Art Pick!: Poets Celebrate Lucille Clifton

Art Pick!: Poets Celebrate Lucille Clifton

Photo credit: Lynda Koolish

This is has been a banner year for Lucille Clifton. The African American writer’s wide sphere of influence is currently captured three exhibitions, including Among Poets: Maryland’s Poet Laureate Lucille Clifton at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. Dr. Joanne Gabbin, the executive director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University in Virginia, curated the exhibition and a concurrent display at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore to honor Clifton’s life and legacy. The third exhibition is at Emory University Library in Atlanta.

So, why is everyone celebrating Lucille Clifton? Born in Depew, New York, Clifton (1936-2010) resided in Maryland for most of her life. Her mother was an occasional poet whose rhyming verses inspired the young Lucille to take pen to paper. For her own writing, Clifton chose a spare style of unrhymed, free verse. She gained prominence writing poems about subjects close to her heart, from her children and social issues, to spirituality, mortality, and even her hips. In the 1970s, Clifton became the first African American chosen as Maryland’s poet laureate.

Last year when I turned forty, my birthday poem manifesto was Clifton’s “turning.” In that poem, Clifton’s speaker described a newfound assurance as a “turning” into one’s self when she wrote: “at last / on a stem like a black fruit / in my own season.” Her words champion personal growth at any age, but they certainly rang true with me as I entered my fourth decade. Clifton mastered the knowingness of a moment. Her poems commemorate internal musings as readily as grand achievements. She wrote about real things and ordinary observances in a language that was both accessible and enigmatic in its brevity.

Clifton’s face and poetry have long been fixtures at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, where you’ll find a permanent installation featuring listening stations with recorded audio of the beloved author. In the temporary exhibition Among Poets, you’ll also see the predecessors, peers, and newcomers who were part of Clifton’s literary circle. Pictured are Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Rita Dove, Tony Medina, and Thomas Sayers Ellis, among others. The poets featured were each photographed by Lynda Koolish, an esteemed photographer well known for her powerful portraits of African American writers. The exhibition also includes archival photographs of Clifton at poetry events, including a Furious Flower conference with scores of other poets in attendance.

Among Poets: Maryland’s Poet Laureate Lucille Clifton is on view at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum through December 30, 2012. Won’t You Celebrate With Me?, which takes its title from the Clifton poem, is on view at the Enoch Pratt Free Library through January 6, 2013.

Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Ph.D. is a curator and global arts writer that keeps us hip to the Baltimore arts scene. Got a pick for Michelle? Email her here.

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