Chickenbones just put up an Interview of fellow outlaw Keith Gilyard on his new book about John O Killens- Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric And Poetics of John Killens.
Was telling Bonnie just this morning if it wasnt for John Oliver Killens I dont think I would be a novelist. I would be some other kind of writer, some easier kind of writer.
Came to NY in the summer of 73 to get into Johns Os workshop at Columbia and stayed in it for 13 years, following him from school to school to his final resting place at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. Over the years his reputation had suffered and he was no longer treated as a serious writer but for those of us who were his students John O attained grace at Medgar Evers.
Not only was it his Brooklyn neighborhood but it was like this crossroads of blackfolk from all over the world and all these diasporic dynamics played out there. I called it the Meeting Ground. And John Oliver Killens was its Master Griot.
John O doesnt get anywhere near the respect he deserves. His legacy transcends his work. Whereever he taught he stipulated that his workshop would be open to anybody who could prove to him that they were serious about writing and I was part of a family of young writers who were drawn to him over the years.
His efforts to leave a literary infrastructure for progressive African American literature and train generations with that divine sense of responsibility for the care of the cultural soul, (Cultural Orchestration, what he called being a Longdistance Runner, what I call the Longgame), will shape our culture and influence our destiny for the foreseeable future. John O Killens was a visionary.
A little while back as part of a series on underappreciated works (And Then We Heard The Thunder) Jonathon Yardley over at the Washington Post did a piece on John O called The Art of Protest Without the Lighting of Art Made some interesting commentary about Johns strengths and weaknesses. Some points that seem to have escaped the attention of African American literary critics who should know better.
“It is worth noting that Du Bois, one of the most brilliant essayists and prose writers this country has known, was a mediocre novelist. It is a rare novelist indeed -- Charles Dickens, Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- who makes art out of politics; in most hands, politics smothers art.
In "And Then We Heard the Thunder," Killens comes closest to art when he describes Solly's painful awakening to the racial realities of his time and place and when he writes about men fighting each other, whether on the battlefield or in a race riot; these scenes are vivid and wholly believable. When he tries to use fiction to score political or ideological points, he lapses into rhetoric and stereotype.
This is a pity, but it is no less a pity that he has been allowed to disappear from the literary landscape -- incredibly, he does not rate an entry in the current edition of "The Oxford Anthology of African American Literature" (I think he meant the Norton, John O is in the Oxford)-- because he was a substantial figure not merely in his own right but also in the work of those other writers who profited from his example and support."
John O was aware of the limitations of politically inclined art and tried to make sure his students, politically inclined writers all, would not be tripped up by it. John O used to tell us repeatedly that politics couldnt carry a story. Used to tell us over and over, "The more important that you have to say, the more obligated you are to say it well."
John O Killens not only taught us how to write, he taught us how to be writers. He taught us how to be visionaries.
Cast your vision young hoodoo as far as you can see. Determine the challenges the tribe will face. Prepare the tribal soul to meet them.
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