Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two-
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.
-L.H.
So many are unwilling to confront the hate in themselves. Who wants to look at their pain under a microscope? Generations of hurt continue the cycle of this nation; hurt people hurt people. It feeds the racism, the apathy, the haze covering beneficiaries' eyes. With acknowledgment comes giving away one's power, so who would be so willing?
Your words spoke in the eloquence of the pain harbored in our souls. You painted for us pictures of reaching beyond our pain. Through your poems, one experienced world travel, and other concepts embedded in this thing called life. Growing up between Missouri, Cleveland, and Mexico, it grew an appetite for a voyage that ultimately took you to Spain, countries in Africa, and France where you undoubtedly found inspiration for your words. Upon arriving back in the states and marketing your poetry, by the 1940s you had your first broadway show, Street Scene, where you gained notoriety allowing you to purchase your home in Harlem New York. There you published The Poetry of the Negro. Your poem A Dream Deferred, enunciating how the "American Dream" is unavailable for African Americans, became widely celebrated. Lorraine Hansberry used this poem in the introduction of A Raisin In The Sun, from which she also drew the title. A play today that is considered one of the most notable African American plays in theatre.
The works that you have created have given vocalization to the hopes and dreams of our hearts. I have found joy in the formation of your thoughts, the perplexing nature of how your mind is wired, and of the color in which your depictions seem to move.
Your spirit was colorful like it existed in a world beautiful and kind, making a promising image of the grace we will hopefully one day live in. A world that is embracing of black lives. A nation where a dream will never again be deferred.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
Comments