Carolyn Rodgers
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Marie Rodgers was a Chicago-based American poet and a founder of one of America’s oldest and largest black presses, Third World Press
. She got her start in the literary circuit as a young woman studying under Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks
in the South Side of Chicago.
Later, Rodgers began writing her own works, which grappled with black identity and culture in the late 1960s. Rodgers was a leading voice of the Black Arts Movement
and authored nine books including How I got Ovah. She was also an essayist and critic, and her work has been described as delivered in a language rooted in a black female perspective that wove strands of feminism
, black power
, spirituality
, and writerly self-consciousness into a sometimes raging, sometimes ruminative search for identity.
in 1961 where she earned her BA degree in 1965. She later earned a MA in English from the University of Chicago
in 1980. Rodgers is most well known for her writing contributions to the Black Arts Movement
(subsequently referred to here as BAM). Rodgers first became involved in writing during the BAM while attending Writers Workshops by the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and Gwendolyn Brooks.
She became distinctive as a new black woman poet in the 1960s with the publication of her first two books, Paper Soul and Songs of the Blackbird. Following the publication and national success of Paper Soul, Rodgers was awarded the first Conrad Kent Rivers Memorial Fund Award. Rodgers also won the Poet Laureate Award from the Society of Midland Authors in 1970. She then went on to receive an award from the National Endowment of the Arts, following the publication of Songs of the Blackbird.
Rodgers' poetry is recognizable for its themes which included identity, religion, and revolution, and her own use of free verse
street slang and concern with feminine issues. In her early days, black revolutionary themes and cuss words wove through some poems.
Rodgers used slang and heartfelt language to write about love, lust, body image, family, religion, and the grace of human kindness. In her earliest writings such as Paper Soul (1968) and Songs of a Blackbird (1969), Rodgers revolutionary ideas about women’s roles conflicted with the more traditional ideas of the African American culture. She was criticized for her use of profanity which male leaders of BAM found inappropriate for a woman.
Haki R. Madhubuti
, chair, publisher and fellow founder of Third World Press told the Chicago Sun Times that:
In “The Last M.F.” Rodgers says she will stop using profanity but continues using the “menacing word” at least eleven times throughout the poem, blatantly making jabbs at men and their ideas of how a woman should speak and behave. Here too, Rodgers mocks the new Black Womanhood which she believes, paradoxically, promotes women to be silent.
Later work
Other volumes of work such as The Heart as Ever Green (1978) and How I Got Ovah (1975) also reflect on feminine issues such as female identity, women’s roles in society, and the relationships between mothers and daughters. However, How I Got Ovah exhibits a more crafted tendency than previous books, along with being more autobiographical and transformative. By now Rodgers was distilling her language and militant persona into poetry that was deeply concerned with religion, God, and the quest for inner beauty.
If this cannot be characterized as transformative, nonetheless her work seems to have shifted from a collective black perspective in her early work to an individual one in her later writings. Consequently, by the time she publishes The Heart as Ever Green in 1978, Rodgers is incorporating earlier themes of feminism and human dignity in her poems, along with newer or more pronounced themes of love and Christianity. Some readers and cultural observers don't recognize a break or rupture from Rodgers' past in her later work. For them, Rodgers' spiritual progress in her poetry still brings a radical infusion. Even in her later poetry, we can still break open into a vision uniquely situated in a poetics that remains strident, militant and experimental.
According to poet Lorenzo Thomas
, Carolyn Rodgers proposed new prosodic categories specific to black poetry. Thomas points out that this kind of essay (or manifesto
) outlining a vision statement to spur militant and creative inquiry (but most particularly “Black Poetry—Where It's At”) was widely disseminated and discussed among poets of that time.
Tributes & obituaries
Poems and other writings
Third World Press
Third World Press is the largest independent black-owned press in the United States.In December 1967, Haki R. Madhubuti met with poet and activist Carolyn Rodgers and Johari Amini in the basement of a South Side apartment in Chicago to found Third World Press, an outlet for African-American...
. She got her start in the literary circuit as a young woman studying under Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...
in the South Side of Chicago.
Later, Rodgers began writing her own works, which grappled with black identity and culture in the late 1960s. Rodgers was a leading voice of the Black Arts Movement
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...
and authored nine books including How I got Ovah. She was also an essayist and critic, and her work has been described as delivered in a language rooted in a black female perspective that wove strands of feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, black power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
, spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, and writerly self-consciousness into a sometimes raging, sometimes ruminative search for identity.
Life and work
Rodgers first attended college at the University of Illinois in 1960, but transferred to Chicago’s Roosevelt UniversityRoosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a coeducational, private university with campuses in Chicago, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university is named in honor of both former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university's curriculum is based on...
in 1961 where she earned her BA degree in 1965. She later earned a MA in English from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1980. Rodgers is most well known for her writing contributions to the Black Arts Movement
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...
(subsequently referred to here as BAM). Rodgers first became involved in writing during the BAM while attending Writers Workshops by the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and Gwendolyn Brooks.
She became distinctive as a new black woman poet in the 1960s with the publication of her first two books, Paper Soul and Songs of the Blackbird. Following the publication and national success of Paper Soul, Rodgers was awarded the first Conrad Kent Rivers Memorial Fund Award. Rodgers also won the Poet Laureate Award from the Society of Midland Authors in 1970. She then went on to receive an award from the National Endowment of the Arts, following the publication of Songs of the Blackbird.
Poetry and poetics
Early workRodgers' poetry is recognizable for its themes which included identity, religion, and revolution, and her own use of free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
street slang and concern with feminine issues. In her early days, black revolutionary themes and cuss words wove through some poems.
Rodgers used slang and heartfelt language to write about love, lust, body image, family, religion, and the grace of human kindness. In her earliest writings such as Paper Soul (1968) and Songs of a Blackbird (1969), Rodgers revolutionary ideas about women’s roles conflicted with the more traditional ideas of the African American culture. She was criticized for her use of profanity which male leaders of BAM found inappropriate for a woman.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Haki R. Madhubuti
Haki R. Madhubuti is a renowned African-American author, educator, and poet. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, and served in the U.S...
, chair, publisher and fellow founder of Third World Press told the Chicago Sun Times that:
"She would take no quarter from insults, or downgrading her writing as a woman... Her writing could stand by itself."So while Rodgers' Songs of the Blackbird includes themes about survival, mother-daughter conflicts, and street life it also criticizes those who dishonor her use of profanity. In her poem “The Last M.F.” she fights back:
they say,
that I should not use the word
mothafucka anymo
in my poetry or in any speech I give.
they say,
that I must and can only say it to myself
as the new Black Womanhood suggests
a softer self
In “The Last M.F.” Rodgers says she will stop using profanity but continues using the “menacing word” at least eleven times throughout the poem, blatantly making jabbs at men and their ideas of how a woman should speak and behave. Here too, Rodgers mocks the new Black Womanhood which she believes, paradoxically, promotes women to be silent.
Later work
Other volumes of work such as The Heart as Ever Green (1978) and How I Got Ovah (1975) also reflect on feminine issues such as female identity, women’s roles in society, and the relationships between mothers and daughters. However, How I Got Ovah exhibits a more crafted tendency than previous books, along with being more autobiographical and transformative. By now Rodgers was distilling her language and militant persona into poetry that was deeply concerned with religion, God, and the quest for inner beauty.
If this cannot be characterized as transformative, nonetheless her work seems to have shifted from a collective black perspective in her early work to an individual one in her later writings. Consequently, by the time she publishes The Heart as Ever Green in 1978, Rodgers is incorporating earlier themes of feminism and human dignity in her poems, along with newer or more pronounced themes of love and Christianity. Some readers and cultural observers don't recognize a break or rupture from Rodgers' past in her later work. For them, Rodgers' spiritual progress in her poetry still brings a radical infusion. Even in her later poetry, we can still break open into a vision uniquely situated in a poetics that remains strident, militant and experimental.
Fiction and literary criticism
Rodgers' earned an appreciative and crucial audience through her fiction and literary criticism. Marsha C. Vick points out some of the reasons why:
The same insight and searching analysis that distinguish her poetry are integral to Rodgers's short fiction and her literary criticism. She portrays in her short fiction the ordinary and overlooked people in everyday African American life and emphasizes the theme of survival. Many consider her critical essay “Black Poetry—Where It's At” (1969) to be the best essay on the work of the “new black poets.” In it, she aesthetically evaluates contemporary African American poetry and sets up preliminary criteria of appraisal.
According to poet Lorenzo Thomas
Lorenzo Thomas (poet)
Lorenzo Thomas was an American poet and critic. He was born in the Republic of Panama and grew up in New York City, where his family immigrated in 1948.-Life:Thomas was a graduate of Queens College in New York...
, Carolyn Rodgers proposed new prosodic categories specific to black poetry. Thomas points out that this kind of essay (or manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
) outlining a vision statement to spur militant and creative inquiry (but most particularly “Black Poetry—Where It's At”) was widely disseminated and discussed among poets of that time.
Sidelights
- In addition to writing poetry, Rodgers has written numerous short stories. Her play Love was produced Off-Broadway by Woodie King Jr., a father of the Black Theatre movement.
- Rodgers had a career as a teacher and educator, and taught at Columbia CollegeColumbia CollegeColumbia College may refer to one of several institutions of higher education in North America:In Canada* Columbia College , in Calgary* Columbia College , a two-year liberal arts institution in Vancouver...
, University of WashingtonUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, Malcolm X Community College, Albany State College, and Indiana UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
.
- Rodgers was a member the Organization of Black American Culture which promotes cultural activity of the arts, and she helped found Third World Press, an outlet for African-American Literature.
- Rodgers owned her own publishing firm, Eden Press, as well as being (already mentioned above) a founding member of Chicago's Third World Press.
- In December 1967, Carolyn Rodgers met with Haki R. Madhubuti and Johari Amini in the basement of a South Side apartment to found Third World Press, an outlet for African-American literature. By 2007, the company continues to thrive in a multi-million dollar facility. Over the years, Rodgers would publish works for friend and Pulitzer-prize winning author Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as Sonia SanchezSonia SanchezSonia Sanchez is an African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement. She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books...
, Sterling Plump and Pearl Cleage. Her work has been quoted by Oprah WinfreyOprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
and performed by Ruby DeeRuby DeeRuby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
and Ossie DavisOssie DavisOssie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
.
Selected publications
- Morning Glory: Poems (1989)
- Finite Forms (1985)
- Eden and Other Poems (1983)
- The Heart as Ever Green (1978)
- How I Got Ovah: New and Selected Poems (1975)
- 2 Love Raps (1969)
- Songs of a Blackbird (1969)
- A Statistic, Trying to Make it Home (1969)
- Paper Soul (1968)
- Blackbird in a Cage (1967)
Further Reading
- Bettye J. Parker-Smith, “Running Wild in Her Soul: The Poetry of Carolyn Rodgers,” in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, ed. Mari Evans, 1984, pp. 393–410.
- Jean Davis, “Carolyn M. Rodgers,” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 41, Afro-American Poets since 1955, eds. Trudier Harris and Thadious M. Davis, 1985, pp. 287–295
External links
Sites, exhibits, and artist pagesTributes & obituaries
- Carolyn M. Rodgers Dead at 69, Chicago Poet and Writer Helped Found Black Press from the Huffington Post
- Carolyn M. Rodgers 1941 — 2010 This "cyber-tombeauTombeauA tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments...
" at Silliman's Blog by poet Ron SillimanRon SillimanRon Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...
includes comments, tributes, and links. Appears to have listed the birth year incorrectly at 1941 - RIP+Poem this tribute piece includes Rodgers' poem "Poem for Some Black Women"
- Why the Words and Works of Carolyn M. Rodgers Matter
- Black Arts Movement Star Carolyn M. Rodgers Dead at 69
- CAROLYN M. RODGERS: 'Great poet' born of '60s reads the bylineBylineThe byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. Bylines are traditionally placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines place bylines at the bottom of the page, to leave more room for graphical...
: "Her work 'affirmed the voice of black women -- of everyday black women'" - Little Known Black History Fact: Carolyn Rodgers
Poems and other writings
- "Some Me of Beauty" Rodgers' poem from her collection How I Got Ovah.