Greetings Brothers!
Like many of you, I am a big fan of Langston Hughes. I have likely read most of his work, some of which I’ve ready many times over. For a long time, I have known about Brother Sterling Allen Brown (first Poet Laureate of Washington, DC), however, regretfully I have not made time to read his work like I have that of Brother Hughes. I think the “for the culture” gods have been trying to tell me something lately, because over the last couple of months I keep stumbling on poems and other literary pieces by Brother Brown. After reading Brown in fits and starts, increasingly I am thankful for the gods’ message.
In this week’s Monday Pearl, I’ll simply pass on the message that has been shared with me, and encourage you too, to take a deeper dive into Brother Brown’s catalogue. To get you started, please make time to read the attached commentary from the October 1932 Oracle on Brother Brown’s, “Southern Road,” a book of poems that reveals Brown’s sense of connectedness to our people in the “lower brackets of our segment of life,” despite his lofty scholarly attainments. His expressions underscore the very Omega preoccupation with uplift, motivated not by a need or desire to exact “a debt of gratitude by the less fortunate,” as Brother Gary Flowers (2-83-LZ) once wrote; but, to underscore that the “man far down” has just as much to offer culturally (and perhaps more) as the man silver spooned.
To encourage you to walk a little further down the Sterling Brown path, you can find a few other poems by Brother Brown (and a little additional information) here https://mypoeticside.com/poets/sterling-a-brown-poems.
Read More – BrownSouthernRoad_Oct1932Oracle
Make it a great week Brothers. Be noble!
F.I.E.T.T.S.
3rd District History and Archives Committee
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The Monday Pearl is provided by the Third District History and Archives Committee and is a weekly sharing of fraternity content, commentary, and research of historical value we hope Brothers will enjoy and from which Brothers will draw inspiration. Previous “Pearls” can be found at http://3rddistrictques.org/about-us/overview/monday-pearl/. The Committee encourages your feedback. Should you have reactions, comments, information, anecdotes, documents, and the like, related to any of the content we share, we’d very much like to hear from you. Please send all communication to 3dhistoryandarchives@gmail.com.
