Poem Written after Purchasing Cane by Jean Toomer
I called my friend, Mama Jennifer, at Community Book Center. “Do y’all have Cane by Jean Toomer?” She laughed. She says everybody says the same thing: “Cane by Jean Toomer.” I realized it’s because in most other places we have to explain.
In a graphic design class, I had to design a magazine mock-up of a famous person. I decided on Zora Neale Hurston. My instructor, whom I admired, didn’t know her. I wasn’t surprised. She wanted to know was Zora famous? Was there a wealth of information on her? Would other people know her? Yes, yes and no . . . but they should. I found a plethora of articles on the Internet and gave my instructor links and proceeded to create my magazine layout. After all, I was in class to learn and obviously other people needed educating as well.
People expect me to know about Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Bernard Shaw, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson, English Renaissance poets. They know about Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, and a few Harlem Renaissance poets but nothing about the Black Arts Movement. What about Lucille Clifton? Or Jayne Cortez, who was born in 1934. Her work was known for, “its visceral power, its political outrage, and above all its sheer, propulsive musicality.” When she died in 2012, a friend asked who she was. Cortez lived 78 years and wrote volumes of poetry, but who remembers? Shakespeare was born in 1564 and lived 52 years, and yet his name remains on every tongue. I still remember Robert Burns’, “And I will luve thee still, my dear,/ Till a’ the seas gang dry,” but who remembers Nikki Giovanni’s, “the school yard was covered/ with asphalt /no green – no /trees grow /in manhattan . . . ”? So I have come to expect that people don’t know what I am talking about. There may be no other Cane book in existence, but if there is, I don’t want the wrong one.
My question was a habit, born of a lifetime of explaining the historical significance of writers not named Shakespeare. Jennifer knows which Cane I want.
In a graphic design class, I had to design a magazine mock-up of a famous person. I decided on Zora Neale Hurston. My instructor, whom I admired, didn’t know her. I wasn’t surprised. She wanted to know was Zora famous? Was there a wealth of information on her? Would other people know her? Yes, yes and no . . . but they should. I found a plethora of articles on the Internet and gave my instructor links and proceeded to create my magazine layout. After all, I was in class to learn and obviously other people needed educating as well.
People expect me to know about Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Bernard Shaw, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson, English Renaissance poets. They know about Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, and a few Harlem Renaissance poets but nothing about the Black Arts Movement. What about Lucille Clifton? Or Jayne Cortez, who was born in 1934. Her work was known for, “its visceral power, its political outrage, and above all its sheer, propulsive musicality.” When she died in 2012, a friend asked who she was. Cortez lived 78 years and wrote volumes of poetry, but who remembers? Shakespeare was born in 1564 and lived 52 years, and yet his name remains on every tongue. I still remember Robert Burns’, “And I will luve thee still, my dear,/ Till a’ the seas gang dry,” but who remembers Nikki Giovanni’s, “the school yard was covered/ with asphalt /no green – no /trees grow /in manhattan . . . ”? So I have come to expect that people don’t know what I am talking about. There may be no other Cane book in existence, but if there is, I don’t want the wrong one.
My question was a habit, born of a lifetime of explaining the historical significance of writers not named Shakespeare. Jennifer knows which Cane I want.
Valentine Pierce, a New Orleans spoken word artist, has been writing most of her life. Publications credits include, The Xavier Review, Nasty Women Poets anthology and Freedom's Dance. Pierce's two books include, Geometry of the Heart, Portals Press 2007 and, Up Decatur, New Laurel Review Press, 2017. Pierce is a freelance graphic designer and editor, former journalist and veteran. Recently she spent time using an old skill, sewing, to create face masks for friends and nonprofits.
Art: Blue Dooms by Cierra Rowe