'Great poet' born of '60s

CAROLYN M. RODGERS

The explosion that was the 1960s spewed out a crazy, colorful confetti, and bits of it were the poetry, writing, music and theater that made up the Black Arts movement.

One of its brightest lights was writer Carolyn M. Rodgers. Her poetry, as real as a Chicago street corner on a Saturday night, has been quoted by Oprah Winfrey and performed by Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. She has been praised by figures as diverse as author Wally Lamb and Pam Grier, whose film persona as an astonishingly strong black woman echoes the themes of some of Ms. Rodgers' work.

Ms. Rodgers wrote fiction and poetry collections, including "How I Got Ovah," a reference to old spirituals. Her play "Love" was produced Off-Broadway by Woodie King Jr., a father of the Black Theatre movement.

She owned her own publishing firm, Eden Press, and was a founding member of Chicago's Third World Press.

Ms. Rodgers, 69, died April 2 at Mercy Hospital. A memorial service is planned in Chicago next month.

Ms. Rodgers, along with Nikki Giovanni, Jayne Cortez and Sonia Sanchez, "were the cutting-edge poets for that time in the nation," said Haki Madhubuti, chair, publisher and fellow founder of Third World Press.

"She was one of the poets who helped change the conversation, and in changing it, we ceased being Negroes," Madhubuti said. "We became men and women poets; artists who are black -- and people of African ancestry."

Sonia Sanchez said, "Carolyn was one of the great poets that came out of the 1960s, a very lyrical poet; a woman who spoke a great deal about women; black women in particular -- the kinds of experiences they had; and she did it in a very poetic and beautiful way, using rhythmic black speech and imagery."

Chicago was a hub of the Black Arts movement, which had its heyday from 1965-1975. It was an exciting time, Madhubuti said, when African-American artists "took back their culture, their language."

Ms. Rodgers graduated from Roosevelt University and received a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago.

Some of her early works were titled "Songs of a Blackbird" and "Paper Soul."

She used slang and heartfelt language to write about love, lust, body image, family, religion, and the grace of human kindness. In her early days, black revolutionary themes and cuss words wove through some poems.

"She would take no quarter from insults, or downgrading her writing as a woman," Madhubuti said. "Her writing could stand by itself."

In one poem, she wrote:

"I think sometimes

when i write

God has his hand on me

i am his little black slim ink pen."

Beyond blackness, Sanchez said, Ms. Rodgers' poetry asked: "What does it mean to be human?"

Ms. Rodgers was a founding member of the writers' workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). She studied in the fine arts program at Chicago State University, Madhubuti said.

She taught at Emory, Fisk, Indiana and Roosevelt universities and at Harold Washington College, said her friend, author Useni Eugene Perkins. In 1970, she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and she won the Poet Laureate award of the Society of Midland Authors. She also won a Carnegie Award in 1979, Perkins said.

She was a radiant woman with luminous eyes, said her sister, Gloria. "She walked in a room, and the room would gravitate toward her," Madhubuti said.

"Carolyn's work affirmed the voice of black women -- of everyday black women, and she did that before this generation of Spoken Word poets came along," said her friend and fellow writer, Angela Jackson. "Without Carolyn Rodgers, a whole generation would not have been able to be. She gave young poets permission to be themselves. Her work opened that door to writing in the present-day colloquial."

Ms. Rodgers did a recent reading at the DuSable Museum, and she wrote the forword to "Black Writing from Chicago."

She is also survived by her sister Nina Gordon, and her mother, Bazella Rodgers.

Obituary of Carolyn M. Rodgers

Color Photo: Without Carolyn Rodgers, "a whole generation would not have been able to be," a friend said.

=(From The Chicago Sun-Times, April 16, 2010) An obituary in Tuesday's Sun-Times should have said Carolyn M. Rodgers' works are studied in the Fine Arts program at Chicago State University.*****