Fruit of the Learning Tree

Black Issues Book Review, Nov, 2000 by Taiia Smart-Young, Cassandra Lane, Kelly Ellis

Harvey's mentorship with Miller opened up the world of black literature for her. After switching majors from nursing to English, she was exposed to black writers' books in her classes. Ethelbert also encouraged her to get involved in literary activities outside campus, such as Cave Canem, where she ultimately met her husband, Terrance Hayes, poet and Xavier University creative writing professor (and author of Muscular Music), and Haye's mentor, Toi Derricotte.

Tina McElroy Ansa, the bestselling novelist who's currently adapting her book in the Family to film, affirms that it's important to have mentors who can relate to you on a cultural level. At Spelman she had instructors of "outstanding caliber" and listened to lectures from the inspirational Dr. Gloria Wade-Gayles, endowed chair of humanities at Dillard University, where Ansa continues to spread her infectious love of writing and reading to students. "We all wanted to be like her--wonderful, smart and well-read. She infected women with writing" says Ansa about the woman who introduced her to Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

After giving the southern girl a stellar grade on a paper about Hurston, Gayles asked her protege: "Do you know that you're a writer?" Little did Wade-Gayles know that those words gave Ansa the freedom to fashion stories about the southern folk who intrigued her as a girl. This meeting was such a turning point for the young writer that she urges HBCUs to expose students to writers. Ansa, the former writer-in-residence at her alma mater, states that it's important for students to make that face-to-face connection and ask questions. "It's difficult to stand up and say `I'm a writer,' because people automatically ask, `Well, what have you published?' or `Are you making a decent living?'"

Valerie Wilson Wesley studied philosophy and sociology at Howard University's School of Communications. Maybe those disciplines were effective in plotting her wildly popular Tamara Hayle mysteries about a sassy, take-no-junk gumshoe. For Wesley, her Howard days were invaluable. "I wouldn't be who I am today without it [the Howard experience]." Fondly remembering a course conducted by Sterling Brown, Wesley says, "He would just read to us and to this day whenever I read his poems I hear his voice. That's the gift of the HBCU."

Another gift of the HBCU, the John Oliver Killens Workshop at Medgar Evers college--was named after the novelist, writer-in-residence at Medgar Evers John Oliver Killens also the organizer of the National Black Writer's Conference (originally held at Howard and Fisk universities). Author and professor Dr. Elizabeth Nunez, director of the conference, often hosts the Killens workshop, of which she once was a student. Nunez, an author and English professor at Medgar Evers, says this of the writing process: "You can't teach creative writing, but you can instruct a student on how to hone their craft. You can support them and provide outlets for them to continue with their work."