Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930)

Pauline Hopkins was a prolific African-American writer and literary editor who ws overshadowed by the Harlem Renaissance writers. She was an outspoken journalist and storyteller. Hopkin's fiction combines suspense with presentation of the race debates of the turn of the nineteenth century.
Pauline Hopkins was born in Portland, Maine in 1859. Her prodigy includes Nathaniel and Thomas Paul who founded the first Baptist church in Boston for blacks, activist susan Paul, and poet James M. Whitfield.
Hopkins helped found Colored American Magazine in 1900 whiche she used as a political platform for African-American causes. Among her works were four novels and short stories. Hopkins' best known work was Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South (1900). Other works include Hager's Daughter; A Story of Sothern Caste Prejudice (1901); ansWinona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest (1902).

POEM

HYMN

At morn-at noon-at twilight dim--
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe--in good and ill--
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the Hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

-Edgar Allan Poe

WOMEN'S MONTH CONTINUED

I wanted to highlight a female writer, poet, playwright, etc. each day during Women's Month. I was unable to do it consistently each day because of domestic demands. However, I have decided to do it during the month of April. I will also do other things in the blogs such as a poem, song, story or other pieces of literature. I will renew the series starting this coming Monday.

Gertrude Stein (1874-1926)

Gertrude was an American author who influenced writers such as Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway. Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and graduated from Radcliffe College.

Stein's writing style was simple and repetitive. She believed that a lot of punctuation and difficult words distracted the reader fro the feelings of the characters. Telling the stories were secondary to Stein's communicating the feelings of the characters. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is her best known book. It was about herself from Alice Toklas's point of view. Lectures in America, published in 1935, is a collection of lectures on literature, painting, and music.

Gertrude Stein was also an art critic and collector. She encouraged painters such as Pablo Picsso and Henri Martisse.

World Book Encyclopedia

Lillian Hellman (1905-1984)

Lillian Hellman was an American playwright from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her work had tightly woven plots which delved into psychological weakness and the social issues of her time. Hellman's plays dealt with greed and selfishness. Plays such as The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), and Another Part of the Forest (1946) show how unchecked greed, selfishness, and lust can ruin lives and place human values as disposable.

Hellman's heyday was in the 1930's and 1940's as she saw the materialism and immorality taking root in society. Her authobiographical writing gained ne notoriety for her in the 1970's. An Unfinished Woman (1969) and Scoundrel Time (1976) are two of the better known works.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

One of the well known American poets of the nineteenth century, the reclusive Dickinson sought to expand her horizons rather be in the narrow minded literary establishment of her time. Dickinsson questioned the society that she lived in. She was nonconvetional i that she wrote about topics such as nature,life, and fleeting moments. Dickinson's best poems were written in the 1870's, when she slowed down from the intense pace that she wrote earlier in her life.

What I find fascinating about Emily Dickinson is that she could glean much depth from ordinary meanings. Dickinson lamented the alienation of intellectuals after the Civil War. She was reclusive and not available to her folks in her town but this makes Emily Dickinson a curiousity.

Phyllis Wheatley (1753?-1784)

Phyllis Wheatley was the first important black American poet. Brought on a slave at age eight, Wheatley was purchased for his wife by John Wheatley, a wealthy merchant tailor. Phyllis learned how to read and write. At age fourteen, Phyllis began to write poetry.
Some of her poems reflected this deeply Christian lady. Wheatley's book Poems on Varoius Subjects, Religion and Moral was published in 1773 in England. She was also aware of her status as a slave and those people who sought their independence. After Wheatley was freed and married a free slave, she disappeared from the poetry scene and died in obscurity.


World Book Encyclopedia

Women's Month

Since it is women's month I will feature women who have impacted the lives of others. Women do not get enough credit for their contributions to the betterment of the world. I will focus on women in the literary world. There are so many to choose from. Whether they are well known or obscure is not important. The tribute will begin tomorrow.

BACK IN OPERATION

Yesterday I installed internet in the laptop that I purchased. Now I'll be posting on a regular basis. I was posting using the computers at the public library. Now I can be in a more private setting and record my thoughts, comments, and bios.

PLACES TO GO

TONIGHT

OPEN MIKE:LOVE LETTERS FROM THE PAST
@ Bluestockings
172 Allen Street bet. Stanton and Rivington 212-777-6028
7pm FREE

F Train to 2nd Avenue

Sites

Here are some websites that may interest you.

www.bowerypoetry.com
www.nuyorican.org
www.poetz.com
www.stmarksbookshop.com

COMMENT

Writing can inspire us to challenge ourselves. It can force us to change our thoughts, our preconceived notions, and our focus. Writing is therapeutic in that it causes us to think about what others feel. I don't believe that writing is an exercise in futility but a journey to the other side of our consciousness.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

WISDOM IS SACRED COMMUNION.

Victor Hugo, French Author (1802-1885)

PLACES TO GO

FRIDAY NIGHT POETRY SLAM
@ NUYORICAN POET'S CAFE

236 EAST 3RD STREET (bet B & C) 10PM

$10

PLACES TO GO

FRIDAY
POETRY CLUB
308 BOWERY @ Bleeker St.

Great performances, poetry, art, music, food and drink
All day, all night, every day

SMALL PRESS READING @ 11 Street Bar
511 East 11 Street bet. A & B 7PM

Subway: 4,5,6,N, R, L to Union Square

TODAY'S WORD

IMPREGNABLE

1. Able to resist attack.


FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born
is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.

James Baldwin, African American author (1923-1987)

COMMENTARY

Lately I have read a number of books about different subjects. One could also say I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none. I look at it as part of my education because it should be well rounded as well as ground in the basics. I guees that may be the reason that I don't have any particular writers who I'm a fanatic of. I enjoy a number of different writers and genres. I like Edgar Allan Poe, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, and Plato. Pretty diverse I must say. I get some great nuggets for future writings.

I do my research on the era that writer lived and apply it to a comtemporary setting. One can take many liberties and make it one's own creation. Often I imagine what it was like to live in a particular time and place. What was 1930's Harlem like? What was Poe's state of mind when he wrote 'The Raven?' Was Shakespeare sharing with the readers what 16th century England was like? It's amazing how in tune these great writers were with their surroundings and the people.

It's great to explore and discover different writers and different styles. There are some who may not be as famous as others but their writing can be an ivaluable tool towards expanding our writing horizons.

TODAY'S WORD

BOW

1. Submit
2. Bend the head or body; act of bowing

Withdraw (bow out)

NOUN
1. Bend or arch
2. Weapon for shooting arrows
3. Knot with loops
4. Rod with stretched horsehairs for playing a stringed instrument

VERB
1. Curve or bend

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Expand your horizons. Read different genres. Research things that you may not understand. Play on words. Be creative.

Commentary

This past semester We read many of the plays of William Shakespeare. I must say that it was quite an education into the man who wrote them. Plays such as 'Hamlet', 'MacBeth', 'Richard III', and 'The Tempest' revealed how much Shakespeare knew about the world that he lived in. In his later works, Shakespeare demonstrated his awareness of the changing landscape of 16th century England.
I was fortunate to have read 'Julius Caesar' months prior to taking the course. The language used by Shakespeare was cumbersome at first, but once I understood the meaning of many words, the course went smoother than I thought. I don't know which is my favorite Shakespearean play, but I am drawn to 'Hamlet' because he was a complex and multiplural individual. I haven't read all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets so my opinion about my favorite play will have to wait.
Shakespeare touched on subjects like valor, power, gender, sexuality, honor and other virtues and vices. He was not moralistic in his tone but he did know what the human heart was capable of. As a person, I find Shakespeare to be brilliant, innovative, enigmatic, shrewd, and perceptive. He is one of those people who I cannot figure out becase they are many shades of gray in his personal life. Maybe that's what makes Shakepeare a fascinating and mysterious person. It may be that he has left us to think of what we think and say about him.