Books by Lee
Meitzen Grue
Goodbye Silver, Silver Cloud / In the Sweet Balance of the
Flesh / French Quarter Poems
/
Three Poets in New Orleans /
Downtown
CD Live! On Frenchmen Street
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* * Lee Meitzen Grue was born in Plaquemine, and has lived in New Orleans
since she was 14. She graduated from the University of New
Orleans and received her masters degree in creative writing from
Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She was married to Capt. Reginald Grue,
a river port pilot, and has three children.
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*
Lee Grue has
established herself as one of the outstanding poets of this
region. This extremely eclectic collection reflects a fine
feeling for place—Texas, Louisiana, the music and quirks of the
deep Southland we live in--along with the profound sense of
displacement. This displacement, I believe, is a natural result
of lee's wandering, questioning spirit, her unrelenting
intelligence, a spirit which recognizes the fact of home, but
never too comfortably. in Lee's work there is always a reaching
out to other selves, worlds, inner realities, which she absorbs,
an expansion of identity which makes possible an extended
understanding of her own self.—Tom Dent, former Executive Director, The
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation
Lee Grue's poetry,
like the roux that makes a good gumbo, is a perfect blend of
spices—the right amount of New Orleans file, a flawless mix of
worldly wit and charm, the exact rendering of cayenne pepper
that makes her art and craft unforgettable. this is a book for
those of exquisite taste, and Grue's poetic voice is one to be
richly savored.—Sue Brannan Walker, Negative
Capability * *
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Treme: Beyond Bourbon Street
(HBO)
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Table
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Dear Rudy,
Of course, your papers are important. ChickenBones is
important. it has been a wonderful venue for me. I'm lazy and
seldom send my work out. Once in a while to a contest, but since
I edit a journal I have little faith in sending my work out.
It's all too time consuming. I mothered three children of my
own, a few others, and took care of two people dying. I would
not have published but for people like you who took an interest
in my work.
My own papers are at
The Newcomb Center for Research on Women.
Susan Tucker is the archivist there. She's a wonderful person.
She would give you good advice. The other papers which have to
do with New Laurel Review are at Xavier. Lester Sullivan would
be the person to contact there. Good luck and a wonderful
Christmas. Take pride in your work. It's important to many
people. all best, Lee
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Downtown
By Lee Meitzen Grue
Lee Grue is arguably one of the finest
practitioners of poetry in New Orleans'
storied history. These superb writs are
equal to the upwelling of jazz itself:
from Tremé street corners, to the
wayward French Quarter, to the carefree
vibes of Bywater, all the way to back o'
town; this astonishing collection speaks
from a mythic pantheon off yowls & beats
as timeless as the Crescent City
herself. "If you're missing New Orleans,
and you know what that means, you need
to read Grue's book front to back, place
by place, time by time, name by name,
everything that breaks your broken heart
and asks it to sing. A generous, loving
tribute to poetry and to New Orleans"—Dara
Wier
"Lee
Grue's work is one of the majestic
pylons that keeps New Orleans above
water, a pylon woven thickly and subtly
from the city's history. Her poetry
weaves her personal history to the five
centuries of the city's own, a fabric
stronger than the dreams of engineers. —Andrei
Codrescu\ |
 |
Lee Meitzen
Grue was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, a small town
upriver. New Orleans has been home for most of her
life. She began reading her poetry at The Quorum
Club during the early sixties. There she met
musicians Eluard Burt and Maurice Martinez
(bandleader Marty Most). Burt had just come back to
New Orleans from San Francisco, where he had been
influenced by the Beats. Eluard Burt and Lee Grue
continued to work together over many years. Burt and
his photographer wife, Kichea Burt, came home to New
Orleans from California again in the nineties, where
the three collaborated on a CD, Live! on Frenchmen
Street. Eluard Burt passed in 2007.
Kichea Burt
contributed some of the photographs in Grue's book
DOWNTOWN. During the intervening years Grue reared
children, directed The New Orleans Poetry Forum
workshop, and NEA poetry readings in the Backyard
Poetry Theater. In 1982 she began editing New Laurel
Review, an independent international literary
journal which is still published today. She has
lived downtown in the Bywater for thirty-five years.
After the flood of 2005 she began teaching fiction
and poetry at the Alvar Library, which is three
blocks from her house. Her other books are:
Trains and Other Intrusions, French Quarter Poems,
In the Sweet Balance of the
Flesh, and
Goodbye Silver, Silver Cloud, short fiction.
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. |
This collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked together to
promote, disseminate, and critique the literature of
Spanish-speaking people of African descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
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As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 1 July 2012
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