Paul Robeson by Gwendolyn Brooks

Paul Robeson
by Gwendolyn Brooks

That time
we all heard it,
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning, in music-words
devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.

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This, for me, is a poem of interdependence. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote it post-1967 after the Black Arts Movement transformation in her writing, and specifically for Black readers. It’s about communal identity, that we grow one another, that we cultivate one another, in direct opposition to American isolationism and independence.

She honors Paul Robeson in his refusal to be silenced in speaking for Black liberation and the costs he paid for it. He was the son of a former slave, and used his artistic talents in theater and music as a vocalist and actor on stage and screen to promote African and African-American history and culture. As a towering figure in the African-American struggle for human dignity and democratic rights, Robeson connected this struggle with people around the world who also were fighting for political rights, cultural recognition and economic justice.