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Special Interest
Salem Recognizes Black History Month
Editors' Note: In recognition of Black History Month The Salemite will be
spotlighting special minority women. The women we-have chosen for this
issue are Maya Angelon, a poet, and Linda Brown Bragg, an author.
Other important black historians include: Harriet Tubman, George
Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Charles Drew, and Mary
Mcleod Bethune.
During this month we hope you will learn more about black history and
those dedicated individuals who risked their lives to seek freedom and
educate themselves. Not only has their struggle been difficult, but also
inspirational.
Local Author Details
Metamorphosis
hy Karen Lewis
Rainbow Rmm Mah Shoulder is a novel about spiritual growth and the
search for self, about isolation and friendship and undeniable triumph. Its
author is Linda Brown Bragg, a black professor at Guilford College in
Greensboro. Its heroine is Rebecca Florice, a strong and gifted black woman.
Its time is our time, the twentieth century,*'wlth its racism and sexism and
change. But this novel is not just about racism and sexism and change,
although the characters encounter them. It is about a remarkable woman
with an extraordinary destiny and how she fights to deserve and accept her
birthright. It is about the never- ending struggle to understand light’s power.
Rebecca Florice has the gift of healing, of using her hands and her faith to
make the human body well. In her youth she struggles with this gift, because
it makes her different in a time when black women should not be different.
The ignorance of her fellow blacks causes her alienation even within church
w’alls. Such misunderstanding makes her fear the coming of the sick and
weary who need her help, but she answers their pleas graciously and
lovingly. We see her aid the survivors of a mob lynching and rape, heal a
man with dangerously advanced syphilis, and save a abortion. Throughout,
she questions the God who has blessed her with such power, because it is
often a curse as well; in order to fulfill her destiny as God’s healing agent she
must sacrifice her marriage, her one^true love, and her privacy. When
tragedy strikes her own life she must oyercome the desire to use her gift for
self-destruction. She must search for truth and hope in a thoroughly
disillusioned and skeptical world. e-
Rebecca Florice’s struggle to accept her delicate gift is paralleled to a
butterfly's struggle to survive. Her growing awareness of God's purpose for
her is compared to the gradual metamorphosis of a caterpillar. We follow
the progress of each life-stage as Rebecca Florice and the caterpillar mature.
Rebecca Florice experiences sacrifice, loneliness, and suffering but emerges
victorious to find herself transformed as if into a beautiful butterfly. We see
Florice’s gift passed on to the goddaughter whose life her magic saved, and
we know that her vision will live on.
One of the most spiritually provocative elements of the novel is her
attraction to ministers and priests, as if she believes that through them she
will be able to know God. She soon learns, however, that romance is not the
way to true faith, and she sets out on the difficult journey alone.
It is a magical tale, mysterious and powerful. Horice is a truly memorable
heroine, and Linda Brown Bragg is remarkable writer. Her gentle but precise
prose makes the reading enjoyable; her characters are warm and real. There
is little of the hatred and violence that is prominent in so many books by and
about blacks of the twentieth century; in Rainbow's theme the love and
healing is refreshing. Moreover, its spiritual quality is moving yet
unobtrusive, allowing the reader, to appreciate Florice’s faith without
feeling morally challenged.
Rainbow Rnun Mah Shoulders was published in 1984 and is available in
paperback from Ballantine books.
Poetry by Maya Angelon
To A Freedom
Fighter
You drink a bitter draught.
I sip the tears your eyes fight to hold
A cup of lees,
of henbane steeped in chaff.
Your breast is hot.
You anger black and cold.
Through! evening’s rest, you dream
I hear the moans,
you die a thousands’ death.
When cane straps flog your body
dark and lean, you feel the blow,
I hear it in your breath.
My Guilt
My guilt is "slavery’s chains," too long
the clang of iron falls down the years.
This brother's sold. This sister’s gone
is bitter wax, living my ears.
My guilt made music with tears.
My crime is "heroes, dead and gone"
dead Vesey, Turner, Gabriel,
dead Malcolm, Marcus, Martin King,
They fought too hard, loved too well
My crime is I'm alive to tell.
My sin is "hanging from a tree"
I do not scream, it makes me proud.
I take to dying like a man,
I do it to impress the crowd.
My sin lies in not screaming loud.
T .
v/j
Africa
0!
oo.
Thus sh^ had lain
sugar cane sweet
deserts fier hair
golden her feet
mountain her breast^
two Niles her tears
Thus she has lain
Black through the years.
Over the white seas
run white and cold
ungentled
icicle bold
took her young daughters
sold her strong sons
churched her with Jesus
bled her with guns
Thus she has lain.
Now she is rising
remember her pain
remember the losses
her screams loud and vain
remember her riches
her history slain
now she is striding
although she had lain.
America
The gold of her promise
has never been rained
Her borders of justice
not clearly defined
Her crops abundance
the fruit and the grain
Have not fed the hungry
nor eased that deep pain
Her proud declarations
are leaves on wind
Her southern exposure
black death did befriend
Discover this country
dead centuries cry
Erect noble tablets
where none can decry
"She kills her bright future
and rapes for a son
Then entraps her children
with legends in turn"
I beg you
Discover this country.