De’Arbreya Lee
Staff Writer
Who would’ve thought that a 2005 trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., by Jackson State University professor Janice K. Neal-Vincent and her students would result in the First Annual Spoken Word Creative Fest/Conference, and soon something greater? Last week, April 8-9, Jackson State University celebrated the “5th Annual Creative Arts Festival: The 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Writers.”
Friday began with the opening panel discussion, Arts and Activism: Literature’s Impact on Social and Political Movements. The evening panelists included Black Arts Movement founders Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, author of Homegirls and Handgrenades, JSU English Professor C. Liegh McInnis and Hip -Hop journalist Charlie Braxton, moderated by Brad Franklin.
During the discussion, Braxton, a Mississippi native, who is known for his creative combination of hip hop and politics in magazines such as The Source, and Vibe, talked about what he remembered about JSU when he attended the university.
“When we were in school activism was the norm. We all wanted to make our campus better. We pushed ourselves and the administration,” said Braxton who served as the Student Government Association President of 1982-83. Braxton explained his observance of a lack of community service and also touched on a greater need of the people. “We need to get self education, as well as the education we are being given,” said Braxton.
On Saturday, April 9, Sonia Sanchez, a poet, author and playwright, began the festivities by giving thanks to many historical people, especially Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, who fought for equality in his or her own way.
Sanchez titled her discussion, “The Thunder of Angels,” named after a piece she wrote in remembrance of leaders whose names she called, and a reminder for people today to follow their footsteps.
“One of the things that I realize as I travel is that I had to say to students, ‘This is not about you just watching people and applauding, but also to understand that they were making a way for you…in the future…to have so much more,” said Sanchez. In addition to speaking about the bravery of the Freedom Riders and other leaders, also spoke about JSU students James Greens and Philip Gibbs.
“These are people who decided to pick themselves up and say the world, not just the south, ‘Hey, look at us. We’re gonna make people truly understand what’s been going on,’” said Sanchez.
Associate Professor of English Wanda Morgan, asked Sanchez: “What can we do as professors on a campus like JSU, an HBCU, to get students to hear the same rumbling, to act and not just listen?”
Sanchez explained that children whose parents fought for these types of rights often times didn’t experience the same struggles and feel that the fight has been won. She added that “You’ve got to engage them. The problem is that we’ve taken humanity out of the classroom.”
The pioneer in black studies and activist demonstrated an exercise that she often does with her students, by pairing up two students and asking them to place one hand on the heart of their partner, while holding their partners other hand.
“I tell them ‘SHUT UP! Listen to each other’s heartbeat’ and a strange thing happens there. They realize that this is a human being looking at me. And what you do with that is that you bring humanity into a classroom,” said Sanchez.
In the later session, poet, playwright, political activist and author of The Essence of Reparations, Amiri Baraka, spoke about the influence of slave narrative writers such as Fredrick Douglass on American language as a motivator for many today.
“Don’t tell me that the ghetto oppresses you. Think about the man [Fredrick Douglass] who was a slave and became the most profound thinker in the United States. That’s your legacy and that’s what you need to pick up,” said Baraka.
Baraka also explained the one thing that bothers him the most about the mindset of young people.
“They think that it is all cool, that everything has been settled; that we have defeated our enemy. No, we’ve fought a good fight in the 60s but the great leaders were all murdered,” said Baraka.
Baraka also shared his belief in young people, the importance of seeking information for one’s self beyond spoon fed information in the classroom, and promoted the creation of great organizations, inspired by his belief that “there is not any progress without struggle.”
“I hope that you all who have the energy and the visual, continue to build organizations that can struggle… You have to continue to present your history to people because they don’t understand. They cannot learn it from the television; they cannot learn it from the newspaper,” said Amiri Baraka.
Students at Jackson State shares their thoughts about the Creative Arts Festival.
Dzondria Tarver, a senior English major form Greenwood, Miss., said that she was very pleased with Sanchez’s discussion.
“I felt that she had great views on what she wanted to write about and what inspired her to write,” said Tarver. Tarver, who is working to become an English teacher, also enjoyed Sanchez’s advice to teachers and her philosophy.
“I felt that those were great philosophies: Preach, pray and preach,” Tarver added.
Dangelos Svenkeson, a graduate urban regional planning major from St. Paul, Minn., was also among those students present in Afrika Book Café to hear the poems of Baraka and Sanchez.
Svenkeson, who did further research about Baraka and Sanchez, prior to their arrival, said: “Through their success, they still haven’t lost the focus of the cause. They’ve been successful in fighting for what they believe in, but they haven’t let their success stop them.”
Robert Luckett, assistant professor of history and director of the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center, said that he has striven to engage students in these types of events. Happy with the students that did participate, Luckett said that he would still like to see more .
“With nearly 9,000 students, our lecture halls should be packed when the likes of Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka come to campus, but for some reason they aren’t,” said Luckett.
