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On May 11,1984, Sterling A. Brown was officially named the Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia. It was the highest honor the city had ever bestowed on a poet.
The event coincided with the opening of the 2nd Annual Larry Neal Writers' Conference and was held on Capitol Hill.
It took place ten days after his 83rd birthday and 15 years after I first met him on the campus of Howard University. Sterling A. Brown a native of Washington, D.C. had a long distinguished association with the university. When describing his relationship with Howard University he often said he was a man "hired, fired and rehired."
Between 1969 and 1984 my life was linked to Sterling Brown's in several ways. His life in many ways shaped my own literary career and resulted in my decision to become a literary activist. Perhaps even the idea of becoming a poet might be linked to hearing Brown read his poems on campus around 1969. Growing up in the South Bronx, I had never attended a poetry reading or heard someone read poetry in public. What I recall about my first Brown reading was the fascinating "lies" he told in between poems. The "lies" were an introduction to his skill as a storyteller; listening to them, one became witness to Brown's wit and wisdom. Brown introduced me to what one might define as a distillation of the black experience. My introduction to what Brown called his Southern Road occurred at a time when I had just left New York and my family's West Indian roots. I became aware of Brown's poetry at the same time I had started reading books like Black Power by Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver, The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin White Masks by Frantz Fanon and the early poetry books of Sonia Sanchez, Don L. Lee, Norman Jordan and Amiri Baraka.
The Sterling Brown poems I found memorable were "Long Gone," "Ma Rainey," and "Old Lem." These were the poems I enjoyed hearing Brown recite. These are the Sterling Brown poems I now and then read at my own readings. Not included on my list is "Strong Men" which many might consider Brown's signature...