The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write

Henry Dumas was a gifted poet and fiction writer who was killed in 1968. Since then, my father (and now I) have executed Henry Dumas's estate. Listen as I lead my father and his good friend, renowned poet Quincy Troupe in a conversation about Dumas and how Quincy's friendship with Toni Morrison helped to propel Dumas's work into the public sphere. * NEW Preserving Our Family Elders' Stories  COURSE ALERT! Womanist/Feminist Approaches To Community Archives And Memory Keeping ___ Join me for this INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY ARCHIVES Learning Experience. An intensive accessible for all learning levels specific to what community archiving is and some fun ways to preserve history. ___ What topics will be covered? - How long has the concept of archiving existed? What are some early examples? - What distinguishes womanist or feminist archives and archiving? What are some current archives and how can we access them? - How has your family already been archiving and how might you assemble archival materials? - How do you preserve stories and make a podcast out of them? - What are some non traditional archives? - How might we extend this class to support each other going forward? - So much more! ___ Culture Keeping: Womanist/Feminist Approaches To Community Archives And Memory Keeping Instructor: @treasure.shieldsredmond@gmail.com Online zoom/interactive SUNDAY | March 24 5PM CST * All classes will be recorded and available for later viewing and access. REGISTER: https://thecommunityarchive.org/shop/ #podcast #oralhistory #archives #civilrights --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/treasure-shields-redmond/support

Most people don't know that I didn't meet my dad in person until I was 11 years old. Why? Listen and find out! #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. If you would like to learn to podcast or you have your own elders' stories you'd like to record contact Dr. Treasure Shields Redmond here: http://femininepronoun.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

Audio Essay: “The Ghost of Henry Dumas” Our beloved Henry Dumas was shot & killed by a NYC transit cop in 1968. Since then my father has lovingly edited the work he left behind. I am my father's daughter. Here an audio essay of the print version I published in the Yale Review. If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

New Podcast! Sankofa For Henry Dumas Today marks 58 years since Henry Dumas was shot to death at the age of 33 by a New York City Transit Police officer. My father, Eugene Redmond, met Henry Dumas in 1967 when he became a teacher-counselor and director of language workshops at Southern Illinois University's Experiment in Higher Education, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Dumas's riveting story is one rescued from ultimate tragedy by the love of his friend, Eugene Redmond. Presently I am the Post Doctoral Fellow of Literary Executorship for the Henry Dumas and Eugene B. Redmond estate. * If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My 84 year old Dad is a Black Arts Movement poet. The Black Arts Movement was the artistic component of the Black Power Movement. Black Studies was the academic response to the Black Power Movement. In this episode, we finish our discussion of how he came to be an architect of Black Studies in U.S. universities. The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. * If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ If you would like to support our mission to center ”Poetry, Pedagogy, and Justice” make a donation via our patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/FannieLouHamerHouse #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My 83 year old Dad is a Black Arts Movement poet. The Black Arts Movement was the artistic component of the Black Power Movement. Black Studies was the academic response to the Black Power Movement. In this episode, my Dad discusses how he came to be an architect of Black Studies in U.S. universities. * The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. * If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ If you would like to support our mission to center ”Poetry, Pedagogy, and Justice” make a donation via our patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/FannieLouHamerHouse #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

New Podcast! “How A Poet Heals At 83”. My superhero of an 83 year old Dad is out of rehab and back home! In this episode we talk about what healing looks like now. * The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter * If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My superhero of an 83 year old Dad is presently recovering from back surgery in a rehab facility. In this episode we talk about how he wound up here and what his goals for healing are. * The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter * If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

In the words of the great American poet Gwendolyn Brooks: "We are each other's business; we are each other's harvest; we are each other's magnitude and bond. In this episode my dad details some of the many jobs he had and how he moved from laborer to academic. He also shares how his income was always a communal offering to his family. As he reveals how his ingenuity placed him in better and better positions financially, he never fails to center his family and the ways his success was all of our success. The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. If you would like to support the continuity of this podcast, get on our exclusive list for creatives who earn FREE gifts and more on our website at: http://femininepronoun.com/ #podcast #oralhistory #BAM #BlackLivesMatter --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

In 1966, SIUE officially began an East St. Louis special program named “Experiment in Higher Education” (EHE). This program was established through federal funding and provided financial support to disadvantaged students for their first two years of college. This was my dad's first teaching job. This is where he received crucial mentoring and set collegial patterns in motion that would characterize his entire career. Community mindedness, serving Black learners, developing curriculums and programs designed to build not just the knowledge base of students, but the self-esteem and character, were all lessons my dad took from EHE. Listen as he takes us back to his days as a novice teacher in East St. Louis, Illinois. The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My father met a woman who would forever shape him as and artist and a man. She became a signature mentor, and provided him with character building guidance that he still draws from to this day. That woman, was the great African-American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist Katherine Dunham. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. In 1964, Dunham settled in East St. Louis, and took up the post of artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in nearby Edwardsville. Because of her community mindedness and activist heart, she located her school in the Black community of East St. Louis, Illinois. In this episode he describes their meeting and collaboration and the important place her mentorship holds in his life. In 2016 I took a gamble on me. After being signed to M.C. Hammer‘s record label, and releasing an album that DID NOT catapult me to fame and fortune, I went back to college and became a teacher. My first job was as a high school English teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, and talk about trial by fire! That was 1998 and since then I have worked steadily at high schools, colleges, universities and even prisons! But it wasn't until 2016 that I realized that all THE OTHER gifts I share; the POETRY PERFORMANCE and READINGS, the LECTURES, TALKS, and PRESENTATIONS, the CURRICULUM WRITING, the ARTICLE WRITING, and now the RETREAT HOSTING and AIRBNB EXPERIENCE LEADING, should have a home. Feminine Pronoun Consultants, LLC is that home. Welcome. This PODCAST is just one of the ways you can plug in, collaborate, and benefit. Go here for others: www.FemininePronoun.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

After the murder of George Floyd, the world has responded in an unprecedented wave of protests. My dad has lived through several massive surges of political fervor like the current one. These “surges” are often (but not always) accompanied by “consciousness raising.” What does it mean to come to consciousness? My dad and I discuss how he came to consciousness amid a time of national upheaval. *** The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. You can find my podcast on --> www.FemininePronoun.com AND subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. *** In 2016 I took a gamble on me. After being signed to M.C. Hammer‘s record label, and releasing an album that DID NOT catapult me to fame and fortune, I went back to college and became a teacher. My first job was as a high school English teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, and talk about trial by fire! That was 1998 and since then I have worked steadily at high schools, colleges, universities and even prisons! But it wasn't until 2016 that I realized that all THE OTHER gifts I share; the POETRY PERFORMANCE and READINGS, the LECTURES, TALKS, and PRESENTATIONS, the CURRICULUM WRITING, the ARTICLE WRITING, and now the RETREAT HOSTING and AIRBNB EXPERIENCE LEADING, should have a home. Feminine Pronoun Consultants, LLC is that home. Welcome. This PODCAST is just one of the ways you can plug in, collaborate, and benefit. Go here for others: www.FemininePronoun.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

After the murder of George Floyd, the world has responded in an unprecedented wave of protests. My dad has lived through several massive surges of political fervor like the current one. These "surges" are often (but not always) accompanied by "consciousness raising." What does it mean to come to consciousness? My dad and I discuss how he came to consciousness amid a time of national upheaval. * * * The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is a radically honest conversation between a daughter and her dad. My dad has had an incredible life as a poet, activist, professor, and cultural worker. He wouldn't write a memoir, so this series of conversations is partly that. In 2016 I took a gamble on me. After being signed to M.C. Hammer‘s record label, and releasing an album that DID NOT catapult me to fame and fortune, I went back to college and became a teacher. My first job was as a high school English teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, and talk about trial by fire! That was 1998 and since then I have worked steadily at high schools, colleges, universities and even prisons! But it wasn't until 2016 that I realized that all THE OTHER gifts I share; the POETRY PERFORMANCE and READINGS, the LECTURES, TALKS, and PRESENTATIONS, the CURRICULUM WRITING, the ARTICLE WRITING, and now the RETREAT HOSTING and AIRBNB EXPERIENCE LEADING, should have a home. Feminine Pronoun Consultants, LLC is that home. Welcome. This PODCAST is just one of the ways you can plug in, collaborate, and benefit. Go here for others: www.FemininePronoun.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

What comparisons can we draw between the 1960's and now within the context of the Covid 19 pandemic? I've been observing social distancing from my 82 year old dad, but I was eager to talk with him about how to use history to cope with the current health crisis. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

What is it like to love a home it feels like the world despises? For my Dad, East St. Louis is at the end of that question. In this episode we move further up his timeline through the turbulent 1960's and into East St. Louis's slow transition from manufacturing hub to prime example of why he is so strongly pro-reparations. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

On August 5, 2019, writer, editor, and Black genius, Toni Morrison transitioned to ancestorhood. My father knew the iconic writer well. This is a special episode where he discusses Toni Morrison from his unique point of view. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My dad has seen how stories are shaped by who writes them and who publishes them. As a journalist and expert at almost every level of the field -- typesetting, editing, reporting, column production, and sales -- his insight into how the 20th century's news industry shaped culture is fascinating! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My father left the Marines with the intention of becoming a news man. It was the dawn of the 1960's and print journalism was in its hey day. He became the first Black editor of his university's newspaper. There was also a "Newness" in Negro political thought. My father attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and witnessed the birth of the U.S.'s most explosive decade. Contact Treasure at Treasure@femininepronoun.com for: 1. Hiring Treasure to help busy parents of college bound teens secure top tier educations with out massive debt via www.gettheacceptanceletter.online 2. Hiring Treasure and Jia Lian Yang to host podcasting or storytelling workshops for all ages via www.whoraisedyoupodcast.com 3. Hiring Treasure and Dail Itshanapa Chamber to lead retreats for artists or present on fundraising and arts practice, especially for women and artists of color via www.tumbler.blackskilletfunders.com 4. Hiring Treasure to read poetry or conduct creative writing workshops. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

It was the final half of the 1950's. The U.S. was basking in the glow of its Ozzie and Harriet delusions. It was a culture in deep denial and in no way prepared for the sea change of a decade it was headed toward. In many ways my dad, Eugene B. Redmond was the same. He'd joined the Marines after less than a year in college. He was a young man in flux. A young man in prelude to a breakthrough. Like the country, he was unaware of how the ensuing years would shape him. In this episode we talk about his decision to join the Marines, how he began to come into his own as a writer, and especially how his understanding of manhood was challenged by the military. Oh, and there's a little story of how one of his platoon members tried to gore him with a bayonet! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

As a man who came of age in the late 1950's, my father has seen conceptions of manhood evolve and evolve again. In this current political moment, full of revelation and retribution, my father and I talk about how he was "taught" manhood through the examples around him. (Plus we explore the tradition of nick naming in the African American community.) CALLING ALL STL METRO ELDERS! Are you over 60 and have a story about spending time on or in the Mississippi river? I want to record your story. Contact TREASURE at Treasure@FemininePronoun.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My dad's upsouth childhood included the Mississippi river in a way that seems inconceivable now. From fishing it, to swimming it, to being baptized in it, to making love next to it, the river figured largely in the lives and imaginations of post war East St. Louis. In this Mississippi river themed episode, we're joined by photographer and colleague, Jennifer Colten to hear and see what the river meant to my father and his community. A Mississippi native, Treasure Shields Redmond is a published poet, master educator, community arts organizer, and successful entrepreneur. Treasure was raised in the federal housing projects, and went on to be signed to M.C. Hammer's label as a hip hop artist, and writer. She is the author of chop: a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hamer (2015). Her doctoral research focuses on the recorded performances of foundational Black Women poets, and the ways they deployed sound to impact the canon and justice movements. Treasure centers collaboration in her personal arts practice and as an organizing principle. As such, she has co-founded a funding collective for Black artists called The Black Skillet, and a podcast that centers voices of color called Who Raised You? Treasure is the founder of Feminine Pronoun Consultants, LLC, and Get The Acceptance Letter Academy. To read, hear, support, or hire Treasure, go to any of the following: Contact Treasure at Treasure@femininepronoun.com for: 1. Hiring Treasure to help busy parents of college bound teens secure top tier educations with out massive debt via www.gettheacceptanceletter.online 2. Hiring Treasure and Jia Lian Yang to host podcasting or storytelling workshops for all ages via www.whoraisedyoupodcast.com 3. Hiring Treasure and Dail Itshanapa Chamber to lead retreats for artists or present on fundraising and arts practice, especially for women and artists of color via www.tumbler.blackskilletfunders.com 4. Hiring Treasure to read poetry or conduct creative writing workshops. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

The ability to protest for Black dignity, and for justice was something my dad learned early on. He is a member of the generation that created the modern "demonstration." As he moved in to manhood in the final years of the 1950's, listen to what his earliest protest experiences taught him, AND MORE! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

This is a special remote episode. Listen as my father and I travel the actual roads where he came into contact with Red Foxx, and The Ike Turner Ikettes. Listen as he calls back into existence the bustling post-war Black East St. Louis of his childhood. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

67 years before Michael Brown jr. was murdered in Ferguson, my father was teen hearing about Emmett Till being lynched by white men. In this episode, he talks about how this news and the community events that happened afterward made a life long impression. Go to www.FemininePronoun.com to read the creative non fiction I wrote about this pivotal time and to see how story telling, podcasting workshops and more can help you or your organization. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

East St. Louis's Black community of the 1940's and 50's was a swirl of influences. Most Black people were recent migrants from the south or the children of southern migrants. They were a new citified version of Blackness, and with that newness came the stresses and pressures of urban life. A closer physical proximity. A different economic competition. More access to drugs and alcohol. More violence. In this burgeoning phase my father became a man and watched other men reckon with each other, even to the point of murder. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

Trigger warning: My Dad was 13 when he was introduced to sex . . . by a woman who was nearly 30. If descriptions of what most would name molestation are triggering for you, this may be the episode you need to skip. My father has not gone back on his word to be honest. As we continue our conversations through his life, we hit upon this maturation point that is rife with complications. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

In the 1940's, East St. Louis, Illinois' Black community was "art-full" according to my Dad. There were impromptu singing groups, and instruments created from refuse, discards and ordinary household items. Families listened to country, blues and gospel, and voice acted dramas on the radio. "Dial M For Murder" was performed at the high school and in the midst of all that a young boy came of age. Always a voracious reader, but also talkative and popular enough to be asked to M.C. the talent shows, my dad talks about how his community shaped him as an artist. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

In a mere 72 hours after his mothers death, a 9 year old Eugene became the son of his grandmother, a devout Jehovah's Witness in her mid sixties. And not only that, she was cruel, and sometimes physically abusive. In this episode my dad reflects on whether she was a protagonist or an antagonist in his story and how this "Hard hearted Hannah" shaped his childhood. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

John Henry Redmond was named for a strong man. He was my Dad's hero, and a man of innumerable talents. So why did he essentially abandon his nine children upon the passing of my dad's mother, spend the rest of his days in semi-hiding, ending his life buried under an assumed name? In this episode we find out why. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

My dad says he was orphaned through the death of his mother at age 9 and through the abandonment of his father at the same time. In this episode he shares his memories of Emma Jean Hutchison, a woman who bore 9 children and was pregnant when she died of an aneurism in 1947. We talk about how his mother's death, which to him felt like a disappearance, informed his work as a mentor over his 40 year teaching career. A Mississippi native, Treasure Shields Redmond is a published poet, master educator, community arts organizer, and successful entrepreneur. Treasure was raised in the federal housing projects, and went on to be signed to M.C. Hammer's label as a hip hop artist, and writer. She is the author of chop: a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hamer (2015). Her doctoral research focuses on the recorded performances of foundational Black Women poets, and the ways they deployed sound to impact the canon and justice movements. Treasure centers collaboration in her personal arts practice and as an organizing principle. As such, she has co-founded a funding collective for Black artists called The Black Skillet, and a podcast that centers voices of color called Who Raised You? Treasure is the founder of Feminine Pronoun Consultants, LLC, and Get The Acceptance Letter Academy. To read, hear, support, or hire Treasure, go to any of the following: www.FemininePronoun.com www.GetTheAcceptanceLetter.online www.blackskilletfunders.tumblr.com www.whoraisedyoupodcast.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

The words "Pearl Harbor" were what my Dad heard and remembered as a four year old. That surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese represents his earliest memory. He'd just turned 4 a week prior. In this episode there is an interesting resonance between the attack spearheaded by the Japanese and an alluring Japanese bride whom my father watched through his backyard fence. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support

The very first episode of The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is an introduction to my Dad, Eugene B. Redmond, and to me (Treasure Shields Redmond), and to the REAL reason I feel so urgent about creating this project. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/treasure-shields-redmond/support