, the <a href="http://www.kznhealth.gov.za/womenscharter.pdf">Charter for Women’s Equality</a>. </p>
<p>Ginwala was concerned that the slow consultative processes preferred by the leaders of the charter process, <a href="https://www.pregsgovender.com/about">Pregs Govender</a> and <a href="https://www.apc.org/users/debbie">Debbie Budlender</a>, would mean the charter would not be ready to be included alongside the Bill of Rights in the constitution, and that the moment for greatest impact would lapse without any long-term gains.</p>
<p>Although the charter was only adopted after the main constitutional debates were concluded, the Women’s National Coalition ensured that gender equality was firmly embedded in the country’s final 1996 <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf">constitution</a>. </p>
<p>The contestations that took place in the drafting of the charter about the meaning of gender equality offer a rich and long-lasting archival resource for political activists as well as researchers.</p>
<p>Ginwala was passionately concerned about economic transformation and set up numerous study sessions on issues such as unpaid care. She wrote a <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/8766832.pdf">hard-hitting challenge</a> to the 50 male economists who crafted the ANC’s key economic policies as it took power. In conversations and seminars among feminists, she was insistent that political representation was only a lever for feminism, not its end goal. </p>
<p>As Speaker of the National Assembly, she took responsibility for establishing training programmes for women parliamentarians, drawing on her vast global network for funding and educational materials.</p>
<p>Hamba kahle, lala ngoxolo Comrade Frene. (Go well, rest in peace.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with a hurtful clarity. (<a href="https://poems.com/poem/when-great-trees-fall-reprise/">Maya Angelou</a>)</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shireen Hassim receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.</span></em></p>A younger generation of feminists will remember her, above all, for her remarkable championing of the struggle against patriarchy.Shireen Hassim, Canada150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics and Visiting Professor, WiSER Wits University, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878392022-08-03T20:04:34Z2022-08-03T20:04:34ZJane Goodall joins Barbie’s ‘inspiring women’ series: the strange evolution of an iconic doll<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476794/original/file-20220801-31624-7fi1ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C230%2C4491%2C2374&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In news many probably never expected to see, no-frills, outdoorsy, animal behaviour expert and conservation activist Jane Goodall has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/kids/toys-activities/barbie-dr-jane-goodall-doll-mattel-b2129015.html">become a Barbie doll</a> (accompanied by her famous chimpanzee, David Greybeard). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477269/original/file-20220802-23-gznqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jane Goodall speaking at a conference in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the latest member of toymaker Mattel’s “Barbie Inspiring Women Series” honouring <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/04/queen-elizabeth-ii-barbie-doll-how-it-became-a-hit.html">historical and contemporary heroines</a>, she joins aviator Amelia Earhart, NASA mathematician and physicist Katherine Johnson and artist and political activist Frida Kahlo. </p>
<p>The range was launched on International Women’s Day in 2018, part of Mattel’s response to mothers’ concerns about their daughters’ role models. Others in the series include civil rights activist Rosa Parks, disability advocate Helen Keller, author Maya Angelou, medical reformer Florence Nightingale and suffragist Susan B. Anthony.</p>
<p>Each doll comes with information about their namesake’s achievements and influence. Instead of being generic plastic bodies to be clothed and posed, the <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/international-women-day-inspiring-role-models-barbie-dolls/">dolls were now pitched</a> as “real” women, with Mattel engaged in “shining a light on empowering role models past and present in an effort to inspire more girls”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Collection of Barbie dolls" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476793/original/file-20220801-67813-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The plastic ideal: Barbie dolls have been criticised for promoting an idealised, white body type that reflected women’s subservient place in society.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/september-2020-baden-wuerttemberg-bruchsal-various-barbie-news-photo/1228323805?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes a heroine?</h2>
<p>Barbie has certainly come a long way since she was first manufactured in 1959 and became synonymous with what feminists saw as the objectification and commodification of women.</p>
<p>But the fact some of the world’s most famous and groundbreaking women – who sought careers outside their physical appearance – were now being re-imagined as plastic dolls also interested me professionally. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477273/original/file-20220803-23-nfyv6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My new book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Heroines-in-History-A-Thousand-Faces/Pickles/p/book/9780367902193">Heroines in History: A Thousand Faces</a>, examines the patterns that underpin the construction of heroines over the past 200 years. In it I argue that representations of women who have rebelled, rocked, shaken and changed the world are constrained through casting them as either “super-womanly” or “honorary men”. </p>
<p>Taking the individual stories of women, including those now appearing as Barbies, I explore a series of archetypal themes, revealing how heroines are produced by the hetero-sexist societies that surround them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/barbie-at-60-instrument-of-female-oppression-or-positive-influence-113069">Barbie at 60: instrument of female oppression or positive influence?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite many advances for women, the persistence and reinvention of heroic iconography for women continues to value image over substance. And because of their iconic appeal, throughout history it has been common for heroines to be used for commercial purposes.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, for example, British sea heroine Grace Darling’s image appeared on chocolate boxes and was used to advertise soap. Since her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo’s face has promoted everything from tequila to lip gloss. And Marilyn Monroe’s image has endured to sell any number of products. </p>
<h2>Antithesis of feminism?</h2>
<p>So the appropriation of heroic women of substance as plastic Barbies should not surprise us. </p>
<p>Dolls have a long and rich history, after all. They’ve appeared as representational figures, including gods and royalty, or dressed in distinct costumes representing national identities. They’ve served as lucky charms and voodoo talismans.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/barbie-doll-that-honors-ida-b-wells-faces-an-uphill-battle-against-anti-blackness-174953">Barbie doll that honors Ida B. Wells faces an uphill battle against anti-Blackness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As they evolved from eclectic homemade rag, woollen and wooden figures to mass-produced commercial objects, they became important in children’s gender role play. Rehearsing for their adult years, boys played with toy soldiers, action figures and superheroes, while girls had baby dolls to tend to and model figures to dress and groom alluringly. </p>
<p>In a sense, then, the Inspiring Women series can be seen as a positive development, encouraging empowerment by including a diverse range of ethnicities to appeal to girls whose communities were previously not represented as Barbies. </p>
<p>Overall, however, Barbie has a lot of work to do to overcome her image as the antithesis of the feminist goal of freeing girls and women from lives that cast them, in the words of writer Simone de Beauvoir, as “living dolls”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Barbie doll in black and white stripped swimsuit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476792/original/file-20220801-28595-dylb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first Barbie was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/the-first-barbie-doll-created-in-1959-is-displayed-during-news-photo/1134334606?adppopup=true">Chesnot/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1991, the author Susan Faludi even defined feminism by referencing Mattel’s famous product: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is the simply worded sign hoisted by a little girl in the 1970 Women’s Strike for Equality: I AM NOT A BARBIE DOLL. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Barbie dolls have also been <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/serial-girls">criticised by social scientists</a> for promoting a white, idealised body type that advanced a kind of compulsory heterosexuality and subservience. The call was for women to <a href="https://www.morethanabody.org/unapologetic-barbie-and-sports-illustrated-teach-sexual-objectification-for-all-ages/">escape inferior lives</a> as “sex objects” and instead to pursue “real” lives and be recognised for their achievements.</p>
<p>And yet some women even underwent plastic surgery to mimic the Barbie body. As the feminist writer Martine Delvaux saw it, “Barbie is the image of what happens to women, their invisible and silent murder.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-curvy-new-barbie-is-good-news-for-your-little-girl-55008">Why the curvy new Barbie is good news for your little girl</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Can dolls freighted with this much cultural baggage really honour inspiring women or serve as feminist role models? Or might it be better to view them as examples of what I term “designer feminism” – somewhere image and substance collide, but where valuing appearance ultimately underpins and contains achievement? </p>
<p>The clothing of these dolls may symbolise real lives, but underneath there is still a plastic body.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Pickles receives funding from Royal Society Te Apārangi James Cook Fellowship.</span></em></p>The author of a new book exploring the making of heroines throughout history asks whether Barbie can ever overcome her reputation as the plastic antithesis of feminist ideals.Katie Pickles, Professor of History, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192552019-06-21T15:23:52Z2019-06-21T15:23:52Z‘Button Poetry’, a new awakening on American stages and screens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280701/original/file-20190621-61747-w3k7ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C2%2C1317%2C806&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sarah Kay, "The Type".</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Button Poetry</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>If you grow up the type of woman men want to look at,<br>
You can let them look at you.<br>
But do not mistake eyes for hands or windows or mirrors.<br>
Let them see what a woman looks like.<br>
They may not have ever seen one before.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So begins Sarah Kay’s poem “The Type”, viewed more than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5DH3eN81b0RGJ7Xj3fsjVg">2 million times</a> on the YouTube channel of <a href="https://buttonpoetry.com/">Button Poetry</a>. Hanif Abdurraqib, another of its valuable contributors, also has more than 63,000 followers on <a href="https://twitter.com/NifMuhammad">Twitter</a>. How does one explain the success of this new American poetic movement?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216571/original/file-20180426-175050-17xlniz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanif Abdurraqib, ‘When I Say That Loving Me Is Kind of Like Being a Chicago Bulls Fan’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ins and outs of Button Poetry</h2>
<p>The declared purpose of Button Poetry is closer to a creative and political renewal of poetic performances than to a basic – not to say hackneyed – overhauling of the poetic medium.</p>
<p>The performances of Button Poetry are far removed from the poet who sits alone with his blank page, or who simply reads his verses to the audience. Instead, they endorse poems that “live in books and bars, magazines and theaters, the mind and the mouth”. Set off by the “cross-pollination between the page and the stage,” their work gives off sparks while lowering “the boundaries between performance and print”, reminding us of the aesthetic stance of <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-intimate-arresting-exhibition-highlights-the-hard-work-of-living-queer-118176">queerdom</a>, which posits the importance of considering archives, poetry and performance all in one go.</p>
<p>Sam Cook and Sierra DeMulder founded Button Poetry in 2011, and in April 2012 they recorded their first on-camera contest. The College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational took on a slam-like style in the wake of the spoken word of the Beat generation. With Allen Ginsberg in mind, Button Poetry certainly fuels the claim that poetry is “an outlet” that enables us to publicly talk about what is known in private, our intimate experiences. Button poems make the most of that dichotomy, helping foster the passage from private suffering to widely aired poetic performance, without losing sight of their literary influences: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qviM_GnJbOM">Maya Angelou</a>’s activism; the confessional poetry of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hHjctqSBwM">Sylvia Plath</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKvxbHptWEQ">Robert Lowell</a>; the spiritual outcry prompted by gospel songs; the political lyricism of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_6Z1_3btQ8">Langston Hughes</a>; and perhaps <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtt%20--%200hkY">Walt Whitman</a>’s most irreverent lines when he wonders “Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?” (<em>Leaves of Grass</em>, first edition 1855).</p>
<p>Although references and implicit tributes do pack a punch, one would silence the voices of Button poems by overloading them with a restrictive literary legacy and classifying them as mere rejuvenating forays into American poetry. Button poems stand out on their own merit, and shine when viewed in isolation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lpPASWlnZIA?wmode=transparent&start=5" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The haberdasher of souls</h2>
<p>Button Poetry extended its reach through many outlets, including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ButtonPoetry/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/buttonpoetry?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/buttonpoetry/?hl=en">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5DH3eN81b0RGJ7Xj3fsjVg">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://buttonpoetry.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>. Such accessibility makes Button poems likely to pop up on our screens at any moment of the day and fill our minds on public transport or when lost among skyscrapers. Scrolling their YouTube channel or Instagram account, updated with new verses several times a week, feels like opening the door of an unusual haberdashery where you can find anything you need – buttons, needles, thread – to mend your torn rags. It is in such a shop that you will find Button poems crystallized on shelves as outlets for trauma and ecstasy, for injured souls and the intricacies of desire, at everyone’s disposal.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BhE-fadnN9r/ ?hl=en\u0026taken-by=buttonpoetry","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>But Button Poetry offers no panacea, instead it shows the immense diversity of the textile and textual craft of those trying to solve the – seemingly unsolvable – dilemmas they face. Button poems avoid the pitfalls of a poetry undermined by mawkishness and accomplish the remarkable feat of instantly coalescing diverse experiences into a single energy, and for a mass audience. They range from the worst aspects of human interaction (racism in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnooJTNhaPQ">“The Shotgun”</a>; rape in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5b3RG7mfk&t=92s">“The ‘I’m Sorry’ Poem”</a>; body-shaming in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFQ7zqn6j18&t=83s">“The Fat Joke”</a>) to the daily wonders of one’s existence that are too exquisite not to strive for (the whims of childhood in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_BrSSsiMMo&t=15s">“Baby Brother”</a>; the simple beauty of love in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue7LgNqDO3A">“Pretzeled Bodies”</a>). Button poems offer a version of daily life that is so drawn to the metaphorical that it often comes as a small aesthetic shock:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The following morning you came to me<br>
A smile in one hand and God in the other<br>
And I have never stopped confusing the two.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Button Poetry does not isolate these themes, and within a single poem a complex interweaving of emotions mirrors the complexity of human experience. The poetic format is demanding though, giving performers as little as two to five minutes to interpret a poem whose dense metaphors risk hindering the fluidity and clarity of speech. The visual and audio experience is intense, and one cannot be anything but overawed by the mastery behind these seamless performances, where anger is measured and holding back tears is a struggle.</p>
<h2>“Show them your fangs, your claws, your anger”</h2>
<p>In a bid to seize the moral high ground vacated by political figures, Button Poetry explores the gap between the stifling conformity of American society and an infinite number of anonymous individuals. Button poems disrupt the logical order of stale everyday language, unapologetically rejecting any coercive attempt by politicians and technocrats to manipulate reality to ward off the misery of everyday life. In providing a voice for the downtrodden, the performers help them take back control of their lives, as an attempt to make <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-poetry-their-own-the-evolution-of-poetry-education-74671">“poetry their own”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216165/original/file-20180424-57591-pdfrn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Britteney Conner.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Button poets fight to recapture reality itself, through shouting and finger-pointing and gossamer-light texts that turn out to be strongholds against blinkered forces threatening the expression of individual suffering. Needless to say, Button Poetry implicitly indicts the plutocrats who think that facts can be alternative and truth relative, all the more so since the last presidential election.</p>
<p>Many of these poems are memories and revive personal anecdotes that unfold with discretion or eloquence, in different tones: irony, tenderness, bitterness, glee, despair, ecstasy, rage, amusement, etc. For the few minutes that are granted them, Button poems appear as open wounds on the intimacy of our world, from which shouted and whispered memories spring out and share the origin of their pain or the reason for their state of grace. But even though the poems host a multitude of feelings, they never venture on to the path of contrived and inauthentic universality. Rather, they assert that our sufferings are not equal even if they do strike us in a same space and at the same time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216167/original/file-20180424-57598-1ferob6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>As the audience ignores the pain on stage, the performances unsparingly display their mercurial strength and leave us in no doubt of what to think. The simple staged features of Button shows make for breathtaking moments of revolt that unsettle the audience and force them out of their comfort zone. It is not enough to simply sing anthems like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTyKJjj2oC0">“We Shall Overcome”</a>, by Mahalia Jackson or Joan Baez. We can’t just take refuge in the safety of daily life while Javon Johnson fires off a volley of bullet-like words in “The Shotgun”. An exercise in futility, Button Poetry certainly is not.</p>
<p>At the heart of capitalism and ultra-liberalism, where everything has a price tag, including human feelings, Button Poetry invites us to question the – often times selective – empathy that we feel, to show more of it and act accordingly. As they drop beauty in the palm of our hands, these dazzling poems unequivocally state that, when it comes to the inner bruises of humanity, lucidity has no price.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Brugeron ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Since 2011, Button Poetry has offered a large number of powerful poetic performances that reveal the plurality of individual stories in the United States.Julien Brugeron, Doctorant en littérature américaine / PhD candidate in American literature, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/865722017-11-15T09:01:51Z2017-11-15T09:01:51ZMessage to the gods: the space poetry that transcends human rivalries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194631/original/file-20171114-26470-t28ms5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sputnik 1 started it all. The beachball-sized satellite <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_924.html">was launched by the Soviet Union</a> on October 4, 1957 and, despite a relatively short mission of only 21 days in orbit around Earth, quickly became regarded as a device that changed the world. It represented the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1773.html">beginning of the Space Age</a> – and immediately heightened tensions between the US and the USSR, prompting fears about the weaponising of space. </p>
<p>But Sputnik, and the missions that were to follow as humankind sought to bring space increasingly within the reach of the Earth, was not just about rivalry. There was to be unprecedented international cooperation, as in the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/cooperation/index.html">collaboration over the International Space Station</a>. Nowadays, you are more likely to hear about the competition between <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-companies-are-launching-a-new-space-race-heres-what-to-expect-80697">private and state-owned companies</a> for ownership of the next big space programme.</p>
<p>Perhaps the longest lasting of Sputnik’s many legacies is the idea that orbital circumnavigation brings the world together. This idea gathered momentum in the 1960s and 1970s with the tradition of orbital photography that started with NASA’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html">Earthrise</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17">Blue Marble</a> images and continues today with the thousands of striking photos of Earth taken by astronauts on the International Space Station. It is a photographic tradition that is often credited with <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ImtLAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=blue+marble+project+reveals+the+world&source=bl&ots=HbU5IQkRMI&sig=llGOZ0WIvVlw4O1T9zM94Cu8I2Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOlpOXwr7XAhUMLewKHQLFDT4Q6AEITjAK#v=onepage&q=blue%20marble%20project%20reveals%20the%20world&f=false">revealing the world to its inhabitants</a>.</p>
<h2>Have a look at Earth</h2>
<p>To focus on Sputnik’s technological, political, military, commercial or photographic legacy is, however, to neglect the strange practice of sending poetry into space. In 2013, more than <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/09/haiku-mars_n_3733860.html">1,100 haikus were sent on NASA’s MAVEN</a> (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) probe. These poems were selected by public vote following a competition that invited submissions from around the world. </p>
<p><a href="http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/send-your-name/contest-winners/">The winner</a>, by Benedict Smith, points to the failed project of global community in the age of satellites and spacecraft:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s funny, they named<br>
Mars after the God of War<br>
Have a look at Earth</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2014, NASA again sent poetry into space when Maya Angelou’s poem <a href="https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brave-and-startling-truth/">A Brave and Startling Truth</a> was carried on Orion’s orbital test flight. Commemorating the UN’s 50th anniversary in 1995, this poem offers an inspirational vision of humanity’s capacity to overcome conflict. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194634/original/file-20171114-26465-1c5u52r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maya Angelou’s speech for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Talbot Troy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Written as though from beyond the world, Angelou’s poem is at the same time focused on the human and the earthly. </p>
<p>What it sees is a humanity that is not subject to a celestial gaze or divine authority, but can direct the course of worldly affairs and aspire to planetary peace. At the culmination of this poem, Angelou writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We, this people, on this wayward, floating body<br>
Created on this earth, of this earth<br>
Have the power to fashion for this earth<br>
A climate where every man and every woman<br>
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety<br>
Without crippling fear.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Man assaults the sky</h2>
<p>Predating Angelou’s poem and MAVEN’s haikus by several decades is Thomas Bergin’s <a href="https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3924877.html">For A Space Prober</a>. Etched into an instrumentation panel on the Transit Research and Attitude Control (TRAAC) satellite that was launched on November 15, 1961, Bergin’s poem was the first literary work to leave Earth. This poem continues to circle the Earth at an altitude of 600 miles – and it is expected to remain there for 800 years. It is a message to the gods that declares the end of their belligerent influence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From Time’s obscure beginning, the Olympians<br>
Have, moved by pity, anger, sometimes mirth,<br>
Poured an abundant store of missiles down<br>
On the resigned, defenceless sons of Earth.<br>
Hailstones and chiding thunderclaps of Jove,<br>
Remote directives from the constellations:</p>
<p>Aye, the celestials have swooped down themselves,<br>
Grim bent on miracles or incarnations.<br>
Earth and her offspring patiently endured,<br>
(Having no choice) and as the years rolled by<br>
In trial and toil prepared their counterstroke –<br>
And now ’tis man who dares assault the sky.<br>
Fear not, Immortals, we forgive your faults,<br>
And as we come to claim our promised place<br>
Aim only to repay the good you gave<br>
And warm with human love the chill of space.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bergin was Professor of Romance Languages at Yale University from 1945 to 1973 – and known in particular for his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/03/obituaries/thomas-g-bergin-82-an-authority-on-dante.html">1955 English translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy</a>. Dante’s poem is significant partly because of the medieval cosmology that it articulates. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194637/original/file-20171114-26429-1v22k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Bergin’s poem will orbit the Earth for another 750 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CubPunch28 via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The world, The Divine Comedy tells us, is its own entity and can be comprehended. It is not merely a subordinate element in a larger, and mysterious, divine order. Dante’s poem announces the arrival of this outlook at a time when the influence of the heavenly kingdom was retreating. No longer subject to a higher authority, humanity started at this point to take on a transcendent perspective. The secular world became able to see, and to take control of, itself.</p>
<p>Bergin’s poem is shaped by this vision of a world that is detaching itself from the realm of the gods. It is humanity’s ability to rise above and comprehend its earthly home that is affirmed by the first poem sent into orbit. It is, then, part of an overlooked literary legacy that situates orbital circumnavigation in deep theological and earthly time. </p>
<p>Before the Earthrise and Blue Marble photos, it is poetry that offers a vision of the whole world. However, this poem also exposes a blind spot in the story of Sputnik’s journey and its aftermath. It reveals how, 60 years ago, orbit was not viewed exclusively as the space of a heightened military threat or the source of new national divisions. Remarkably, the first poem in space petitions for the decommissioning of weapons in orbit and calls for universal peace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Leonard has received funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, and the Leverhulme Trust. He works for Nottingham Trent University. </span></em></p>The first poem in space was a plea for world peace.Phil Leonard, Professor of Literature & Theory, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/273282014-05-29T08:29:08Z2014-05-29T08:29:08ZHow Maya Angelou made me feel<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49710/original/xr3zscfn-1401327538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US writer Maya Angelou speaking during the second day of the 2004 Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Matt Campbell</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the many quotes from Maya Angelou that people are sharing on this day of her home coming is: </p>
<blockquote>I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. </blockquote>
<p>My The Conversation colleague, Aaron Nyerges, has written a <a href="https://theconversation.com/maya-angelou-an-acknowledged-legislator-of-the-world-has-gone-27315">beautiful acknowledgement</a> of Maya Angelou’s contributions as a poet, or as he states borrowing from Shelley, an “unacknowledged legislators of the world”. I want to acknowledge how Maya Angelou made me feel as a young black American woman, and how those feelings have defined how I experience myself as a complete human being. </p>
<p>I can honestly say that I actually felt Maya Angelou before I knew who she was. I was 17 years old and attending the <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/pagegen/brochure/p1.html">Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Awards</a> held in Chicago in 1989. I had walked to the ballroom where the keynote speakers, such as President Ronald Reagan, were to speak to those considered some of the top high school students in the United States. I opened the door, stood at the back, and instantly felt electricity go up my spine. I began to tremble. Within the first minute of her speech, I was overcome with tears. </p>
<p>I don’t remember what she said. All I remember is how the power of her presence – the warmth, the wisdom, the elegance, and the compassion – moved me in a way that I’d never responded to a person before. When she completed her speech, I fought my way through the crowd to meet her. Standing before her with tears streaming down my face, I blurted out, “Thank you for moving me.” I remember she took my hand in both of hers, smiled, and said: “Thank you, your response moves me.” </p>
<p>I vowed then that I would cultivate that kind of presence – that ability to move people’s souls. Her words have guided me on that journey by giving shape to my feelings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49705/original/fxcmkc4t-1401327179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster for poetry reading by Maya Angelou from 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Burns Library, Boston College</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>And Still I Rise</strong> </p>
<p>As Aaron Nyerges has pointed out, Maya Angelou’s poem <a href="http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/117/Still_I_Rise">And Still I Rise</a> was published in 1978. I would have been six years old. Yet, I know the refrain from either my mother or my favourite Aunt reciting these words during our annual <a href="http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml">Kwanzaa</a> celebrations, which is an African American holiday established by Maulana Karengal. Like a secular <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/348087/Lords-Prayer">The Lord’s Prayer</a>, every time that I experience the bitterness of institutional racism and anger threatens to close my heart, I whisper the words “And Still I Rise” and feel myself float above the fear and anger.</p>
<h2>Phenomenal Woman</h2>
<p>With dark skin, wide-nose, kinky-curly hair, and curvy hips, my ability to appreciate my own physical beauty is only due to a historical accident. I grew up steeped in the <a href="http://eldhughes.com/2012/03/01/black-is-beautiful-50-year-anniversary-a-movement-that-went-viral-before-digital-technology/">Black is Beautiful</a> movement, which had reached its peak in the 1970s. As part of the <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/blackarts/historical.htm">Black Arts Movement</a>, Maya Angelou’s <a href="http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/108/Phenomenal_Woman">Phenomenal Woman</a> articulated in words the powerful images of beautiful black women who appeared on posters, magazine articles, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation">Blaxploitation</a> films. Even now, I call upon those images to express my intellectual ideas, such as my QAME (questions, assumptions, methods, and evidence) Song music video. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W64e8xhvra4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">QAME Song by Dori Tunstall, performed in Blaxploitation style.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>On the Pulse of Morning</h2>
<p>Aaron Nyerges concludes his acknowledgement with the poem <a href="http://poetry.eserver.org/angelou.html">On the Pulse of Morning</a> that Maya Angelou performed for former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 Inauguration. </p>
<p>This poem is what reconfirmed my decision to become an anthropologist instead of a neuroscientist, which was my original intent when attending <a href="http://www.brynmawr.edu/">Bryn Mawr College</a>. As a young black woman of academic promise, one is expected to become a medical doctor, lawyer, engineer, or educator in order to contribute back to the black community. </p>
<p>Choosing to become an anthropologist was a risk. When I watched her on TV call forth our connections to the trees, to the rivers, and most importantly to each other as human beings, I felt that I had made the right decision. That the path of anthropology would bring me closer to my need and responsibility to promote greater respect, understanding, and love among all people, minerals, plants, and animals.</p>
<h2>The Way You Make Me Feel</h2>
<p>Since the moment I first felt Maya Angelou, I have actively chosen paths that would cultivate my warmth, wisdom, elegance, and compassion. I am privileged to have stood in front of crowds of hundreds, and sometimes just one-to-one encounters, in which I have given people goosebumps, made them tremble with excitement, and even moved their soul to tears. </p>
<p>I acknowledge that Maya Angelou, by taking my hand in both of her hands, connected me directly to a little bit of the power of her presence. But she only gave me a spark. Every day I have to work hard in opening my heart to maintain it. </p>
<p>Thank you Mama Maya, my great ancestor. I will never forget how you made me feel. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
One of the many quotes from Maya Angelou that people are sharing on this day of her home coming is: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will…Elizabeth Dori Tunstall, Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/273152014-05-29T03:22:14Z2014-05-29T03:22:14ZMaya Angelou, an acknowledged legislator of the world, has gone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49721/original/2cdw42xn-1401332691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poet and activist Maya Angelou has died, aged 86. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Justin Lane</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Maya Angelou has died. The world has rushed to decide on what to call her, on how to calculate her immeasurable legacy. The list of nouns applying to her career is endless: memoirist, activist, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/05/28/maya_angelou_s_legacy_in_hip_hop_poet_leaves_behind_a_history_of_appearances.html">hip-hop inspiration</a>, actor, dancer, film-maker, professor, and so on. I suggest we remember her as poet.</p>
<p>The English Romantic Percy Shelley defended the public role of poets by calling them “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/nov/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview15">unacknowledged legislators of the world</a>”. Occasionally, still today even, they do rise to an occasion that acknowledges them as that. Angelou was such a poet.</p>
<p>In January 1993 when she recited <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2014/05/maya_angelou_clinton_inauguration_video_watch_her_read_on_the_pulse_of_morning.html">On the Pulse of Morning</a> at the inauguration of President Clinton, she became the second poet invited to speak at a presidential inauguration, thirty years after Robert Frost read The Gift Outright at John F. Kennedy’s invitation. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/59xGmHzxtZ4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Angelou recites On the Pulse of the Morning.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though she’s one of only a few people to have recited verse at America’s highest public ceremony, she connects back to an ancient tradition where the voices of Greek and Latin poets coincided with the most socially valued public ceremonies.</p>
<p>As a black American woman, Angelou had to endure more destructive forces than most in rising to such an honoured occasion. Her 1978 poem Still I Rise describes the adversity clearly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You may write me down in history <br>
With your bitter, twisted lies, <br>
You may tread me in the very dirt <br>
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She goes on to conclude:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,<br>
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.<br>
I rise <br>
I rise <br>
I rise. <br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The gifts that poet-legislators bring to the highest podiums in the land are doubly important when they are given despite of the heinous legacy of transatlantic slavery. As the black American philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois wrote at the beginning of the 20th century: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? … Would America have been America without her Negro people?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The answer for Du Bois and those who have contemplated his question is that America would not be America if it weren’t for Africa, making the contemporary term “African American” seem redundant. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49706/original/tq82qyy5-1401327269.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US President Barack Obama awards the 2010 Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, to Maya Angelou.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Jim Lo Scalzo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maya Angelou’s presidential poem On the Pulse of Morning is therefore not interested in who we are or what we call our self but what voices in the world we listen to, which of its questions we seek to answer. </p>
<p>She encourages us to listen to the voice of the planet, to pay attention to its deep geological lessons. Alluding to extinction and the fossil record, she asks us to hear the call of non-human things, the Rock, the River, the Tree. On the day of inauguration she said, “the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully”.</p>
<p>If poets are indeed advocating for a yet-unacknowledged world, they do so by hearing the voices of things most people don’t take the time to hear speaking. She goes on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a true yearning to respond to <br>
The singing River and the wise Rock. <br>
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew <br>
The African, the Native American, the Sioux, <br>
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek <br>
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik, <br>
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, <br>
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher. <br>
They hear. They all hear <br>
The speaking of the Tree.<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, here, the point of so many nouns, so many associative identities, is that we frequently take time to decide what to call ourselves and how what we call ourselves and do with ourselves is different than what others might call themselves or do with themselves - but what we share is a yearning, a need to respond to the call, to the clear voice of the world that shares itself with us. </p>
<p>Maya Angelou’s role as poet asks us not to look at her legacy and say a somber <em>vale</em>. Instead, she’d ask us to listen to our environment, to our neighbours, to look out across our country, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And say simply <br>
Very simply <br>
With hope <br>
Good morning. </p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Nyerges works for the University of Sydney.</span></em></p>Maya Angelou has died. The world has rushed to decide on what to call her, on how to calculate her immeasurable legacy. The list of nouns applying to her career is endless: memoirist, activist, hip-hop…Aaron Nyerges, Lecturer in American Studies at the US Studies Centre, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.