Wednesday, February 16, 2022

BLACK WOMAN ARRESTED FOR READING IN A LIBRARY, 1962

by Sister Lou Ella Hickman, I.W.B.S.
 

Black woman arrested for trying to read a book in a segregated library in Albany, GA. 1962. 


a dark bonfire 
roared 
step  
by  
step  
down 
thou shalt not read 
here 
she 
was 
booked 
(o the irony)  
she
the book 
her body still burns 


Sister Lou Ella has a master’s in theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and is a former teacher and librarian. She is a certified spiritual director as well as a poet and writer.  Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines such as America, First Things, Emmanuel, Third Wednesday, and The New Verse News as well as in four anthologies: The Night’s Magician: Poems about the Moon, edited by Philip Kolin and Sue Brannan Walker, Down to the Dark River edited by Philip Kolin, Secrets edited by Sue Brannan Walker and After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events edited by Tom Lombardo.  She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017 and in 2020. Her first book of poetry entitled she: robed and wordless was published in 2015 (Press 53.) On May 11, 2021, five poems from her book which had been set to music by James Lee III were performed by the opera star Susanna Phillips, star clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Mayra Huang at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The group of songs is entitled “Chavah’s Daughters Speak.”