Life expressed through poetry
Communities showcase star athletes for their records and fame. But, milestone achievers go down in history for their struggle to achieve.
LeBron James earned bragging rights for his hometown Akron, Ohio. MacNolia Cox, also earned bragging rights for her hometown Akron, as the first black finalist in the National Spelling Bee Competition in 1936.
“Every neighborhood has someone that is the first to do something,” said Aaron Van Jordan, poet and assistant professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin. “MacNolia Cox was never mentioned during Black History Month before, but now people have heard of her.”
Jordan shared MacNolia Cox’s “life in verse,” stories from his life and a centerpiece on Albert Einstein during a poetry reading last Thursday night at the creative writing program and Arts Unlimited reading series.
Jordan started the night off by giving nine definitions of the word from in his poem “From.”
“This poem started out as just a narrative poem about MacNolia preparing for the spelling bee. I was very conscious of sentence variety,” he said. “The definition behind the narrative became aspiration for the poem; navigating all this information in the narrative.”
Chris Green, GCSU sophomore creative writing major, thought Jordan took an innovative approach in “From.”
“Nine definitions of the word from. That was cool,” he said. “I never thought about writing like that before.”
Jordan interviewed Cox’s family members and searched through records to recreate the story of MacNolia Cox. The narrative creatively blends fiction, fact and poetry to capture the mind of a child.
“There’s something universal about the insecurities of an adolescent, whether it’s a girl or a boy. Poetry can transcend across racial, gender and age lines to lift veils in everyday conversations,” Jordan said.
Most of Jordan’s poetry selections came from his award-winning books Macnolia and Rise. He has received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the Whiting Award and the Pushcart Prize.
In Jordan’s centerpiece on Einstein, physics is a unifying theme.
“(The poem) is structured like a screen play to help us move through time and space,” Jordan said.
Tina Vuncannon, GCSU freshman creative writing major, enjoyed Jordan centerpiece on Einstein.
“ I like the quantum. It is an interesting way to approach poetry that I never thought about,” she said.
During professor Laura Newbern’s Thursday afternoon intermediate creative writing class, Jordan told students what lead him to write poetry.
“I discovered poetry as an undergrad, but my real interest was journalism. I was an English major at the time,” he said. “I went to grad school at Howard to study communications
and sought out to be a journalist. I heard a lot of jazz bands in coffee shops and poets. That’s when I finally got involved in the scene.”
He also explained why he chose to write about Macnolia Cox.
During a holiday vacation, Jordan decided to visit his brother in their hometown Akron, Ohio.
“My brother was coaching high school basketball at the time. This was during the time that LeBron James played in high school,” he said. “I picked up the newspaper that day and read an article that said that day in history marked the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Bee Competition.”
Jordan’s fascinations with the story lead him to write MacNolia.
Throughout the semester, more writers will share their stories with the GCSU community at the creative writing program and Arts Unlimited reading series. Dr. Anne Panning and Margot Singer will visit GCSU for the Flannery O’Connor Award Winners Fiction Reading October 18 in Max Noah Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 5 2007. Filed under Features.
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