Ancestors as Poetry: Voices Given Breath Again by Voices of Woodlawn

Ancestors as Poetry: Voices Given Breath Again by Voices of Woodlawn, Poets of Witness

By Mary Dezember, Ph.D.

A Review (and Poem) From Dr. Dezember’s View

On an August day in 2019, poets Ladi Di (Sylvia Diane) Beverly, Patrick Washington and Diane Wilbon Parks accepted the invitation from their friend, poet Hiram Larew, to meet him on the last day of his week-long poetry residency at Woodlawn Plantation and Estate and Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, Virginia, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site and home of the Arcadia Farm for Sustainable Agriculture.

Based on his work on hunger and on his poetry, Hiram had been selected to participate in the Writers in Residency Program, a partnership program organized by Woodlawn and The Inner Loop writing community in the Washington D. C. Metro area.

While former Director of International Programs within U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hiram guided several global hunger and farming programs in extension, research and teaching. Retired in 2015 and as a poet, he continued his work on hunger, founding the Poetry X Hunger initiative to, as stated on the Poetry X Hunger homepage, “link the power of poetry to the cause of hunger alleviation in the U.S. and around the world.”

But while at the historic plantation, Hiram realized, as he states, that his attention was on “the hunger of the soul more than hunger of the body.”

He found himself focusing on the American “history still haunting us today” as he wondered about the lives of the more than 90 people who had been captives there—and whose names had not been recorded—forced to serve and to build the wealth for the 9 relatives of George Washington living in the mansion.

To deepen his experience with better understanding, he invited his poet friends—Ladi Di, Patrick, and Diane—descendants of enslaved Americans.

With trepidation and uneasiness, Ladi Di, Patrick and Diane walked onto the plantation, still unsure if they should take this journey in the footsteps of their ancestors, enslaved during America’s history of atrocity.

With their brave steps in the history of horrible tragedy, a blessed and unexpected experience happened:

They, while writing there and through poetry, became conduits for those enslaved at Woodlawn, imagining then creating stories of their ancestors, bringing forgotten lives into form as art.

From their experience walking in the footsteps of their ancestors and kinfolk on that August day, Ladi Di, Diane, Patrick and Hiram first questioned then imagined what the women, men and children questioned, suffered and endured. They were moved to write poetry on the spot.

As Diane states, the writing of the poetry was “sharing a poem with an ancestor.”

After sharing their poetry with each other over the ensuing weeks, the four poets decided to share the voices of Woodlawn on a broader scale as a program:

Voices of Woodlawn, A Reckoning by Four Poets of America’s Slave-Holding Past

Soon, they invited friend Cliff Bernier to punctuate each poetry set with harmonica riff segues. Cliff is also a notable poet, but as he was not at Woodlawn on that August 2019 day, he provides the voice of harmonica music to the group.

In accomplished crafting, the four poets together—known as Voices of Woodlawn—take us with skill, tenderness and stern questioning to imagine the time and place that shackled four million of our nation’s people, enslaved to profit America.

Voices of Woodlawn bring into being and give voice to lives forced to provide this country with its wealth and global status—

Lives vanished, names never recorded—but with voices waiting to be heard.

Voice of Woodlawn, A Reckoning by Four Poets of America’s Slave-Holding Past: The Program

*Royalty* by Diane Wilbon Parks, courtesy of Diane Wilbon Parks
More of Diane’s amazing art highlights the beginning and ending of the program.

Glorious art by Diane frames the program.

Each poet in turn reads their poetry—with a harmonic riff by Cliff for set segues.

Cliff’s harmonic riffs rise as segue for each poetry set.

Ladi Di, Patrick, Diane and Hiram help the audience to walk out of comfortable shoes and with their ancestors into the terrible past to face what “haunts our country”—expanding awareness, deepening understanding and creating a hope-filled present.

Some excerpts from Voices of Woodlawn poetry follow.

Patrick:

“I am not being led through these
Genteel halls
I’m being pushed

Each threshold crossed
Feels like praise
Forced through fearful throats

The words of our guide ease out
With reverence

As if the echo from these walls could actually slap you

And as they deliver their
Careful sermon. I wonder

Was God ever inside here?”

—from “First Walk” by Patrick Washington

“So here I stand ears & eyes
Body with no mouth
until addressed

My willingness to please & posture
places me at the head of the table

A prisoner of anticipation

I got good at counting how many times they
lift their cups to drink
4 sips - then I come out

If the guest knocks their tea to the floor
Imma make sure my apology swoops in the room
before my body does

"That damn Earl Grey been misbehaving all week
& the tea cup mighta jumped”

—from “The Signal” by Patrick Washington

Hiram:

“My country…the yard sale of nations…
…the talons and scars after oozing…
…the siren doors of wisdom slammed shut
and off their hinges…”

—from “Succotash” in Mud Ajar by Hiram Larew

“What happened here?

The scars or gasps
Or flames in souls—

Their silent prayers—
They all come through
And are asking me

What happened here?

From my long ago that was
And what still is now—

This evil holy after tell.”

—from “Vista Blur”
by Hiram Larew

Diane: “It rained here!

Not from the tears of gray skies,
But those who shed and bled here!

They watered this land, grew it up.
These fields. Those hands.

This place.
Their demands.

This ghostly place—

91—enslaved and erased.”

—from “Hopeful Birds,” by Diane Wilbon Parks

Ladi Di:

“Mama, how come we can’t run about playing

And be free…

…we humans too…

…oh, Mama, will things ever change?…

…the bravery of my ancestors strengthen me…”
…no records, no documentation go down in history…
…never left to our own enchanting way…”

—from “Mama Oh Mama” by Ladi Di Beverly

Ladi Di says,
“Black History Month is 365 days a year—Black History 365.”

You can hear and converse with Voices of Woodlawn at a special event
hosted by Creatives in Conversation

On March 2, 2022, Creatives in Conversation will join Voices of Woodlawn
in honoring Black lives.

After the conclusion of February as Black History Month
Voices of Woodlawn continue the recognition of brave and forgotten lives and continue to honor Black heritage and Black lives past and present.

VOICES OF WOODLAWN

A Reckoning by Four Poets of America’s Slave-Holding Past

In Tribute to Black History Month

& A Conversation with Poets of Witness

March 2, 2022

4:30 pm PST, 5:30 pm MST, 6:30 pm CST, 7:30 pm EST

(75 min. program)
A Creatives in Conversation event not to be missed!

Register for this free event (if you do not already receive my newsletter) and find out more on the link below:

Register for this FREE Special Event Here

There will not be an open mic for this evening’s hour-long moving, inspiring and impactful special event. There will be a 15 min Q & A.

I hope you can make this incredible event!
If you can’t, I encourage you to contact Voices of Woodlawn to find out about their many other events throughout the year:

VoicesofWoodlawn@gmail.com

Voices of Woodlawn in conversation.
Photo courtesy Voices of Woodlawn.

What People Are Saying about Voices of Woodlawn:

Through incredibly eloquent and powerful words, the four poets gave voice to the Woodlawn slaves who were forgotten and invisible. Accompanied by a harmonicist who passionately played his instrument, the performance was a prime example of the special relationship between words and music. I highly recommend the Voices of Woodlawn program.
—Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, Host and Producer of the Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio podcast
Woodlawn lives anew through each of [these] incredible voices. Thank you for the resurrection. Such voices of empathy and compassion.
—J. Joy “Sistah Joy” Matthews Alford, Poet Laureate, Prince George’s County, Maryland, USA
Voices of Woodlawn is a wise and moving testament to the slaves who lived and worked at Woodlawn Plantation in Fairfax, Va. Local contemporary poets read work that had its genesis while writers visited the plantation grounds, in some cases taking a tour, in others simply wandering to get a feel of the place and its history. Drawing connections to contemporary Black lives, the poems bring heartbreak and resilience alive. The vernacular of the poets connects to the memory of bondage. Harmonica music by Cliff Bernier backgrounds the intimate recitation by Patrick Washington, Diane Parks, Sylvia Dianne 'Lady Di' Beverly, and Hiram Larew, who organized this unique event.
—Sarah Sutro, author of Études, a book of poems

Last night was powerful and spiritual. I was just knocked out by it all.
—Martin Malone, Poet and Co-host of the Ragged Edge Poetry Reading Series.
Musician Cliff Bernier, and poets Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly, Hiram Larew, Diane Wilbon Parks, and Patrick Washington have put together a moving experience in their work titled “Voices of Woodlawn.” Through their common ethos they guide you about the grounds of the once plantation using the muse of 90 slaves yoked to a life of bondage. The creative voices of the cinqtet share the agony that we shudder to imagine the men, women and children owned by [the family of] our nation’s first president endured.
—Patti Ross, Host of the Ellicott City, Maryland Poetry Reading Series
91 voices cried out from Woodlawn last night, impossible to be silenced...refusing erasure. Bleeding from Corinthian marble pillars, welling up from joints in hardwood floors. Through the desperately alive words of four poets and the bluesy whine of one man's harmonica, I see, I hear, I feel them as we groan and celebrate together...dancing and weeping on the soft falling of Mama Earth's breasts.
—Jennifer Polhemus, Poet
Voices of Woodlawn is chance to acknowledge and honor a shared tragic history.
—Marilyn Klimcho, Berks Bards

On several occasions I have been honored to have the Voices of Woodlawn on my radio show, The Thornton Business Hour. The Poets: Diane Wilbon Parks, Patrick Washington, Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly and Hiram Larew – have read and discussed the poems they wrote after visiting historic Woodlawn in Fairfax, VA. When you listen to their delivery, there's a sensitivity that permeates the air. It's so intense and soul stirring, that it causes one to stop and listen to the Spirit of their messages.
—Pat Thorton, Radio Show Host
In their poems and artwork Diane Wilbon Parks, Patrick Washington, Sylvia Diane “Ladi Di” Beverly and Hiram Larew bring to life their visceral experiences confronting the relics of slavery. In addition, they welcome and encourage other artists to join them, lifting other voices and experiences as well as their own. These four poets, the beating heart of the “Voices of Woodlawn”, came together originally to confront the ghosts that inhabit a Virginia plantation, Woodlawn.

These courageous artists toured the plantation, walked the manicured grounds and palatial residence in search of the voices of their ancestors who had lived and died building and maintaining all this grandeur. From that painful journey, they created Art - poetry and paintings that reflect their heritage, not in brick and mortar or rolling lawns and magnolias, but in words and rhythms and colors that honor those silent builders and laborers, the men and women who lived and died as slaves to Woodlawn.
—Janice Booth, Journalist

Wonderful, powerful poetry, music and art work. Giving Voice to the Voiceless.
—Christina Breen, Irish Lover of Poetry

We recently hosted a reading by the Voices of Woodlawn at our poetry venue. These folks gave an impassioned poetic reflection on the forgotten history of the slavery at the Woodlawn plantation in Virginia. These are important poems that need to be heard. Highly recommended.
—Alan Bogage, Co-host of First Friday at the Ragged Edge poetry readings in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
Thank you again for each of your voices, and for the great echo of other voices and the harmonica that you brought to us last night. While the Gettysburg location was virtual, what happened here in 1863 was palpable. Thank you for bringing the incredible Voices of Woodlawn to the Ragged Edge Coffeehouse series.
—Katy Giebenhain, Co-host of the Ragged Edge Coffeehouse series in Gettysburg, PA, USA

The poetry of Voices of Woodlawn offers a penetrating look into the deepest of human sentiments while touching one's soul. It is a profoundly moving experience to accompany great poets as they confront a deeply painful history, one that we all share. Recommended for everyone with a sensitive, caring, and brave heart!
—Emily Vargas-Baron, Poet and International Education Planner
Voices of Woodlawn is a wonderfully conceived and executed program artfully looking at history from a neglected and overlooked perspective. The poems and music poignantly evoke the spirit of those souls who inhabited a time and place, but were denied any sense of dignity, citizenry, or ownership of them. The program is moving and thought-provoking. And beautiful.
—Kirk Judd, Poet

Each time I hear Voices of Woodlawn I hear more and more layers of meaning.
Last night, I especially appreciated Hiram's "What happened here?" poem of testimony. And Patrick's vivid poem about the butler's experience/voice transported me back to the place & time.  I want to study Diane's artwork up close, and I love the intensity of her velvet voice and words. Ladi Di reveals gravity and grace while she shares her understanding of the place of Woodlawn in our history and hearts."
—Elizabeth Stanley, Berks Bards

About Voices of Woodlawn:

Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly is an Internationally acclaimed poet, presenting poetry In London, England, at the Lewisham Theater. A collection of her work is housed at George Washington University's Gelman Library. She is a member of A Splendid Wake, Gelman Library, George Washington University. Also, she has been featured at Smithsonian's Museum of History, African Arts Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and other Smithsonians. Ladi Di as she is affectionally called is a founding member of the poetry ensemble "Collective Voices ". She is a proud member of Writers on the Green Line, Poetry X Hunger, Poetry Poster Project and Voices of Woodlawn. Ladi Di celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Host Grace Cavalieri, reading on her show "The Poet and the Poem" at the Library of Congress Experience. Also, she is a founding member of the Anointed PENS (Poets Empowered to Nurture Souls) Poetry Ministry, out of Ebenezer AME Church, an alum of Poets in Progress with Poet Laureate of District of Columbia, the late Dolores Kendrick.

She is author of two books (Forever In Your Eyes and Cooking Up South), both on Amazon. Recently her poetry appears in several International anthologies, the Moonstone Press Anthology and presently as part of Mike Maggio”s 30/30 Series for National Poetry month 2021. Ladi Di is also called "Love Poet". The late Dr. Maya Angelou is her hero. She is the proud Matriarch of her family. Celebrating Black History 2018, she and her family received posthumously for her Dad, a “Congressional Gold Medal” from the United States Marines. She is a Poet of Excellence in Prince Georges County 2020. Poetry is her passion.

syladydi@comcast.net.

Sylvia Beverly Facebook

Hiram Larew's poems have appeared widely, most recently in Poetry South, Best Poetry Online, Iowa Review, and Contemporary American Voices. His most recent collection, Mud Ajar, was published by Atmosphere Press in 2021.

He also is the founder of Poetry X Hunger and the Voices of Woodlawn poetry collective.

www.HiramLarewPoetry.com

Diane Wilbon Parks is a visual poet and artist. She has written two poetry collections (“The Wisdom of Blue Apples”) and a children’s book (“Grandma Doddley Dances with Reindeer”). She is the founder of The Write Blend, a culturally diverse poetry circle, and has been recognized as a 2020 Prince George’s County Poet of Excellence. Diane celebrates the permanent installation of one of her poems and artwork at the Patuxent Research Refuge - North Tract.

Diane’s poetry has been widely featured and highlighted nationally, and internationally. Diane has been a longstanding literary advocate and leader in the poetry community. Her poetry is included in the International Anthology, Singing in the Dark. She is also included in the 43rd and 44th Anniversary of Grace Cavalieri’s, “The Poet and The Poem” at the Library of Congress. Diane is a USAF Veteran and a Senior IT Program Manager.

If you are interested in her art, please contact Diane directly at: dcwp623@gmail.com

Patrick Washington has spent over two decades performing, conducting interactive workshops & spreading love for the spoken, the written & the rhythmic word across this country. His engaging styles have taken him across the country and back, from Washington's storied U Street circuit, to television & off-broadway theater performances.

Patrick was commissioned to create a poem dedicating the monument to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King which he performed at the unveiling on the national mall on October 16th 2011. A teaching artist at heart, he has launched his own arts education company, Dialect of Prince George's and with it, created the Youth Poet Laureate program, giving young people the opportunity to collaborate with city officials & serve as poetic ambassadors for their community.

Clifford Bernier is the author of three poetry collections; he has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and his The Silent Art won the 2010 Gival Press Poetry Award. He appears on harmonica in the Accumulated Dust world music series and is featured on the EP Post-Columbian America. A member of the Washington Writers Collection, he has featured on NPR’s The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress and lives in Northern Virginia.

Cliff accompanies Voices of Woodlawn on his harmonica.

From my experience hearing Voices of Woodlawn, inspired, I wrote the following poem in tribute, the last stanza from which the title of this blog post review came:

90+ Precious Lives

My Tribute to Voices of Woodlawn
By Mary Dezember

90+ precious voices
Balance in the air

Waiting

For poets
Who will step bravely
Into the warping heat of the plantation
To walk in captive prints,

Moving themselves
Into the fear, pain, anger, grief, courage,
Love
Of their shared heritage:

Time never blocks the meeting of kindred souls.

On an August day in 2019,
Descendants
Ladi Di, Patrick and Diane
Take that daring step

To the outstretched waiting
Arms of their grandmothers,
Grandfathers,
And into the patient embrace
Of all 90+
Mothers, fathers, children,
Sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins—

And with their friend Hiram
Walking beside them, the Four Poets
Of Witness
Imagine and receive 90+ forgotten lives
With not even names recorded, 90+

Voices of Woodlawn

Doing the work
For the 9 of the mansion,
Relatives of a founding father
And primary leader of our
“Land of the Free”—

1860:
4 million+ precious lives—
Almost 14% of our country’s population,
One in every seven American people—
Which is also
About 30% of all people in the South,
And nearly 60% of all people in
South Carolina and Mississippi—

Are bound, enslaved, trafficked:

Our nation plies the free lives and bends
Hearts with consumerism,
Piles its coffers
From and onto the unfree backs bent
In the fields, in the homes,
At the harbors filling steamships
With the goods they—the 14%—plant, tend,
Harvest+;

Goods everyone else gets—
Never them—
Indigo, sugar, molasses, rice, tobacco+
Cotton that supplies the
World.

Cotton booms.
Domestic human trafficking booms.
Cotton booms.
Domestic human trafficking booms.
Cotton booms…

America creates wealth from more
Than the enslaved unpaid labor forced
From them,
The 4 million+ people:

America creates wealth from
They themselves,
The 4 million+ people—

People as Profit.

4 million+ precious lives—
Captives from which our country lines its plantations, cities
And shores
With banks of gold.

Owning people was—
I quote Professor David W. Blight of Yale: “…an
Asset…worth more than all of America’s
Manufacturing, all of the railroads, all of the productive
Capacity of the United States put together…
Slaves were the single largest, by far, financial
Asset of property in the entire American economy.”

Who in the name of God
Bless America
Could ever think

For even one fraction of a second that
This
Could ever be ok?

I don’t want to hear any dead-beat excuses
About Southerners knowing only what they grew up with
Or trying to keep their lifestyles and livelihoods intact
Or states’ rights.

It was cruel, inhumane,
Psychopathic—meaning without empathy—legalized
Behavior and practice.
Plain and simple.
Period.

Of this, our country was a
Global
Leader.

“By 1860 there were approximately 4 million slaves in the United States,
the second largest slave society—slave population—in the world.
The only one larger was Russian serfdom. Brazil was close,”
Professor Blight states.

He adds:
“We now know,
if we know anything about the Old South,
the average American planter,
the average American slaveholder,
small ones and big ones,
were raging capitalists.

They understood markets.

They understood profits.”

America, home of the free capitalists.

Our nation, selling its soul to the highest bidders.

Our nation took precious lives,
Profiting from each bending back,
Never giving them anything back,
Not even into today.

Capitalism built on captivity.

Can this country’s soul be retrieved?

The USA has a debt to pay.

Today, let’s provide
Reparations, voting rights,
Equal pay, healthcare,
Student debt cancellation—the loans disproportionately
Shouldered by Black women borrowers.

Today, let’s provide
True friendship and
Bonds of humanity.

Enough! No more inequality and
Bondage caused by inhumanity!

Hey! 47 million+ precious Black lives
Are in the house today!

Their ancestors
With so many other ancestors

Of varied heritages
And their descendants into today,

They, themselves
Built this house!

They themselves
Have been and are
Marginalized, subjugated, disenfranchised
By laws and by
Monuments
Commemorating
Haters.

Mean monuments making a mess of our garden;
Cruel laws damaging our home.

Let’s all step up to nurture nature’s loveliness,
To repair the gaping cracks
That allow the cold winds of injustice
To ruin any warmth

In this house that is
Our nation of
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”—

These American principles should not be
Mere boasting;
These American principles should be
United states of being for all.

Maybe time does fold back on itself
When stories and their truths are told
To halt the repeated atrocities—

Maybe time will fall back on itself
As the Four and the 90+
Voices of Woodlawn

Unite to inform us,
Inspire us, opening
Soulful channels to the
4 million+ captive voices of 1860

Still

Waiting.

Poetry from Four Poets of Witness, with
New voice sets segues upon Cliff’s harmonica riffs rising,

Taking the waiting

Into our hearts.

Voices of Woodlawn write and speak

Ancestors as poetry—

Voices honed from the frozen stone of time

And given breath
Again.

Poem “90+ Precious Lives” written February 13 to 23, 2022 by Mary Dezember

Poem Note:

Voices of Woodlawn are poets Ladi Di (Sylvia Diane) Beverly, Patrick Washington, Diane Wilbon Parks, Hiram Larew and musician Cliff Bernier. Their program is entitled:
"Voices of Woodlawn: A Reckoning by Four Poets of American’s Slave-Holding Past.”
http://www.woodlawnpopeleighey.org/voices-of-woodlawn

Research Sources for Poem:

Professor David W. Blight, Open Yale Courses, HIST 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877, Spring 2008, Lecture 2: Southern Society: Slavery, King Cotton, and Antebellum America’s “Peculiar” Region, Lecture Chapter 5 “The South’s Cotton Economy”
https://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-2

Tamir, Christine. Pew Research Center, “The Growing Diversity of Black America: 46.8 million people in the U.S. identify as Black,” March 25, 2021.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/03/25/the-growing-diversity-of-black-america/

Black Demographics: The African American Population
https://blackdemographics.com/

Wikipedia. “1860 United States census.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_census

Nicholas Jones, Rachel Marks, Roberto Ramirez, Merarys Ríos-Vargas. United States Census Bureau. “Improved Race and Ethnicity Measures Reveal U.S. Population is Much More Multiracial: 2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country,” August 12, 2021.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race-ethnicity-measures-reveal-united-states-population-much-more-multiracial.html

“Student Loan Debt is a Gender Issue,” United State of Women.
https://usow.org/studentloans/

Czulada, Amy. “The End of the Payment Pause is a Civil Rights Issue,” Student Borrower Protection Center. February 22, 2022.
https://protectborrowers.org/the-end-of-the-payment-pause-is-a-civil-rights-issue/

Important Reading:

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, “Slavery Made America: The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic. June 24, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/slavery-made-america/373288/

Note for Review:

All lines of poetry by Voices of Woodlawn are from their program and are quoted in this review with permission. All other quotes from Voices of Woodlawn are used with their permission.

All photos and the flyer provided by Voices of Woodlawn.

All comments of praise (“What People Are Saying About Voices of Woodlawn” section) quoted in this review provided by Voices of Woodlawn.