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Candelight
Vigil for Ahmos Zu-Bolton
Report from Lynita F. Jones
The passing of veteran writer/griot/editor/publisher/activist/&
instructor Ahmos Zu-Bolton II came to my awareness
on March 8, 2005, at Howard University Medical
Center in Washington D.C. With cremation, a memorial service
took place on March 13, 2005, at Carver High School in
DeRidder, Louisiana (Zu-Bolton's high school alma mater).
As he leaves an unforgettable,
literary/spoken-word legacy and efforts as Visiting
Writer-in-Residence at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU),
a candlelight vigil will be held in his honor on Saturday,
March 19th, 2005.
The vigil will take place from 4-6pm, in Columbia,
Missouri @ Speaker's Circle (on MU campus). If the
following should occur: rain, other forms of precipitation
or area weather below 50 degrees; the alternative site will
be held at MU Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
(813 Virginia Avenue, Columbia, Missouri 65211). Keep in
mind, there is a detour in arriving to the G/O Black
Culture Center site. Vigil format is open expression,
enriched with African tradition and special performance.
EVERYONE IS WELCOMED (local,
in-state or out-of-state). Those who are unable to
attend the vigil, there is a tentative, poetry
festival, in honoring Zu-Bolton's date of birth, on
October 21th, 2005. Time and location, to be announced.
Cards and contributions to the Zu-Bolton family can be sent
to: 406 Park DeVille Place, Columbia, Missouri 65203.
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Throughout his lifetime, Ahmos Zu-Bolton
has published his poetry in hundreds of journals and magazines
around the country. His authored works entails:
A
Niggered Amen, Ain't
No Spring Chicken, and 1946. He has won
Fellowships in Creative Writing from the National Endowment For
The Arts, the Louisiana Division On The Arts, as well as an
Editor's Fellowship from the Coordinating Council Of Literary
Magazines.
In 1970, he founded Energy West
Literary Works in Los Angeles. Under that banner, he
published Energy West Poetry Journal and Shoreline Magazine.
In 1972, he moved the operation to his native south-lands
where he changed the name to Energy BlackSouth Press, and
organized The Witchdoctor Theater, a poetry-music-drama
group. Energy BlackSouth launched Hoo-Doo Magazine,
that same year. In 1973, he opened the Up-South office of
Energy BlackSouth in Washington D.C., and became co-editor of
Black Box, a magazine on cassette tape. He also worked with
the Afro-American Resource Center and the Institute For The Arts
and Humanities, both at Howard University.
In 1976, he moved his company to Houston, then to
Galveston, Texas, where he reorganized under the name Energy
Earth Communications, Incorporated, and continued as a small
press distribution network, while organizing a series of book
fairs and festivals.
In 1983, he moved to New Orleans where
he opened the Copastetic Community Book Center,
which served both the literary and community theater movements. In
1995, he co-founded the Diaspora Academy, a
school for African-American children in New Orleans' Lower
9th Ward. Following the efforts of Diaspora
Academy, Zu-Bolton relocated and took on the
opportunity as Visiting Writer-In-Residence under MU's Black
Studies Program.
In Winter Semester, 2001, he instructed his 1st MU
class in African-American Poetry. For Black History Month 2001, he
moved audiences and gave a "one-time" performance of his
war experience monologue, Vietnam Blues. In Fall
Semester 2001, he coordinated (along with students) Black
Studies Program's Fall Conference: The Griot in the 21st Century,
A Festival.
MU campus community witnessed panels,
performances and book fair vendors featuring
well-respected, griots/authors/spoken-word artists as: C. Leigh
McInnis, Ishmael Reed, Kalamu ya Salaam and
Askia Toure. A griot in every right, Zu-Bolton also graced
his spoken-word craft in area venues as Black Studies Program's: An
Evening in Poetry, the Cherry Street Artisan, The Armory (City of Columbia
Parks and Recreation), Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, Legacy
Art Gallery and many others.
Also, while under service with City of Columbia
Parks and Recreation's Armory, Zu-Bolton published and edited the Mid-Missouri Youth Mirror news magazine. In October,
2004, with a closing spoken-word festival, Zu-Bolton's term
ended as Visiting Writer-In-Residence at MU. He made his
final move to Washington D.C. and made his transition into the
afterlife.
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If there're more questions about the vigil
or my experience w/ Instructor Zu-Bolton, feel free to contact me.
Also, if you know of others that have interest in attending that
I've possibly missed, please forward along.
Hope to see you soon, in support & honor of an outstanding legacy...
--Lynita F. Jones /Undergraduate, University of
Missouri-Columbia / (573)771-4306 / LFJ83A@MIZZOU.EDU
/
LYNITAJ@YAHOO.COM
Source: Kalamu's e-drum (16 March 2005) * * *
* *
Ahmos Zu-Bolton (1935-2005) --
Born in Poplarville, Mississippi, Zu-Bolton is the author of
A
Niggered Amen (Solo Press, 1976), a collection of poetry,
and coeditor of Synergy: D.C. Anthology. he was the
founder and editor of
HooDoo magazine, and has taught
fiction and folklore at the Galveston Arts Center, Xavier
University, Delgado College, and was Tulane University's
first Writer-in-Residence.
For several years he operated his own publishing firm, Energy
Earth Communications. His work has appeared in numerous
magazines and in the anthologies
Giant Talk,
Mississippi
Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth, Vol. III, and
Black
Southern Voices: An Anthology of Fiction Poetry, Drama,
NonFiction, and Critical Essays (1992). In addition to
operating a community bookstore, ZuBolton frequently writes for
the Louisiana Weekly. Photo above: Ahmos ZuBolton II and Haryette Mullen
* * * * *
Ahmos Zu-Bolton
II—(October 21, 1948 - March 8, 2005)—President
Madison Apartments, 1908 Florida Ave. NW, Dupont Circle
neighborhood, DC.—Zu-Bolton was an activist, teacher,
playwright, and the author of three books of poems. He
founded Energy BlackSouth Press, edited the literary
journal
HooDoo
and co-edited an innovative journal on cassette tape
called Black Box. He co-edited an anthology (with
E. Ethelbert Miller), called Synergy D.C. (1975).
After working at Howard University in the early 1970s,
Zu-Bolton took teaching jobs at Xavier University,
Delgado College, and Tulane University. His poetry books
are
A
Niggered Amen (1975), No Spring Chicken (1998),
and 1946 (2002).—DCwriters
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 21 April 2010
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