Post by ricarey38 on May 21, 2012 21:34:23 GMT -5
Thomas Sayers Ellis was born in Washington D.C. to what was essentially a single-parent family. His mother raised him without help from his father, and the only time we are presented with a father figure in Ellis’s poetry is in “Sticks” which contains a description of the domestic abuse that took place, “My father… believed kindness and lack of size/ Were… Signs of weakness... pretending to slap mother/ When he slapped mother.” Without any true male role model, Ellis turned to pop culture for idols. He ended up finding many of his heroes in the vibrant music scene of D.C. Growing up, he looked up to men like James Brown and worshiped bands like Funkadelic. While he did draw heavily from popular music, he also appreciated the communal song that occurred in church, which is described in the poem “A Baptist Beat”. Not only did he listen to music, but he also started drumming, which helped his rhythmic understanding and mastery. The rhythmic and musical style that he picked up from many different musical influences shows up in the stylistic elements of many of his works.
Ellis’s environment heavily influenced him, and therefore is a huge element in his poetry. In fact, his collection The Maverick Room is structured so that certain poems correspond to the voice and vibe of a certain area of the city. He has nothing but love for his hometown and frequently rights about all of the colorful local personalities that he through his years there. While he lives in Brooklyn now, he has retained the D.C. identity that he acquired growing up. His environment also impacted his thoughts and feelings on race significantly. He went to an all-black high school, where most of the students attending lived in poverty. In one of his poems, “View of the Library of Congress from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School”, he describes a white substitute teacher who introduced him to some of the great poets. He writes of his conversation with the substitute, “had I ever heard of T.S. Eliot?/ No. Then Robert Hayden perhaps.” In his school, children were not taught poetry and the education tended to fall short. However, Ellis went on to receive his B.A. from Harvard and his M.F.A. from Brown. He now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
Ellis resists many of the expectations of a black poet that are placed upon him, and he refuses to be boxed into cliché writings about racial and social issues. He does not necessarily want to be recognized as an incredible poet or the voice of the black community, as is evident in “Marcus Garvey Vitamins” when he writes, “Don’t like it, don’t Pulitzer me”. He has no interest in the typical things that poets are supposed to aspire towards. However, he does note in “All Their Stanzas Look Alike” that, “Even this, after publication,/ Might look alike. Disproves/ My stereo types.” Even Ellis seems to be confused about his identity from time to time, although he is hyperaware of how he is perceived by others.
All of this culminates into a revolutionary and unique voice that Ellis has created for himself. Please help me welcome Thomas Sayers Ellis to the stage.
Word Count: 545
Ellis’s environment heavily influenced him, and therefore is a huge element in his poetry. In fact, his collection The Maverick Room is structured so that certain poems correspond to the voice and vibe of a certain area of the city. He has nothing but love for his hometown and frequently rights about all of the colorful local personalities that he through his years there. While he lives in Brooklyn now, he has retained the D.C. identity that he acquired growing up. His environment also impacted his thoughts and feelings on race significantly. He went to an all-black high school, where most of the students attending lived in poverty. In one of his poems, “View of the Library of Congress from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School”, he describes a white substitute teacher who introduced him to some of the great poets. He writes of his conversation with the substitute, “had I ever heard of T.S. Eliot?/ No. Then Robert Hayden perhaps.” In his school, children were not taught poetry and the education tended to fall short. However, Ellis went on to receive his B.A. from Harvard and his M.F.A. from Brown. He now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
Ellis resists many of the expectations of a black poet that are placed upon him, and he refuses to be boxed into cliché writings about racial and social issues. He does not necessarily want to be recognized as an incredible poet or the voice of the black community, as is evident in “Marcus Garvey Vitamins” when he writes, “Don’t like it, don’t Pulitzer me”. He has no interest in the typical things that poets are supposed to aspire towards. However, he does note in “All Their Stanzas Look Alike” that, “Even this, after publication,/ Might look alike. Disproves/ My stereo types.” Even Ellis seems to be confused about his identity from time to time, although he is hyperaware of how he is perceived by others.
All of this culminates into a revolutionary and unique voice that Ellis has created for himself. Please help me welcome Thomas Sayers Ellis to the stage.
Word Count: 545