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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 Ironworkers of Louisiana, 1718–1900 /
The Liberty Monument
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* * Poems in
the Key of Life
By Susan
Larson, Book Editor The
Times-Picayune
A Review of
I
Am New Orleans and Other Poems by Marcus B. Christian
Edited by
Rudolph Lewis and Amin Sharif
introduced
by Rudolph Lewis
Marcus Christian (1900-1976) is surely one of
the unsung heroes of New Orleans literature. A prolific poet and
researcher, he was the director of the Negro Unit of the Federal
Writers Project at Dillard University.
The University of New Orleans Earl K. Long
Library now houses his archives—a formidable collection (150
linear feet) of business records, poems, correspondence, diaries
and other documents. As archivist Florence Jumonville writes in
her preface to I
Am New Orleans and Other Poems, “Taken together
they constitute an extraordinary chronicle of Christian’s
remarkable life and his multifaceted effort to place his own
existence in the broader context of the black condition (both
historical and literary) in New Orleans and the South.”
Born in Mechanicsville (now part of Houma)
Christian, who was orphaned at an early age moved to New Orleans
when he was a teenager, hoping to make money and find a better
life, taking various hobs—he was a chauffeur, he opened a
small dry cleaning business and attended night school. And he
was always writing. Early work was published in Opportunity
and Crisis, leading magazines of the Harlem Renaissance.
A formidable researcher, Christian collected
material on folklore, history, and mythical figures, lending his
expertise to the group of writers that formed the Negro Unit of
the Federal Writers Project—a veritable who’s who of
intellectuals—at Dillard during the 30s and 40s. Regrettably,
his “History of Black Louisiana” remains unpublished, though
researchers are still able to view material at UNO.
But now we have these poems, perhaps a
starting point for a critical revival. In his introduction, Rudolph Lewis,
a reference librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore,
Md., writes of Christian’s life and times and his
relationships with such writers as Lyle Saxon, Tom Dent, and
many others.
Of the thousands of poems in the UNO archive,
Lewis and
Sharif have
selected 50, arranging them thematically. The first deals with
the role of the artist in society, with such poems as “Canal Street At Noon”
illustrating racial inequities in shared public spaces. The
second group deals with the difficulties of love, poems with
such evocative titles as “Man Done Left Me Blues”
and “Creole Mammah Turn Your Damper
Dow”; the third, with the effects of Jim Crow upon
interracial affections, drawing upon such metaphors as “Forbidden Fruit.”
Lewis carefully
illuminates how Christian’s personal relationships with the
women in his life played out in his poems.
The fourth group deals with the repression of
blacks with such inspirational works as “Degraded Freeman”
(You are degraded freemen / when you can look upon wrongs /
Hatred and persecution, / And hold your tongues). The fifth
section is composed of Afro-centric writings; “Somebody's Mammy
/ with outstretched palms / She is sitting – poor Africa –
begging for bread").
The sixth group, written later in
Christian’s life, attempts to come to terms with his personal
history. This section includes two epitaphs; the final one,
written in 1968, reads, “Take it or leave it – / It matters
not; / The man is dead, / So let him rot.” The collection
concludes with the magnificent, Whitmanesque “I Am New Orleans,”
a catalog and celebration of the complex nature of the city and
the role of African-Americans in its long history.
The history of African-American writers in New
Orleans is till being written, every day, by poets and
playwrights and essayists and fiction writers all over the city.
I Am New
Orleans and Other Poems by Marcus B. Christian
is a vital part of our literary heritage,
restored to us in this important and very welcome book.
Source:
The Times-Picayune, July 4, 1999 /
posted 20 August 2005 Editorial note: The
review below is a curious one. Take note that the reviewer Susan
Larson (book editor, Times-Picayune) above quotes
Florence Jumonville (who I found later to be rather obnoxious
and a bore) who had nothing to do with the work of pulling
together the poems for the book (a regular johnny-come-lately).
Her preface is the work of Tom Bonner, the publisher, who I
found to be a liar and a cheat and who tried along with his
assistance to seize possession of the book and my copyright of
the organization of the poems. (I would not be surprised
if he is still printing off copies of the book without
consulting me. 500 copies were the initial run and they sold out
within six months. For our work we received 50 copies.) I the
editor who did most of the work and wrote the seminal essay (the Introduction)
on the poetry of
Marcus Bruce Christian
am barely mentioned until the middle
of the review. And then not quoted at all. I'm sure Ms. Larson
meant well.
The review took up half a page
in
The
Times-Picayune (July
4, 1999). But racism in all its
subtleties is what it is in America. But I am thankful that
Christian received some public attention. But dealing with
Bonner left a sour taste in my mouth. He wanted to publish
further the additional 50 poems in my possession but I decided
to leave these very white people be.
Instead of dealing
with such neo-overseers I have made I
Am New Orleans and Other Poems by Marcus B. Christian (Introduction
and Poems)
available online. I act in the no-compromise tradition of Marcus
Christian. Enjoy.—Rudolph Lewis
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* *
Marcus Bruce
Christian
Selected Diary Notes
/ Selected Poems
/
Selected Letters
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Profiles on Marcus Bruce Christian and the Federal
Writers Project
Bryan, Violet Harrington.
The Myth of New Orleans in Literature.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1993.
Clayton, Ronnie W. “The Federal
Writers Project for Blacks in Louisiana.” Louisiana
History 19(1978): 327-335.
Dent, Tom. “Marcus
B. Christian: A Reminiscence and an Appreciation.”
Black American Literature Forum, 1984, Volume 18,
Issue 1, pp. 22-26.
Hessler, Marilyn S. “Marcus
Christian: The Man and His Collection.” Louisiana
History 1 (1987):37-55.
Johnson, Jerah. “Marcus B.
Christian and the WPA History of Black People in
Louisiana.” Louisiana History 20.1 (1979):
113-115.
Larson, Susan. “Poems in the Key of Life.” Times-Picayune (Book Section), July 4,
1999.
Lewis, Rudolph. “Introduction.”
I Am New Orleans and Other Poems by Marcus Bruce
Christian. Edited by Rudolph Lewis and Amin Sharif.
New Orleans: Xavier Review Press, 1999. Reprinted in
revised form in Dillard Today 2.3 (2000): 21-24.
Lewis, Rudolph. “Magpies,
Goddesses, & Black Male Identity in the Romantic Poetry
of Marcus Bruce Christian.” Paper presented at
College Language Association, April 2000, Baltimore, MD.
Lewis, Rudolph. “Marcus
Bruce Christian and a Theory of a Black Aesthetic.”
Paper presented at the Zora Neale Hurston Society
Conference held June 1999 at University of Maryland
Eastern Shore. Published in ZNHS FORUM (Spring 2000).
Peterson, Betsy. “Marcus Christian:
Portrait of a Poet.” Dixie 18 (January 1970).
Redding, Joan. “The Dillard
Project: The Black Unit of the Louisiana Writers’
Project.” Louisiana History 32.1 (1991): 47-62
Source:
Wikipedia
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Ancient African Nations
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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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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update 19 April 2010 |
