PUSH

Last week, I heard Sapphire speak for U of M's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations. The Rogel Ballroom was completely full at 10 minutes to the start of the talk, so I made my way through the Diag to the overflow room in the grad library.

She is a writer, and a storyteller. It was fabulous. She is the author of, among other things, "Push," the novel that inspired the recent movie "Precious."

Before she began reading a few sections from "Push," she told us the story of how she started to write. I'm going to paraphrase, but bear with me.

I don't remember when I started writing. But I remember when I stopped. It was in the 8th grade, when we had to write an essay for our English class. My teacher told me, "You didn't write that." With the underlying assumption that I shouldn't have written that.

Then I started reading more works by black women authors, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and on and on and on. And I realized that I could follow this path, that the path was open not just to white men, but to me. And I began writing poetry and stories.

OH it was SO cool.

There were high school students in the audience, and she said something which struck me as out of place, because I have been immersed in a University setting for so many years now.

She explained what an MFA is.

I got my MFA, a Master's of Fine Arts, which is something you can apply to do after you graduate from college.

It was such a matter-of-fact explanation. That I had never heard before. She didn't act patronizing. I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I'm glad I learned something on MLK day.