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Books by Marcus Bruce
Christian
Song of the Black Valiants: Marching Tempo
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High Ground: A Collection of Poems /
Negro soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans
I am New
Orleans: A Poem
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900 /
The Liberty Monument
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DN23
Irene's
"Last Tribute"
December
10, 1940, Tuesday evening
I
came in this evening very weary. Sat before the fire and a
laborious sleep fell upon me. Had that twisting sort of
headache. It is possible that that headache first came to me as
a fight between two dominant desires -- one to let down and one
to take hold of myself. It might explain some of the terrible
headaches in which it seemed as if one part of my mind was being
pulled one way and the other part another. These headaches first
came when I was frightened into keeping my body tense, and the
doctor started giving me opiates.
I
awoke after a while -- still a headache, and then suddenly it
ceased. Prepared dinner, ate, fed Caliban, waxed my floor
because I saw marks where one of the boys worked this evening.
Read the paper before the fire. Thinking . . . . Listening to
the slow unfolding of the New Orleans Civic Symphony and for
some reason started thinking of Irene -- Maybe because Cherrie
asked me who it was that had painted the picture. He thought
Lawrence Jones had painted it.
I
began thinking where had she got the model from. The chair makes
me doubt that it was she, but I remembered that glass she had.
An unframed long, tall glass. I became suddenly struck with the
idea that she had been unusually persistent in wanting me to
take the picture. She said that she had a special reason for
wanting me to have it -- I believe -- but never said why.
Insisted upon my taking it one night, helped me to wrap it up.
The
body has always seemed vaguely familiar to me. Struck with the
idea, I went and took down the looking glass on the vanity,
placed it at an angle, my foot, huge and gigantic hit in the
middle of the bottom line of the picture. My knee seemed
muscular and prominent, my body seemed far removed from the
picture. My knee hit almost in the same position of my waist
that the picture seemed.
I
have little doubt now that it was a self-portrait and she used
the unframed mirror to put her body, dark, upon paper, that some
part of her might dwell in this house forever. When I looked and
compared the body with certain parts of her body, the hips, the
large legs, the belly, arms, and fingers, a feeling came over
me, and I dropped my head. "Last Tribute," I whispered, as I dropped my head before it.
<<---Previous
Next---24->> * *
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Selected Letters
Selected Diary Notes Memories of Marcus B. Christian
(Cains) Christian's
BioBibliographical Record Introduction to I AM NEW
ORLEANS
A
Theory of a Black Aesthetic Magpies,
Goddesses, & Black Male Identity
Activist Works on Next Level of Change
Intro to I Am New
Orleans
Letter from Dillard University
A
Labor of Genuine Love
Letter of Gift of
Photos
Letters from
LSU and Skip Gates * * *
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900
By Marcus Bruce
Christian
Study of the blacksmith
tradition and New Orleans famous lace
balconies and fences.
Acclaimed during his life as the unofficial
poet laureate of the New Orleans
African-American community, Marcus Christian
recorded a distinguished career as
historian, journalist, and literary scholar.
He was a contributor to Pelican's
Gumbo Ya Ya, and also wrote many
articles that appeared in numerous
newspapers, journals, and general-interest
publications. |
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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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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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
Library Journal |
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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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Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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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
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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