STRIKING OPERA SINGER - Kathleen Battle, the striking opera singer wno is
fast becoming known for her youthful, vibrant approach to classical music, is
working to make her music more accessible to all theater-goers. Ms. Battle, a
former music instructor who now sings regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New
York says there are an increasing number of blacks now entering the field.
Georgia Educators
Mark Paths By Blacks
ATHENS, Ga. (AP)—Dawn Bennett-Alexander feels she
owes much of her success to the souls of black men and
women who paved the way to create opportunities for
future generations.
A former White House adviser on domestic policy, now
an associate professor of legal studies at the University of
Georgia, Ms. Bennett-Alexander says her strength comes
from the struggle of her ancestors. For inspiration, she
often looks to her office wall, where she has hung a photo of
a black woman in traditional slave clothing.
The picture, called “The Boss,” was taken by Prentice
Polk, a black photographer of the Harlem Renaissance.
According to Ms. Bennett-Alexander, his work went virtu
ally unnoticed until the last few years of his life.
She discovered the artistry of Polk around 1980 while
looking through Life magazine.
“The pictures were incredible,” she said. “I thought what
a shame his work was wasted. Especially when it creates
this kind of feeling.”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander said the woman in “The Boss”
has more dignity and more common sense than many
people whose wealth or academic degrees indicate their
stature.
“When I saw it, I just started crying,” she said. “The
picture invoked something in me and touched me. This
woman is all our grandmothers and mothers and aunts. She
is connected to all of us.”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander began tracing her own roots a
few years ago. She said one of her influences was Athens
author Ray Andrews and the family stories in his
“Muskogean County Trilogy.”
“I did it because of my girls,” she said. “I didn’t want
anything to be lost. The past makes us who we are.”
She was able to trace back to her great-great-grand
mother, and was amazed with the information she found,
mostly through old stories that were told to her by friends
of the family.
“It’s incredible what other people know about your
family,” she said. “I was surprised at the stories people told.
It gave three dimensions to people I had never seen before.”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander learned her great-grandmother,
a slave, had a long scar on the side of her face. She had been
scarred as she tried to defend herself against rape by the
landowner.
“She tried to fight him off, but he did end up raping her,”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander said. “But she had the guts to stand
up to the white landowner and say, “You’re not going to take
me.’
“That is real to me. It gives me a perspective that helps
me do what I do.”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander said that perspective and her
rich family history not only influence her work, but her
home life as well. “I love to garden,” she said. “When I'm out
there in the dirt, it’s not just a matter of creating beauty. I
think about our ancestors, about what a luxury it is for me
to work at my leisure, and how it wasn’t a choice for them
to work in the fields from sunup to sundown. That gives me
strength.”
“I quilt. I feel very connected to my ancestors who I know
toiled to provide physical comfort for their families with
whatever they could-, I’m a blue-ribbon bread maker. The
rolling pin I use was my mother's. I feel a connection in
everything I do.”
Her daughters are the focal point of her life. She has
made it a point to bring the past not only to the present for
them, but to preserve it for their future as welL
“I was really conscious of that after my mother died,” she
said. “I have recipe books for each of my daughters and
stories that go along with them. It makes me feel that if I
died today, they would still have a part of me.
“It’s been real important to talk to my daughters about
being strong black women. They’re going to be faced with so
much. It’s important for them to have a sense of who they
are.”
Ms. Bennett-Alexander has to smile when she tells of
four-year-old Tess struggling to carry a gallon of milk to the
kitchen table and accomplishing the feat.
“She said, ‘Mama, Fm a strong black woman,’ ” said Ms.
Bennett Alexander. “So I know it’s in there somewhere. It
will always be there.”
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