Guest post by NWA writer Barbara Sims
A Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) Hall Branch Library writer since 1997, Sharon F. Warner was the special guest at the portoluz presentation of WPA 2.0: a Brand New Deal, with noted African American Chicago historian Timuel Black on Saturday, June 18 at the DuSable Museum of African American History.
Portoluz is a nonprofit organization devoted to exposing audiences to a wide range of cultural expression in order to encourage respect for cultural diversity and promote greater understanding of differing artistic and intellectual traditions and perspectives. Ms. Warner opened the program with a reading of her poem “Gardeners of Dreams.” She explained that her poem was inspired by Timuel Black’s series of conversations at NWA’s Edible Activism workshops last year in Hyde Park.
NWA writer Sharon Warner with Timuel Black
Ms. Warner said that the title of her poem was a direct quotation from one of Mr. Black’s speeches which had given her much to think about. The program centered on Mr. Black’s memory of the great African American migration from the Deep South to Chicago from the 1920’s to the present.
GARDENERS OF DREAMS
Sharon F. Warner
We are the caretakers of history,
We are the creators of new traditions,
We are the gardeners of dreams.
Our forebears came to this wild, strange place
To start their lives anew,
Somewhat less constrained by race and place.
In spite of the cold, we grew.
They raised us up like hybrid plants,
Part Southern, part Midwest.
They helped us capture every chance,
And foster what was best.
We put down roots in this urban soil.
We absorbed urban ways.
Polluted winds began to spoil
Our growth from former days.
We learned, and we learned how to learn,
We made ways from no way.
But lately there is grave concern
For what we gave away.
We are the caretakers of history,
We are the creators of new traditions,
We are the gardeners of dreams.
Some grew up straight, and some grew wild.
We flourished, thrived somehow.
But did each parent teach a child
There was life before now?
Our ancestors carried the seeds
For what our lives became.
Fresh food is what our race now needs.
The landscape’s not the same.
The farms are gone, the yards are bare,
The gardens now are few.
There are food deserts everywhere.
So what are we to do?
A window box, a back yard plot,
An oasis in Hyde Park.
Use what resources we’ve still got
To make this place less stark.
We are the caretakers of history,
We are the creators of new traditions,
We are the gardeners of dreams.
The poems are plants, the blues are fruits,
The pictures are history.
From coveralls to three-piece suits,
All we have been must be.
So plant tomatoes, write a song,
Paint landscapes filled with green.
Repurpose everything done wrong,
Show what our lives can mean.
Improvisations in our flesh,
It’s in our DNA.
We always know we can start fresh.
That’s why we’re here today.
The older trees with deep-set roots
Cannot just stand alone.
They must support the tiny shoots
Till they are up and grown.
We are the caretakers of history,
We are the creators of new traditions,
We are the gardeners of dreams.
The program concluded with an interesting and noteworthy piano recital by Chicago pianist Reginald Robinson. Mr. Robinson gave a wonderful recital of American music from ragtime through hit Broadway show tunes to the present day. Not only did Mr. Robinson play a rousing piano, he explained the background of each piece, the composer’s intent and musical conception, as well as the community reaction to the music.
