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The Affrilachian Poets: A History of the Word
What’s In a Name?
In 1991, Frank X Walker learned he did not exist.
That year, a reading in Lexington, Kentucky, featured four
authors from the bluegrass state and poet Nikky Finney. Dubbed
“The Best of Southern Writing,” the reading changed the course
of Walker’s life. The original title of the event, “The Best
of Appalachian Writing,” had been altered to accommodate
Finney, a South Carolina native. Finney, who is
African-American, was the sole voice of color in the lineup.
Walker, then a budding poet and an experienced playwright and
visual artist, knew African-American writers from Kentucky
should have been represented. He also felt the name change
from “Appalachian” to “Southern” required an explanation.
Walker’s disappointment led him to Webster’s Dictionary and,
to his dismay, a definition that mentioned “white residents
from the mountains.” The artist wasn’t white, but he was from
Kentucky, Danville to be exact. Didn’t his work matter too?
Wasn’t he, like his white peers, creating in the great shadow
of the mountains? This definition of Appalachian would not
suffice, and Walker was moved to a moment of clarity. He would
create his own word that described people of African descent
from the Appalachian region: Affrilachian.
It was the stereotype of an all white and poor Appalachia that
the word Affrilachian would fight. A 13-state expanse reaching
as far north as New York and, ironically, including Finney’s
Southern birthplace, the Appalachian region is more than
Kentucky, more than rural, and more than one ethnicity can
define. The word Affrilachian would stand as a reminder of the
diversity of the region. Don’t’ call it reactionary, call it
revolutionary.
Before that momentous day, the beginning of the group that
would become the Affrilachian Poets was assembled, but
nameless. The University of Kentucky’s Martin Luther King Jr.
Cultural Center became its spiritual home, and Walker’s role
as program coordinator made it a popular hang out for the
student body which included the poets. In the center’s back
room that was part library, part study space, part escape from
the outside world, the poets shared new creations. A nearby
elevator was also utilized, with the writers gathering in the
cramped space, turning off the power, and sharing their latest
works. Soon, Walker brought the idea of the name the
Affrilachian Poets to the group who adopted the moniker with
pride. Finney, then a new English faculty hire at UK, was
welcomed to the fold, and the once nameless group of poets and
friends had a new identity and a new sense of purpose. In
addition to Walker and Finney, founding members included Kelly
Norman Ellis, Crystal Wilkinson, Gerald Coleman, Ricardo
Nazario-Colon, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Daundra Scisney-Givens,
and Thomas Aaron. They were soon joined by Paul Taylor,
Bernard Clay, Shana Smith, and Miysan T. Crosswhite.
Milestones
The importance of Finney’s arrival in Lexington cannot be
overstated. The APs and the campus at large rushed to her
creative writing classes. Finney encouraged her students to
make time to write and not wait for the muse to visit. Her
teaching dynamic and the collective’s early embrace of
revision through regular poetry workshops were a perfect
match. The creative high marked the beginning of a series of
celebrated publications that continues to this day.
1994
Ellis appears in the anthology
Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry (HarperPerrenial),
a volume that includes such notables as Alice Walker, Lucille
Clifton, and then U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove.
1995
Finney publishes Rice
(Sister Vision Black Women and Women of Colour Press), her
second poetry collection and a Pen Open Book Award winner.
1997
In a coup for the
poets as a collective, Finney, Walker, and Ellis appear in
Spirit and Flame: An Anthology of Contemporary African
American Poetry (Syracuse University Press). That year,
Finney’s novel Heartwood is published by University of
Kentucky Press as part of its New Books for New Readers
series.
1998
After serving as Assistant
Director of Purdue University's Black Cultural Center and
Writer in Residence and before beginning his tenure at KY's
Governor's School for the Arts, Frank X edits the now out of
print Eclipsing a Nappy New Millennium: An Anthology of
Contemporary Midwestern Poetry. This collection features work
from established writing groups like Purdue's Haraka Writers,
Indianapolis' Midtown Writers Group, East St. Louis' Eugene B.
Redmond Writers Club and the Affrilachian Poets. The
collection opened with an introductory poem by Kelly Norman
Ellis and includes work by AP members: Bernard Clay, Ricardo
Nazario Colon, Ellis, Nikky Finney, Lerin Kol, Jude McPherson,
Daundra Scisney-Givens, Shanna Smith, Walker and Crystal
Wilkinson.
2000
Wilkinson publishes her first volume, the short story
collection
Blackberries, Blackberries (The Toby Press). Walker’s
first poetry collection Affrilachia (Old Cove Press) is
published the same year, promoting the idea of Affrilachia as
both a physical and spiritual place that was previously
undefined and unrealized.
2001
The year of the poets’ 10th year as a collective,
the Covington, Kentucky-based Media Working Group releases
“Coal Black Voices.” With Walker serving as a consulting
producer with producer/directors Fred Johnson and Jean
Donohue, the documentary captures the APs in their element:
weaving verses of family, social struggle, and the rural and
urban landscapes that comprise their seam of the African
Diaspora. “Voices” is broadcast on PBS, and, much like the
poets themselves, becomes an educational tool for
understanding the diversity of the Appalachian region.
2002
Wilkinson wins the Chaffin Literary Award for Blackberries,
Blackberries, and follows that critical success with the
publication of the “short story cycle” Waterstreet (The
Toby Press).
2003
A banner year for the collective. Ellis publishes her first
volume of poetry Tougaloo Blues (Third World Press).
Walker turns to persona poetry for his second volume
Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York (University of Kentucky
Press). The author provides the voice for York, an oft ignored
historical figure and slave of William Clark who played an
invaluable role in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Wilkinson
receives nominations for the Orange Prize and the
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for
Water Street. Finney’s third volume of poetry, The
World is Round (InnerLight Publishing) is released.
2004
Although the APs had occasionally offered membership to a
select number of individuals—as was the case with Dan Wu, Jude
McPherson, and L’Erin Kol— membership had never been offered
to an entirely new generation of poets. During the summer’s
Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts session, a three-week
program for the state’s most talented high school artists, 11
new Affrilachians join the fold: Sam Fitzpatrick, Asha French,
Christine and Tania James, Parneshia Jones, Amanda Johnston,
Shayla Lawson, Tony Rawlings, Bianca Spriggs, Stewart Stone,
and Hao Wang. This new generation, dubbed AP2, includes
several GSA alums. Walker, a former executive director of the
Governor’s School, made the most of his years with the program
by not only leading a dedicated faculty in the education of
young artists, but keeping those artists in mind when the APs
needed new blood. The literary honors continue in 2004, and
Buffalo Dance wins the Lillian Smith Book Award.
2005
Walker is awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship in Poetry. The
$75,000 honor paves the way for a new page in the literary
legacy of the APs.
2006
With a number of the original APs having taught at the
Governor’s School and many of its new members as graduates,
the group returns to the program in the summer of 2006 to
celebrate its 15th anniversary. Crystal Good, Ellen
Hagan, Natasha Marin, Marta Miranda, and Stephanie Pruitt
receive full membership. The summer’s anniversary celebration
also includes a proclamation by the Lexington Fayette Urban
County Government declaring June 17 Affrilachian Poets Day. A
plaque memorializing the elevator where some the APs first
“poetry moments” took place is dedicated at UK.
Full Circle
Fifteen years after learning the word Appalachian only spoke
for a portion of the region’s residents, Walker has found
vindication in black and white.
Affrilachian is now an entry in the Oxford American
Dictionary, second edition. The word is also referenced in
The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, a sign that Walker’s gift
to the English language is serving its intended purpose. His
Lannan Award Fellowship is helping start his new publishing
venture, Duncan Hill Press, and a periodical, PLUCK! The
Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture. Duncan Hill
Press will serve as a platform for up-and-coming writers and
feature a sample of these voices in the forthcoming anthology
America! What’s My Name? PLUCK!, which takes its
name from a Finney poem of the same title which appeared in
RICE, will feature poetry, prose, and visual art from
artists of color in the Appalachian region. The journal is
scheduled to debut in the spring of 2007.
~ History gathered
by Mitchell L. H. Douglas |
