Podcast appearances and mentions of Sterling A Brown

Welcome to our Festive Calendar, a special series of The Reader Podcast. Every day this December we will share with you a seasonal poem or a short extract from a novel or story, read by one of our staff or volunteer Reader Leaders. Today's reading is the poem 'Rain' by Sterling A. Brown . It's read by Evie Loy O'Neill, who leads a Shared Reading group in Richmond upon Thames. Support our Christmas Appeal and make a difference to the lives of people living with dementia. Please give what you can at www.thereader.org.uk   Production by Chris Lynn. Music by Chris Lynn & Frank Johnson

Sterling A. Brown's work stays with me, making me think about childhood, and the things we leave behind, but why? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it's rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, Return, by writer, poet and teacher Sterling A. Brown, is in the public domain. Words by Winter can be reached at wordsbywinterpodcast@gmail.com. 

On May 1, 1901, professor, poet, and literary critic Sterling A. Brown was born in Washington, D.C. Brown is best known for his work in educating and inspiring young poets during his tenure at Howard University.  Before beginning his career as a professor, Brown earned his bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1922 and completed a master's degree from Harvard University. He then taught at Lincoln University and Fisk University before settling at Howard University in 1929. Brown taught at Howard for 40 years, during which he taught poets Amiri Baraka and Gwendolyn Brooks. Sterling A. Brown died in 1989 at 87 years old. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many anthologies of nature poetry and Black poetry have excluded Black nature poetry. But Black people have always written poetry about nature. We write about the land that supports us and challenges us. We write about the animals we care for and the disasters that destroy our homes. We write about the rivers we cross and the soil we till. Black nature poems reflect the enormous range of experiences that we have in our physical environments. As they show us, nature can haunt, and nature can heal. In today's episode, Katie and Yves discuss the work of a few writers who train their words on the natural world.   Get show notes at ontheme.show Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at hello@ontheme.showSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recorded by Academy of American Poets staff for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on February 10, 2024. www.poets.org

This poem, Challenge, by Sterling A. Brown, has haunted me --not in a bad way, in a wondering sort of way--since I first came across it.Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it's rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, Challenge, by writer, poet and teacher Sterling A. Brown, is in the public domain. Words by Winter can be reached at wordsbywinterpodcast@gmail.com. 

Recorded by Academy of American Poets staff for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on February 12, 2023. www.poets.org

Listen to an awe inspiring and uplifting chat with Joanne Gabbin, the first black professor in the English Department at JMU with a building on campus recently named after her. Hear her rich stories that lead her to establish the nation's first academic center for Black poetry and the changes she's seen in her 36 years at James Madison University. Listen to the degree options available to her in the early 1960s and how her student path in journalism had lead to her first job. Hear the story about the JMU Honors program she directed that grew to almost 600 students and the incredible story of a student who said she ‘kicked him out of the honors program'. Hear her thoughts and wisdom on what makes a good writer and how she structures her Life Writing Class. Find out what influenced her to become a literary activist, what her message is and what she believes it teaches us. Discover why she wrote a book on Sterling A. Brown, a highly influential professor at Howard University from 1929-1969 and the “curious thing” he said to her when she handed him the book. Hear more about the famous poets she's worked with on programs and events including Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison and Gwendolyn Brooks to name a few.  Find out the inspiration behind the naming of the Furious Flower Poetry Center; this year's $1000 Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers; the upcoming Collegiate Summit and more! Most definitely not short of stories this episode is filled with oodles of inspiration for you. Enjoy!  Furious Flower Poetry Center www.jmu.edu/furiousflower Facebook: Furious Flower Poetry Center Instagram: @furiousflowerpoetrycenterjmu Twitter: @FuriousFlowerPC Visit or Contact Them: Cardinal House 500 Cardinal Harrisonburg, VA 22807 540.568.883 furiousflower@jmu.edu Poetry Prize For Emerging Writers: Deadline to Submit February 15, 2022 https://www.jmu.edu/furiousflower/poetryprize/index.shtml Furious Flower Collegiate Summit 2022: March 3-4, 2022 https://www.jmu.edu/furiousflower/collegiate-summit/index.shtml To learn more about X2 Comedy visit: https://www.x2comedy.com/ Facebook & Instagram: X2 Comedy

The range and scope of manifestations in the Black freedom struggle are varied yet connected by a common thread…it does not matter where you look, pick a point on the map of human geography, pick a geographical landmass or region -- the continent of Africa, the Caribbean or somewhere in Northern part of the Americas, you will find a common thread. And that thread is the radical imagination of young people. You will find a historical path that reaches into the present. You will find the beginnings of a road built with vibrancy of young folk who envisioned a world beyond struggle. SNYC We can see the materiality of this fact in the continuum of African/a resistance. In 1937, the Southern Negro Youth Congress [SNYC] was created [We demand Our Rights: Southern Negro Youth Congress, 1937-1949]. Assembled in Richmond, VA, for the first Southern Negro Youth Congress were some 534 delegates representing 250,000 young people in 23 states, and an estimated crowd of 2,000 observers. They represented "sharecroppers from Alabama and Mississippi; domestic workers from Georgia…and every other representative of Southern Negro life." [We demand Our Rights: Southern Negro Youth Congress, 1937-1949]. SNYC lasted for 12 years, 1937 to 1949. SNCC On February 1, 1960, Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina launched sit-ins challenging segregation in restaurants and other public accommodations. SNCC was founded just two and a half months later on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ella Baker was the gathering's organizer. [SNCC Digital Gateway]. On SNCC's international dimensions, highlighted by Fanon Che Wilkins, in his article The Making of Black Internationalists: SNCC and Africa Before the Launching of Black Power, 1960-1965, were embryonic as “the founding conference of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, the delegates declared unequivocally: "We identify ourselves with the African struggle as a concern for all mankind" [468]. To add more clarity, Miss. Baker organized the conference which led to the formation of SNCC “just three weeks after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa” [Wilkins, 2007: 471]. I present this snapshot, paying attention to historical continuity in African/a student resistance to provide an impetus to engage in more intentionally and consciously mapping of the range and scope of the Black freedom movement. Today, we present a conversation with SNCC activist: Courtland Cox.While a Howard University student, Courtland Cox became a member of Nonviolent Action Group [NAG] and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He worked with SNCC in Mississippi and Lowndes County, Alabama, was the Program Secretary for SNCC in 1962, as well as the SNCC representative to the War Crimes Tribunal organized by Bertram Russell. In 1963 he served as the SNCC representative on the Steering Committee for the March on Washington. In 1973 he served as the Secretary General of the Sixth Pan-African Congress in Tanzania. Additionally, he co-owned and managed the Drum and Spear Bookstore and Drum and Spear Press in Washington DC. In our conversation we explored: Freedom Schools; CLR James; Jamil Al-Amin; Black internationalism; Sterling A. Brown; scholars w/o portfolio; independent political parties; Sékou Touré; Tanzania; Marion Berry; and the Sixth Pan African Congress. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Image: Courtland Cox (second from right), Marion Barry, and others sitting-in at Atlanta Toddle House, December 1963, [https://snccdigital.org/people/courtland-cox/]

Ernie Brill writes fiction and poetry about everyday people. His I Looked Over Jordan and Other Stories explores race and class among hospital workers. The actress Ruby Dee purchased, adapted, and performed the story Crazy Hattie Enters Ice Age for her and her husband's PBS TV series “With Ruby and Ossie.” Brill won a New York State Council for The Arts Fiction Grant. He received his BA and MA in English from San Francisco State College. Brill has published widely fiction, poetry and essays in the US and Canada (River Styx, Other Voices, Z, U. of Minnesota, Prentice Hall Ontario Canada. Favorite writers include Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright, Mahmoud Darwish, Hyseoon Kim, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Pedro Pietri, Pablo Neruda. Active Muse Ernie's Readings: Intake – 9:55 End of Faculty Meeting – 27:13 Longshore – 42:31 Michael's Beer Pairings:  Commander 2018, Lift Bridge Brewery (paired to Intake) – 6:33 Caked and Layered, Pipeworks Brewing (paired to End of Faculty Meeting) – 24:22 Arbeiter Bier, Arbeiter Brewing Company (paired to Longshore) – 38:51 Interview Highlights:  How a chapbook about hospitals came to be – 12:30 A short story on PBS "With Ossie and Ruby" – 17:50 Buzz words at Meetings – 29:38 Early advocacy for multicultural literature – 30:37 The value of art to society – 46:56 How our life's work may hurt us – 49:20 COMING NEXT MONTH: Jeff LaFerney, YA author of time travel and sci-fi UPCOMING EVENTS: Gabriel's Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Cornelius Eady has published seven books of poetry, including Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, which won the 1985 Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and Brutal Imagination, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in poetry. Running Man, a music-theatre piece Eady coauthored with jazz musician Diedre Murray, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1999 and received Obie awards for best musical score and lead actor in a musical. Eady is also the co-founder of Cave Canem, an organization dedicated to the advancement of young African-American poets. In this episode of the GrottoPod, Cornelius talks with Cave Canem fellow and poet George Higgins in a wide-ranging conversation about improvisation, Cornelius’s new music project, the poet Sterling A. Brown, Jim Crow, recording in Elvis’s Memphis studio, Cave Canem, Rooted and Written and a photo shoot by the New York Times of the 32 black male writers of our time. 

Sterling A. Brown work amplifies and materialize the nature of the aesthetic connections that find continuity in contemporary black life. Brown opens, Southern Road with an epigraph of an old negro spiritual: ‘O de ole sheep dey knows de road, Young lambs gotta find de way.' It is with this, Sterling A Brown highlights the intentions of his work which is ‘to face two directions at simultaneously'. To look forward into the future while facing the past, the poems in Southern Road consider the relationship between the [past and present] and its relevance to Black people entering the European conceptualization of modernity (Gabbin, Sterling A Brown, Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition, 1985: 3. For Sterling A. Brown, diving into the depths of human experience and character necessitated a close look at language. In a 1978 interview Brown stated that, “The poets that struck me were those who were poets of the people and poets of direct—not florid…American speech.” The contribution that Brown offered is a clear understanding that what the ‘new' poets were doing with language was not new (30). Today Dr. Josh Myers will explore the work of Sterling A. Brown in a presentation titled, A Blue(s) (Note) for Sterling Brown. In addition to being a valued member of the AWNP collective and its affiliates, Dr. Josh Myers is currently an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. He currently serves on the board of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and the editorial board of The Compass: Journal of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, he works with the DC area collectives, Positive Black Folks in Action and the Nu Afrikan Cultural Vanguard. His research interests include Africana intellectual histories and traditions, Africana philosophy, critical university studies, and disciplinarity. His work has been published in The Journal of African American Studies, The Journal of Pan African Studies, The African Journal of Rhetoric, The Human Rights and Globalization Law Review, Liberator Magazine, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Knowledge, and Society, Critical Ethnic Studies, and Pambazuka, among other literary spaces. His book, “We are Worth Fighting For: The Howard University Protest of 1989” is forthcoming. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Enjoy the program!

Dr. Carmaletta M. Williams, professor of English and African American studies at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan., author of Langston Hughes in the Classroom: “Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me” and Of Two Spirits: American Indian and African American Oral Histories and Dr. John Edgar Tidwell, professor of English at the University of Kansas and author of Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes, After Winter: The Art and Life of Sterling A. Brown, and Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press, join us to talk about My Dear Boy, Carrie Hughes's Letters to Langston Hughes 1926-1938http://news.ku.edu/2014/02/24/project-examines-how-letters-langston-hughes-mother-influenced-his-writings. We close the show with frequent guest Raissa Simpson, choreographer, master teacher and Artistic Director of PUSH Dance Company's premiere of "Point Shipyard," March 29-30, 2014 at MoAD-SF. She is joined by collaborators and performers: Katie Wong and Adriann Ramirez www.pushdance.org Music: Dwight Tribble's "I've Known Rivers" (based on Langston Hughes's poem by same title); soundscape from PUSH Dance Company's collaboration with the 3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic.

Piedmont blues from John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, the poetry of Sterling A. Brown, and Civil Rights singers Bernice Johnson Reagon, Reverend Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, and Paul Robeson. Plus, a Baltimore sea chantey, a Canadian land prospector’s lonely ballad, and a song learned in a dream.