Poetry filled the room as residents read lines from African-American writers past and present.
Rosemary Szczygiel hosted the annual African-American Read-In event in the Hilliard Branch Library Feb. 23. The West Nassau Mass Choir led the audience in “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The choir also sang “Wade in the Water.”
Now in its 10th year at the branch, participants read favorite poems, prose, biographies and interviews of literary greats, modern writers and music legends in recognition of February’s Black History Month.
Michael Taylor outlined the origin of Black History Month, which began in 1915, just 50 years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S. Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland sponsored a national African-American history week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,” according to information from Taylor.
Also that evening, the Rev. Lorenzo Morgan shared a decades-old interview of singer James Brown about his 1968 song, “Say it Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud.”
In the song Brown produced, it notes, “We’d rather die on our feet than keep a’ living on our knees.”
Morgan said the song caused a backlash among Brown’s white audience, causing the singer to lose most of its members.
Morgan said that the lyrics were a call for African-Americans to become financially independent – it wasn’t necessarily an anthem for them to rise against the government as many had interpreted when the song was released.
Meanwhile, Maya Ang-elou sought to provide African-American women a voice.
Austin Dinwiddie read her biography, outlining her poetry, civil rights activism, acting career on stage and screen and diverse writing career.
Angelou was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. She wrote many books and essays including the autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
She was born April 4, 1928. She died May 28, 2014.
Among several other readings, Jessica Morton shared selections from “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson. The teen story is written in verse and details the author’s childhood as an African-American growing up in New York and South Carolina during the 1960s and 1970s. Woodson is a New York Times bestselling author, a National Book Award winner, a Newberry Honor Book winner and a Coretta Scott King Award winner. She writes books for children, teens and young adults.
Stone Dinwiddie read, “I, too, Sing America,” by Langston Hughes.
The poem tells of an African-American man sent to the kitchen to eat because his skin is a darker shade from the others. Despite this, the character proudly proclaims that, “I, too, am America.”
Angie Hall read a biography of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American author to win a Pulitzer Prize, according to the Poetry Foundation. She was also a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress.
Brooks won the Pulitzer for the poem “Annie Allen.” It tells of an African-American girl as she grows into adulthood under trying socioeconomic conditions. Brooks was born June 7, 1917. She died Dec. 3, 2000.
Nationally celebrated, the African-American Read-In is in its 28th year.