Rector Rollins
Priest Ellington
His Funkiness Horace Silver
and the great Pope JohnJohn Coltrane...
They preach a sermon that always swing.
(Black Pow Wow, 71)Joans began scrawling “Bird Lives” with chalk
all over Manhattan after his former roommate,
Charlie Parker, died in 1955.
However, Joans remained ever mindful and
thankful that, in his poetry, his mentor, LANGSTON
HUGHES, “the greatest black poet,” had introduced
him to all there is to celebrate in African-American
culture, particularly its music.
the sonata of Harlem
the concerto to shoulder bones/pinto beans/
hamhocks IN THE DARK
the slow good bouncing grooves
That was the world of Langston Hughes.
(“Homage to a Poet,” Black Pow Wow, 2)Two years before his death in Vancouver, Joans, who
left the United States after hearing the court deci-
sion in the Rodney King case and vowing never to
return, won the Columbus Foundation’s American
Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. According
to Robin D. Kelley, “all of [Joan’s] writing, like his
life, was a relentless revolt.” In his unfinished mem-
oir, however, Joans wrote: “I find myself filled too
the beautiful brim with love and with this shared
love I continue to live my poem-life.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Foley, Jack. “Goodbye, Ted Joans.” The Alsop Review.
Available online. URL: http://www.alsopreview.
com/columns/foley/jfjoans.html/. Accessed Octo-
ber 17, 2006.
Henderson, Stephen. Understanding the New Black
Poetry: Black Speech & Black Music As Poetic Ref-
erence. New York: William Morrow & Company,
Inc. 1973.
Kelley, Robin G. “Ted Joans, 1928–2003.” The Village
Voice, May 16, 2003.
Wilfred D. SamuelsJohnson, Angela (1961– )
Author of children’s books, picture books, and
young-adult fiction Angela Johnson was born in
Tuskegee, Alabama. She recalls sitting in school
and listening to stories being read and being able
to feel the characters sitting right next to her. Her
love of storytelling and the spoken word extended
into her family life as well. Johnson describes her-
self as a shy person who is inspired by her own
childhood memories and the stories that her fa-
ther and grandfather told her. During high school,
Johnson wrote free-form poetry, which eventually
led her to write children’s books. After graduating
high school, Johnson attended Kent State Univer-
sity. She also worked with Volunteers in Service to
America (VISTA), in Ravenna, Ohio, as a child de-
velopment worker from 1981 to 1982.
Johnson has written more than 23 books, in-
cluding Bird (2004), Looking for Red (2003), The
First Part Last (2003), Heaven (1998), The Wedding
(1999), Gone from Home: Short Tales (1998), Shoes
like Miss Alice’s (1995), Julius (1993), The Girl Who
Wore Snakes (1993), and Toning the Sweep (1993).
In these works Johnson generally depicts experi-
ences that are common to young children in a way
that expresses the joys of everyday life and personal
relationships. Her stories, which feature black
characters usually in the same age group as her
readers, explore both sibling and intergenerational
family relationships, highlighting the value of close
and affectionate family ties. Johnson celebrates the
uniqueness of African-American families while
addressing themes that could be experienced by
any ethnic group.
Johnson’s stories depict familiar scenes of
friendship and family regardless of ethnicity. For
example, in Tell Me a Story, Mama (1992), a pic-
ture book, the mother talks to her preschool-aged
daughter as the mother prepares the child for bed.
Mama’s childhood memories, as related by her
daughter, are slices of life from a previous gen-
eration. The story is so familiar that the daugh-
ter becomes the primary teller, while the mother
simply fills in comments as needed. One of Three
(1995) relates a story about three sisters. The story
is written through the eyes of the youngest as she
and her sisters do almost everything together.Johnson, Angela 277