Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Turns 18!

9/1/2021

Celebrating the 18th anniversary of the publication of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts On File/Infobase Publishing) by Aberjhani and Sandra L. West with foreword by Clement Alexander Price. Original cover art painting by Jacob A. Lawrence.

The fact that Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance turns 18 in September makes me more than a little emotional. It was my second major book (after the birth of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry) and at this time I feel about it as many parents do when an offspring turns 18: apprehensive, reflective, grateful to have come this far.

Several days passed before I allowed myself to actually pick up a copy of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance after boxes of both the hardback and paperback editions arrived at my home in September 2003. The cover art, featuring a painting by celebrated Harlem Renaissance artist Jacob Lawrence, was so beautiful I almost felt like touching it would be a criminal offense. (The more recent second edition has art by Archibald J. Motley on the cover.)

Having labored virtually nonstop for months and years prior to that moment to complete the encyclopedia, I suddenly found the anticipated joy of physically holding the book plagued by fears and doubts. Much the way humanity en masse of late has found itself afflicted by divisions over vaccinations and face mask mandates when it comes to continuing the battle against COVID-19 and its more lethal Delta variant.

My problem had nothing to do with a virus and everything to do with lingering questions over how well my writing partner, Sandra, and I had fulfilled a mission we both considered sacred. Had we utilized available resources efficiently enough? Had we provided readers fair balanced interpretations of “known facts” relevant to our subjects’ lives? Was the work a worthy tribute to their phenomenal accomplishments and sacrifices? I had gone through a similar trial of initiation involving The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois book when it arrived a week earlier. Only it was a smaller project which caused less anxiety.

Once I allowed myself to lift Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance out of its box, sit down with a cup of coffee and go through its pages, I reached an important sanity-preserving conclusion. We (Sandra, myself, Clement Alexander Price, and our amazing contributors) had added significantly to the expansion and elevation of conversations surrounding the impact of the renaissance.

Confronting History with History

In the months and years to come, we would take a number of the critical hits which tend to follow the publication of such groundbreaking work. However, important awards, numerous citations, supportive reviews, and further editions would also follow.

"Harlem Renaissance Deja Vu Number 1" artwork by Aberjhani on sale at Fine Art America.com and Pixels.com.

Moreover, the book was published just after the 9-11 Attacks and prior to the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. As such, it helped lay the groundwork for important dialogues addressing both events. Just being mindful of that is one beautifully-satisfying way to celebrate Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance’s 18th birthday. Another is the following:

Documenting the Story of One Book’s Amazing Journey

As I observe this 18th birthday of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, I am very mindful of the fact that my co-author for the title, Sandra L. West, and writer of the foreword, Clement Alexander Price, are now deceased. So is the man who provided us with the book’s epigraph, Ja A. Jahannes. But rather than immerse myself in sorrow over their passing, I am more inclined to acknowledge the enduring radiance with which their spirits and intellect blessed our enterprise. They would be happy to know the book continues to serve as a valuable resource for a new generation of students of the renaissance. Below, in closing, are links to my tributes to them as well as to a few posts on the encyclopedia’s impact thus far:

Tribute to Harlem Renaissance Chronicler Sandra L. West Part 1
Tribute to Harlem Renaissance Chronicler Sandra L. West Part 2

City of Newark Honors Historian Clement Alexander Price

The Wit Wisdom and Genius of Ja A. Jahannes
10th Anniversary of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

Text and Meaning in Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Part 1
Text and Meaning in Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Part 2

On Misconceptions and Alternative Interpretations of a Life

And at this point, now that the Harlem Renaissance Centennial is upon us, my personal Harlem Renaissance journey continues…

Aberjhani
Harlem Renaissance Centennial

0 Comments

Seeker with the Inkhorn Number 1: Notes on Compassion in the Summer of a Life

7/8/2021

0 Comments

"Seeker with the Inkhorn" title art graphic by Aberjhani.

A couple of years before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, I published on the Charter for Compassion website a blog series titled Notes on Compassion in the Summer of a Life Infused with Democratic Vistas and Creative Resistance. A long title, yes, but also an accurate one. It was an extended reflection on the state of our world as one writer approached a milestone birthday.

With the USA economy cautiously reopening even as worldwide deaths from coronavirus surpass 4 million, it is worth reposting a shorter version of one series installment titled “Seeker with the Inkhorn.” Why? Because our species learns some things, like the priceless value of peace or love, more slowly than others. Consider reports this first week of July 2021 regarding the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Think about the controversies over whether to get vaccinated against COVID or not, and the painful necessity of pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

The need for a collective commitment to coexistence has never been greater and yet somehow remains stubbornly elusive. Therefore, what follows is about making the best use of what life continues to teach us as we struggle to move forward with greater knowledge, wisdom, and hopefully, reinforced resilience.

Identifying Our Best Options

When studying activities of human advancement as they take shape throughout history, we find a lot of attention given to the areas of military domination, economic schemes, scientific discoveries, political showmanship, and emerging patterns of social interaction.

The cultural arts, spiritual concerns, and developments in education often appear to be acknowledged less frequently. They are usually somewhere in the background of officially-recorded history functioning like unseen digital code that drives more ostensible programming. Individual lives can also be that way. They/we get lost or displaced in the dynamically-charged cross-currents of opposing priorities and agendas.

As a species, human beings may not be able to collectively shift from one history-shaping mindset to another in a single instant. But we can, collectively, take time to identify our best options for a sustainable shared future––be they ethical, political, economic, spiritual, or educational in nature––and make them our common goals.

Seeker with the Inkhorn

In the course of composing one life story, my individual character has gone from that of impoverished youth and scuffling student to military veteran, family man, bookseller, caregiver, author, social justice advocate, and artist. Each transformation required exchanges of compassion wherein I was both a recipient and a contributor.

Once, when living in San Francisco, after an emergency situation left me short of funds to pay rent for my downtown studio apartment, an older Black man gave me a lesson in practicing and extending compassion without attempting to compromise my physical or psychological well-being in any way. He insisted on giving me the capital needed and asked that I do one thing in return: “Don’t pay me back no money. The next time somebody come to you for help, just give them whatever you can the same as I did for you. Understand?”

I did. And when possible, I have.

Bright Skylark LP quotation art with image of Author-Poet-Artist Aberjhani holding book of history on African Americans. C2021)

Later still, as an equal opportunity enforcement counselor for the U.S. Air Force Reserves, I saw up-close-and-personal the way private traumas centered around issues like spouse abuse and alcoholism damage people’s lives. And I saw also how we sometimes so effectively shield ourselves with masks of pretense that we fail daily to recognize the life-preserving need to study and practice that simple, yet so powerful, practice I was taught in San Francisco: the art of compassion.

At the core of all my functional personas has been the seeker with the inkhorn constantly transcribing autobiography into diverse forms of literature and journalism. However, that fundamental anchor at times has also undergone the kind of scrutiny which prompted biographer Annie Cohen-Solal to note the following about Jean-Paul Sartre during a powerful transformational period in his life:

“The writer has to die to give birth to the intellectual in the service of the wretched of the earth.” (Cohen-Solal, Sartre, A Life, 2005 Centennial Edition, p. 359.)

Put less dramatically, the statement means acting beyond the need to express individual creative artistry with a conscious intent to render tangible humanitarian service. Some of our best creative thinkers manage, when possible, to combine the two.

NEXT: Seeker with the Inkhorn Number 2: Compassionate Comic Relief

Aberjhani
Co-Author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

0 Comments

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

6/13/2021

0 Comments

Some unquestionably will view it as a strange kind of paradox but the stature and influence of two Savannah, Georgia-born authors has just increased in two spectacular ways. Specifically, Iowa City council members recently named one of its largest public spaces the James Alan McPherson Park after Savannah’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning native son, who for years headed the world-famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Equally significant, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the American Literature Association to cancel its annual conference last year, it will return June 17-19, 2021, with the Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium at the DeSoto Hotel only a few blocks from O’Connor’s birthplace. Headlining the event is author Minrose Gwin, who will give a presentation titled “’Where you come from is gone’: What Flannery O’Connor Taught Me about Mothers” (free and open to the public June 18, Friday, at 5PM).

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

There are not, so far as I know, any plans to name a park anywhere after me (understandably enough and totally acceptable) but I am happy to note my book, Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind, is among the titles being made available by The Book Lady Bookstore for the O’Connor symposium. Given numerous postponements of efforts to host booksigning events while simultaneously taking precautions against the pandemic and moving ahead with projects addressing the full scope of recent social, political, and racial developments, the opportunity to include autographed copies of Greeting Flannery with other titles on exhibit for the O’Connor symposium is a welcomed one.

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

Next month, July 27, 2021, will mark the fifth anniversary of James Alan McPherson’s death. By now, my admiration for his work as expressed in Greeting Flannery is well-known. Therefore, when news broke in March (just as Americans were glimpsing light at the end of the pandemic tunnel) that Iowa City Council members had voted to rename the former Creekside Park in his honor, I happily applauded.

McPherson had sometimes joked that winning a Pulitzer Prize could be a terrible thing for a writer because once, or if, that happened, people rarely acknowledged any of his or her other accomplishments. However, as Lee Hermiston reported in The Gazette, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague was well aware of the author’s overall value when noting:

“I think Mr. McPherson is well-deserving. 'He was all about community... I think this is a great honor, and I'm so happy the city of Iowa City had the opportunity to vote to name this park after him.”

Highly-treasured as an educator in the city, the park was named after McPherson partly in response to the Black Lives Matter movement which swept through the U.S. in 2020. The honor stands in odd stark contrast to the absence of any major tributes to McPherson in his hometown. He is mentioned on a historical marker dedicated to the Carnegie Branch Library but his death in 2016 was all but ignored by media in the city even as it made headlines worldwide; the same lack of acknowledgement followed the announcement of the park’s renaming.

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

For some three decades, with the exception of last year, the American Literature Association (ALA) has held annual conferences in cities around America, including: Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Cambridge, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It started, according to ALA’s website, like this:

“In June 1989, members of the major societies devoted to American authors met at the Cal State Symposium on American Literature in San Diego, to discuss ways to provide specialists in American authors with new opportunities for scholarly interaction. The result was the American Literature Association: a coalition of societies devoted to the study of American authors.”

The ALA conference has been held in Savannah previously. But with cities reopening after a year of COVID lockdowns and struggling to regain economic footing, the choice to hold The Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium in the city makes it something like the lucky winner of a lottery prize.

The complexity of O’Connor’s writings when it comes to addressing such issues as religion and race has often resulted in divided critical responses ranging from high intellectual praise to doubt-riddled contempt. Extracting meaning from that skillfully-woven web of complexity is an important part of my own reasons for approaching reflections on her work via three creative routes: the essay, visual art, and poetry.

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” Minrose Gwin poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

The scholars addressing the symposium, directed by Georgia College’s Marshall Bruce Gentry, will present panels and papers on everything from “Flannery O’Connor and Race” and “Love, Law, Medicine: Teaching (Almost Anything) with O’Connor,” to breakout sessions on individual O’Connor short stories and miscellaneous related topics.

In a city where the concept of literature is too often restricted to references to John Berendt’s now-classic tome on Savannah, the current nods to McPherson’s and O’Connor’s legacies demonstrate its literary significance runs much deeper than generally suggested.

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

0 Comments

A Friendly Chat with Flannery O’Connor

9/7/2020

0 Comments

"A Friendly Chat with Flannery O'Connor" art graphic by Aberjhani. C2020

Running throughout the title story of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind is a series of intuited exchanges between this author and O’Connor. They range from nostalgic and humorous to confrontational and exploratory. The following is one of those exchanges:

Aberjhani: I agree about the limited perceptions of race in the South as opposed to the more extended objective reality, but I can’t agree that anything you said absolves certain politically empowered social groups of responsibility for the institution of slavery.

O’Connor: That’s because you’re trying to booby trap me again and I’m not having it. Tell me this: can you imagine God as a great author and history as a fantastic fountain pen in His hand?

Aberjhani: Actually, yes, I can.

O’Connor: I know you can. Now imagine God in 1865 authoring a manuscript dated 2008 and writing the unexpected name of the winner of the United States’ presidential election.

(From the book Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind ISBN 1-716-68481-1)

Aberjhani
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Harlem Renaissance Centennial 2020

0 Comments

Lessons from Nina Simone on Love, Music, and Commitment (part 1)

6/4/2020

0 Comments

The year 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of an article series I wrote called 5 Notable Women of the Past and Present and which was first published by AXS Entertainment. Included in the series were profiles of: musician and actress Abbey Lincoln, comedienne Jackie “Moms” Mabley, author Octavia Butler, social justice advocate Dr. Abigail Jordan, and Ms. Simone. It is an honor to recognize Ms. Simone’s brilliant legacy and extraordinary life at this time with two new works of art––titled Ode to the Genius and Good Intentions of Nina Simone Numbers 1 and 2–– and republication my article about her ongoing influence on contemporary musical artists. That influence remains as true now as a decade ago. Lessons from Nina Simone on Love, Music, and Commitment part 1 starts now:

Getting to Know Ms. Simone

Many modern audiences first became familiar with the name Nina Simone in 2005 after Canadian singer Michael Buble’ recorded her 1965 hit song, “Feeling Good,” and which finalists on the popular American Idol television show sang before world audiences in 2007.

However, long before Buble’ or American Idol finalists sang “Feeling Good,” Nina Simone made a lasting name for herself on several continents as one of the great singers, composers, and performers of the twentieth century. The fact that at least a dozen books document her life and work illustrate just how great she was and how enduring her music remains. Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone, by Nadine Cohodas, is one of the latest such titles just published in February 2010.

The singer herself published in 1991 (the first London edition) an autobiography titled I Put a Spell on You. Describing just how Simone went about working her musical magic, author and former Ebony Magazine music editor Phyl Garland wrote in her in her own book, The Sound of Soul, The Music and Its Meaning, that:
“She casts her spell with the fluid but frequently complex patterns of notes she etches on her piano and with the distinctive sound of her richly reedy voice.”

Another way to gauge the impact of Simone’s life and legacy is to look at it like this: whereas the great Aretha Franklin earned, and has worn with dignity, the title “Queen of Soul” for at least four decades, Nina Simone earned and wore for decades the title “High Priestess of Soul.”

North Carolina Beginnings

She was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. Both her parents, John Divine Waymon and Mary Kate Waymon, were entertainers when they met but later settled into more stable professions to raise their eight children. Her mother became a devoted Methodist minister, which later prompted Eunice Waymon to adopt the name Nina Simone when she began performing in night clubs and bars.

Simone’s talents as a pianist were recognized early and her family supported her goal to become a world-class concert pianist. She was good enough to study for a time at the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York but her application to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia was rejected. This rejection, she felt, was based more on her race than her abilities and it has often been cited as a major source of the political fury that characterized some of her music. The planned career in classical music took off instead in the direction of more popular genres. Recording her first album, Little Girl Blue, in 1957, she enjoyed a hit with the George Gershwin song, “I Loves You Porgy.”

"Ode to the Genius & Good Intentions of Nina Simone Number 1" art by Aberjhani. Please click to learn more about the artwork and/or to order it.

While she was quickly labeled and marketed as a jazz performer, Simone had actually developed into a mistress of diverse musical forms that included not only jazz, but gospel, blues, Broadway show tunes, Black folk songs, and other styles in classic American modes. She could have easily carved out a successful career for herself in popular music and simply enjoyed the wealth and fame that comes with such success. But in addition to her musical sensibilities, she also possessed a social/political consciousness that was magnified by friendships with individuals like the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author James Baldwin, and author Langston Hughes, all of whom at various times lent their artistry to the struggle for racial equality.

It was Hughes who said, “Nina Simone is as different from other singers as beer is from champagne.” While he contributed liner notes to at least one of her albums, she in turn wrote with him the hit song “Backlash Blues.”

Commitment and Consequences

The singer once stated that as far as she was concerned, the job of a creative artist was to address the pressing issues of her times. Towards that end, she wrote and recorded a number of songs that addressed individual moral responsibility as well as the civil rights and women’s rights movements of the 1960s. Following two events in particular––the 1963 murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Mississippi and that of four Black girls in a Birmingham church–– she recorded the now classic “Mississippi Goddamn.”

The composition is in part satire, part social criticism, and part political outrage, which, given the real-world apartheid conditions and context of the times, makes a great deal of sense. She introduced the song by emphasizing its title and pointing out that she meant every word of it, then sang with fierce courage and intelligence: “Alabama's gotten me so upset/ Tennessee made me lose my rest/ And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam…”

Aside from expressing outrage, the singer also implored:

“Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer”

While many championed Simone for her courageous outspokenness at a time when passive endurance was considered the key to civil rights success for African Americans, others vilified her for it. Many radio stations banned the song and the impact upon her career would prove a lasting negative one. Other powerful protest songs, notably music legends Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind,” were also released during this period but apparently considered less confrontational or threatening than “Mississippi Goddamn.”

NEXT: Lessons from Nina Simone on Love, Music, and Commitment part 2

Aberjhani
author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
co-author of Encyclopedia of Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance Centennial 1919-2029

0 Comments

<<Previous

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Turns 18!

Confronting History with History

Documenting the Story of One Book’s Amazing Journey

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Seeker with the Inkhorn Number 1: Notes on Compassion in the Summer of a Life

Identifying Our Best Options

Seeker with the Inkhorn

Aberjhani
Co-Author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

A Friendly Chat with Flannery O’Connor

Aberjhani
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Harlem Renaissance Centennial 2020

Contact the Author

Lessons from Nina Simone on Love, Music, and Commitment (part 1)

Getting to Know Ms. Simone

North Carolina Beginnings

Commitment and Consequences

Contact the Author-Artist

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Turns 18!

Confronting History with History

Documenting the Story of One Book’s Amazing Journey

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Seeker with the Inkhorn Number 1: Notes on Compassion in the Summer of a Life

Identifying Our Best Options

​Seeker with the Inkhorn

AberjhaniCo-Author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My MindCreator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

AberjhaniCo-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Dreams of the Immortal City SavannahCreator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

A Friendly Chat with Flannery O’Connor

AberjhaniCreator of Silk-Featherbrush ArtstyleAuthor of Dreams of the Immortal City SavannahHarlem Renaissance Centennial 2020​

Contact the Author

Lessons from Nina Simone on Love, Music, and Commitment (part 1)

Getting to Know Ms. Simone

North Carolina Beginnings

Commitment and Consequences

Contact the Author-Artist

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Seeker with the Inkhorn

Aberjhani
Co-Author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Aberjhani
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Harlem Renaissance Centennial 2020