* My "business" that Mama makes reference is the literary magazine, CRICKET, which was not really a business. I did, however, write a piece on Marcus Christian for a local monthly for which I was paid $50. It was the first time I was paid for my writing and the last time I received cash money for a published essay. It was a wondrous feeling. She may also be referring to the community cultural center that I helped to found on Piety Street in New Orleans. I purchased some quilts from her for the center, but that also was not a business. I lived off my salary and more money went out for these enterprises than came in. But I have no regrets on that account. One must always pay for one’s education and these projects were truly an education and a learning experience.

During this period in New Orleans, Yusef Komunyakaa and I became very close. I learned a lot about poetry from him. Together we went through the Marcus Christian Collection housed at the University of New Orleans. We must have looked at over eight hundred poems written by Christian. I must have copied several hundred of these poems. I have lost or misplaced the copies, which is one of the problems of continual moving. During my year in Baton Rouge I transcribed one hundred poems with my IBM typewriter. I made certain of the accuracy.

I also pulled diary notes and letters. I have been lugging that material around with me for fifteen years. Only a few years back was I able to get published fifty of the hundred poems I thought was the best of Christian. Yusef married an Australian girl and I never saw him again after he left New Orleans and we did not stay in touch. Yusef, however, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry. I was proud of his accomplishment. We have not discussed Christian since I saw him in New Orleans in the mid-1980s.

I created CRICKET for the special purpose of promoting Christian’s poetry. Few writers and artists in New Orleans were interested in Christian’s work. The collection of poems in I AM NEW ORLEANS & OTHER POEMS (1999), however, attracted a lot of attention in Louisiana and received a half-page review in the Times-Picayune. Dillard Today (January 2000), the university’s alumni magazine, reprinted a revised form of my "Introduction" with photos of Christian. In 2000, the University of New Orleans also awarded me the Marcus Christian Community Service Award for my work. Though I got several more articles published on Christian’s work, he still has not received the broad attention he deserves.

In line with these previous activities and my rediscovery of Nathaniel Turner of Southampton after I quit my job at Pratt Library in 1999, I in 2001 founded ChickenBones: A Journal (www.nathanielturner.com) to promote the works of both Christian and Turner. Their work is the backbone of this website.

** Von is Susie Carter's middle son