A special poetry evening at the third African Women Writers Symposium paid tribute to the late great poet activist Jayne Cortez.
Hosted at The Fringe at Joburg Theatre by Arts Alive and the National Department of Arts and Culture, the symposium came together under the theme of Peace and Turmoil: African Women in the World. Cortez, a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement, is best known for her rhythmic and intuitive poetry with strong political and struggle motifs.
“If the drum is a woman
why are you pounding your drum into an insane babble
why are you pistol whipping your drum at dawn
why are you shooting through the head of your drum
and making a drum tragedy of drums”
Taking its title from Cortez’s poem, which in turn drew influence from the musical allegory A Drum is a Woman by musician Duke Ellington, the poetry session brought together writers and poets from across the continent and beyond to celebrate Cortez’s work and her enduring legacy.
Deputy Minister of Arts & Culture Rejoice Mabudafhasi said the women of this continent, and the diaspora, were not content to just write with pens but needed to speak with their hearts. The deputy minister, a former librarian, emphasised the importance of community libraries playing a role in sustaining literary expression. “The impression is that South Africa is not a reading nation, but there are many citizens who stay in rural areas, with no money to travel to libraries or to buy books, so it’s not that they don’t want to read. As a department, we are prioritising the establishment of rural libraries,” she said. A successful library reaches out to a community, Mabudafhasi added. “There must be a sense of ownership from the community. The challenge is to continue to make reading a dynamic activity.”
Cortez’s work incorporates an infectious dynamism that has informed the work of so many poets after her. US Poet John Murillo said he was most struck by how Cortez’s work engaged music like jazz, blues and soul. “And in doing so, she gave other artists permission to do the same,” he said. This was echoed by literary activist and writer Kadija Sesay, who said that Cortez have moved and affected so many poets’ lives. Both Murillo and Sesay performed work by Cortez, others and themselves at the poetry evening, selecting poems that showcased honesty and the strength of voice.
Keorapetse Kgositsile met Cortez in New York City, at the heart of the Black Arts Movement, in the 1970s. “We both believed that it was not only the social content that made a poem but the way in which it was handled. There is a music in the language that the poet tries to make sense of,” Kgositsile, now South Africa’s National Poet Laureate, said. “The respective ordering of sound, the aesthetic ordering of language, when it approaches ritual, it aspires to be music. Jayne’s poetry is proof of that, poem after poem.”
Also in attendance was Cortez’s partner, sculptor Mel Edwards, who recounted her dedication to activism. “Jayne’s work is never naïve, always extremely informed because she studied and researched. If I’d woken up at 7 AM, she’d usually been up since 5 AM, writing. At the personal level, she was the love of my life. But seeing a person that committed, work that hard and being that concerned for her community was a great example for me and other creative people.”
Sapphire, author of the novel Push, affirmed this by saying that Cortez was a comrade and a major influence. “She was a firespitter who encouraged a generation of women to become firespitters too.” Sapphire went on to read two of Cortez’s poems, There It Is and Rape, a particularly visceral piece referencing Inez Garcia, who was charged with the murder of her rapist in 1974.
Poets Myesha Jenkins and Natalia Molebatsi draw inspiration for their monthly poetry sessions at the Orbit jazz club in Braamfontein from Cortez’s legacy. “When we were looking for a formula to create the show, with poets and musicians, it was the work of Jayne Cortez and the firespitters that gave us the affirmation that these things were not separate,” Molebatsi said.
Jamaican UK-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson said Cortez’s voice was a unique one in African America poetry, belonging to a tradition that connected the pen to the drum. “She shared an aesthetic that connected the music language to the language of music. She was one of those poets who understood that poetry is not merely the distillation of experience through language but on rare occasion can offer fleeting insights into the human condition. She also understood the power of poetry to raise consciousness, inspire and uplift the spirit as a potent weapon in the struggle against all forms of oppression.”
Cortez’s son Jazz drummer Denardo Coleman closed off the poetry session with a drum solo set against audio of his mother performing her work.
Report by Saaleha Idrees Bamjee
Saaleha Idrees Bamjee tweeted from the events using #livebooks:
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