*I found another position at the University of New Orleans UNO,
teaching composition and literature. I may still have been in
Monroe, readying myself to move to New Orleans. My stay in New
Orleans would prove to be the most productive and creative period
to date. But it would also bring much sadness. First, it meant
that Ella Jean and I would have to part. Though she visited me in
New Orleans, I never again went to Monroe.
In New Orleans, I fell among numerous writers and artists,
including Kalamu ya Salaam, Richard Katrovas, Maxine Cassin, Lee
Meitzen Grue, Grace Bauer, Jesse Benvenuto, Labertha McCormick,
James Baptiste, Sharon Olinka, Mona Lisa Saloy, Gillian Conoley,
and Yusef Komunyakaa. While there I started a little magazine of
graphics and poems, entitled CRICKET: Poems and Other Jazz.
I was greatly assisted in this effort by Gillian Conoley. I paid
for three issues out of pocket. I also sponsored a poetry contest
and offered prizes, with a reading at an uptown bar, called Maple
Leaf. I created a stir in my two years in New Orleans. It was
there in New Orleans that I discovered the magnificence of Marcus
Bruce Christian, who in many ways changed the direction of my
life.
Lee Meitzen Grue continues as editor of The New Laurel
Review (NLR). She is also author of French Quarter Poems
and In the Sweet Balance of the Flesh. Lee was kind enough
to publish several of my poems and essays in NLR, including a
bio-sketch of Mama and photographic images of her home-made quilts
(Spring/Fall 1984 issue). Kalamu authored Iron Flowers (1976)
and programmed seven hours of jazz for WWOZ. John Baptiste was a
writer for The Louisiana Weekly and was former editor for The
Black Pages. Labertha McCormick was a member of the then
revived Congo Square Writers Workshop. Carnegie University Press
published Gillian Conoly’s Some Gangster Pain (1987).
Jesse Benvenuto did the graphics for the third and final issue of CRICKET
(1985).
While in New Orleans, I flew to San Francisco and spent a week
with a young lady in Oakland who had come to New Orleans for a
visit. While there we went on a retreat to the wine country. This
was my first and only trip to California. Leaving the heat and
humidity of New Orleans, the coolness of the nights surprised me.
I also visited Berkeley. I also spent a day walking throughout San
Francisco, from community to community. I loved the hills and
pastel colors of the houses. The walk was so appealing I never
rode the San Francisco streetcar. Though I was in northern
California for a week, I spent only a day across the bay.
