Arts and Culture

MacArthur Fellow Jericho Brown’s Poetry Reflects Contemporary Culture and Identity

When grants were announced earlier this month, it was noted that seven of the 22 MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award fellows were African American. Among them are scholars, visual and media artists a poet/writer, historian, and dancer/choreographer. The awardees receive $800,000 over a five-year period. Poet Jericho Brown is featured in the second installment published by The Post.

Published

6 months ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Jericho Brown currently works as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo courtesy MacArthur Foundation.

Special to The Post

Jericho Brown was born in 1976 in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1976, and attended Dillard University, joining the AKAs in 1995 before graduating. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University on New Orleans and later a PhD from the University of Houston.

He has held a variety of academic positions, teaching English and/or Creative Writing at San Diego State University, the University of San Diego, and at workshops and conferences, including the University of Iowa.

He currently works as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Please,” his first volume of poetry and prose published in 2008, won the American Book Award. His third book, “The Tradition,” won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2020. Below is a description of his work from The MacArthur Foundation website.

“Jericho Brown is a poet reflecting on contemporary culture and identity in works that combine formal experimentation and intense self-examination. He reimagines well-known poetic forms and rhythmic structures in ways that heighten a poem’s emotional charge. Across three collections, Brown explores themes of masculinity, spirituality, family, sexuality, and racial identity from a personal perspective as well as from feelings inspired by pop culture and contemporary America.

In his first collection, “Please” (2008), Brown incorporates influences from popular music, such as replicating syncopation of classic rhythm and blues, as he describes the sometimes blurred boundary between intimacy and violence. Brown’s second book, “The New Testament” (2014), draws connections between individual suffering and broader injustices such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, mass incarceration, and community trauma.

In several poems, Brown reworks biblical passages to emphasize the isolation and oppression that many experience in America. Brown’s calibration of form, tone, and language is even more fully realized in “The Tradition” (2019).

He introduces a form of his own invention—the duplex (or gutted sonnet)—that is a fusion of the traditional sonnet, the Arabic ghazal, and the ironic holler of American blues. It is comprised of 14 lines of seven couplets, with the first line of each couplet echoing the second line of the previous one, and the last line echoing the poem’s first.

The circular repetition lends itself to shifts between dissonant voices or images; for example, in one duplex the speaker’s train of thought moves from a first love, to his abusive father, to his grieving mother. In other variations on the sonnet form, shifting perspectives bring the reader face-to-face with violence inflicted on Black lives.

The title poem in The Tradition begins like a pastoral lyric, with a list of flower names: “Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium.” Brown deftly touches on the evolution of Black life in America in relation to the land—sharecropping and climate change—before pulling the reader firmly into the present moment with a lament for lives cut short at the hands of police: “John Crawford. Eric Garner. Mike Brown.”

Brown writes with frankness and vulnerability about love, both filial and erotic. He explores the complexities of his identity as a Black gay man and expresses tenderness and devotion toward his mother and other Black women. In poems with astonishing lyrical beauty, Brown illuminates the experiences of marginalized people and shows the relevance and value of formal experimentation.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

Published

5 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

5 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.

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Activism

Golden State Warriors Program Is Inspiring Next Generation of Female Engineers

Breaking down barriers and biases that deter young girls from pursuing STEAM subjects is essential for creating a level playing field and ensuring equal opportunities for all. By challenging stereotypes and promoting a culture of inclusivity and diversity in STEAM fields, experts believe young girls can be empowered to pursue their interests and aspirations without limitations confidently. Encouraging mentorship, providing access to resources, and celebrating girls’ achievements in STEAM are all crucial steps in creating a supportive environment that fosters success.

Published

1 month ago

March 23, 2025

Oakland Post

Front Row: UC Berkeley Steel Bridge Team Back Row: Girls, Inc. Participants. Photo courtesy of the Golden State Warriors.

By Y’Anad Burrell

The Golden State Warriors and e-commerce giant Rakuten are joining forces to inspire the next generation of female engineers through Building STEAM Futures, part of The City Calls campaign.

Organizers say the initiative is founded on the idea that science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) are crucial fields for innovation and progress, and empowering young girls to pursue careers in these areas is more important than ever. Studies consistently show that girls are underrepresented in STEAM fields, resulting in a gender disparity that limits potential and hinders diversity.

On Saturday, March 8, International Women’s Day, the Warriors and Rakuten hosted 20 middle school girls from Girls Inc. of Alameda County at Chase Center’s Above the Rim for a hands-on bridge-building experience. The young girls from Girls, Inc. of Alameda County had an opportunity to design, build and test their own bridge prototypes and learn the fundamentals of bridge construction from the Engineering Alliance and the UC Berkeley Steel Bridge Team.

This STEAM experience for the girls followed the first session in January, where they took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Golden Gate Bridge, learning about its design and construction from industry experts. The City Calls campaign, tipped off with the unveiling the Warriors’ new bridge-themed City Edition jerseys and court design earlier this year.