Thumbing through Brassbones & Rainbows, the first collection of poetry from Shirley Bradley LeFlore, one might consider her some sort of prophetic joint professor of women’s and African-American studies and divinity, as much as a poet.
Interestingly enough, LeFlore spent her days versing college students in English, literature and psychology, while moonlighting as a sought after poet and performer.
Brassbones & Rainbows is a multi-faceted glimpse into a woman who has acquired words, wisdom and observations over five decades of being in the mix during America’s most tumultuous times.
Shirley LeFlore expresses her love for her people, her ancestors, her fellow women, her God, her men and her fellow contributors – and a hatred for war and terrorism – through a body of work that is as free-spirited and fun as it is heavy and heart-wrenching.
In “Poets Muse,” she gives a fitting and eloquent tribute that could have easily served as the eulogy for Amiri Baraka:
he comes w / Afrosonic feet / wordwalking
like a baritone saxamony sonnet movin
underskin / be-boppin / boogiebluzinin
the free-word order / giant-talkin tongue
jammin / stirring the souls of black folk
busting the kneecaps of the american
nightmare / undressing the people of the lie
w / the naked truth
She adds a feminine touch to the seductive, “mannish” tales that are often set to music in blues classics.
Shamelessly overt and sexual in one stanza, reserved and modest in the next, LeFlore captures the internal contrast experienced by the children of the Great Migration with Brassbones & Rainbows.
She asks a man to “put your haints on me…” but also speaks to unwavering faith, proclaiming that “God gave me a song and six wings.”
The poems verbally illustrate the bridge between Southern hospitality and fast city living. LeFlore speaks on behalf of a generation that stood on the shoulders of those who changed the landscape of Black America.
And while they kept their roots, sensibilities and heritage intact, she was among the generation who built upon those who traveled North for a better life by changing the mindset of America through the Civil Rights Movement.
The celebration of blackness LeFlore learned as a youth member of the NAACP, who participated in sit-ins and marches – and built upon as an anchor member of the Black Artists Group (BAG) – are laced throughout Brassbones & Rainbows.
“As an artist I always wanted to do something that people can get something from,” LeFlore told The American. “Maybe just to take a message from them and give it back to them – I always hoped my art would do that.”
Works she produced as part of this collective, which consisted of musicians, writers and artists such as Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, J.D. Parran many others during the 1960s and 1970s, made their way into the book.
“Shirley Bradley LeFlore uses language like Aretha Franklin sings notes,” Amiri Baraka’s widow Amina Baraka writes in her foreword of Brassbones & Rainbows. “She writes things you can feel whether you read it or sing it out loud.”
LeFlore indeed offers impressively blended rhythms, compelling verses and lingering audience connection often found in a well-rounded greatest hits album.
“Rainbows offers poems that breathe with words that burn,” Amina Baraka said. “I urge you to read every single one.”
Brassbones & Rainbows is available for purchase on amazon.com. For more information on Shirley Leflore, visit http://shirleybradleyleflore.com/
