Jayne Cortez
May 10, 1934 - December 28, 2012
Embedded Files
“Many times we recoil in horror from what we hear and feel in the poetry of Jayne Cortez....There are the poems that makes us angry, both at Ms. Cortez, for telling us a particularly penetrating truth, and at ourselves for committing the acts that the poem is addressing.”
“Many times we recoil in horror from what we hear and feel in the poetry of Jayne Cortez....There are the poems that makes us angry, both at Ms. Cortez, for telling us a particularly penetrating truth, and at ourselves for committing the acts that the poem is addressing.”
Courtesy of SF Gate.
Poet and Performer
Poet and Performer
Jayne Cortez was an African-American poet and performer associated with both the New York School and the Black Arts Movement. Similar to other New York School poets, Cortez experimented with blending artistic mediums; she was known for reading her poetry alongside avant-garde music. However, her influence for this artistic blending differs from that of the typical New York School poet. Cortez incorporated jazz into her poetry because, as Cortez once stated, “Jazz isn’t just one type of music, it’s an umbrella that covers the history of black people from African drumming to the field hollers and the blues. In the sense that I also try to reflect the fullness of the Black experience, I’m very much a jazz poet.” Therefore, although Cortez took influence from the artistic vibrancy of the New York School, the meaning and thematic elements of her poetry are more reflective of the Black Arts Movement. Cortez focused especially on police brutality against African-Americans, the Black Power Movement, and the plight of being a women of color during the 60s and 70s. [1]
[1] Fox, Margalit. “Jayne Cortez, Jazz Poet, Dies at 78.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Jan. 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/arts/jayne-cortez-poet-and-performance-artist-dies-at-78.html.
Involvement in the New York School and the Black Arts Movement
Involvement in the New York School and the Black Arts Movement
Cortez had residences in both Senegal and New York. Her geographic split mirrors her artistic identity; she was a part of the Black Arts Movement and The New York School. But, she was never fully incorporated into the New York School. Instead, she associated herself with fellow African-American poets who were also part of the Black Arts Movement, such as Ishmael Reed and Amiri Baraka. [2]
The Black Arts Movement was founded by Baraka and sought to convey Black pride through art and literature. During the 60s and 70s in New York, Cortez gained support from this growing community of Black poets that encouraged one another to resist Western influence and explore their African heritage. [2] Yet, the Black Arts Movement (and Cortez) was active under the aesthetic umbrella of the New York School, and therefore influenced by it. This straddling of regions and movements is reflected in Cortez’s work. Her poems call on African tradition, while critiquing racist American systems. Stylistically she utilizes many New York School techniques, such as, repetition, juxtaposition, and blending mediums, but thematically she focuses on racial oppression. [3]
Throughout her poetry, Cortez communicates to the reader her pride in her race and her dedication towards dismantling systems of oppression. Therefore, Cortez’s racial identity permeates throughout her work. She discusses topics ranging from police brutality towards African-Americans to the difficulty of being a Black poet in an art form that is overwhelmingly white. Cortez’s cultural and racial identity aren’t just incorporated into her poems, they are the poems -- they’re the subject matter, the style, and the motivation of her poetry. [2]
[2] “Jayne Cortez.” The Project on the History of Black Writing, 17 Oct. 2013, https://hbw.ku.edu/jane-cortez. [3] Luebering, J E. “Jayne Cortez.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 May 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jayne-Cortez.
Courtesy of the Just Buffalo Library Center.
Collaborations
Collaborations
The Yardbird Reader
The Yardbird Reader
Courtesy of Berkeley.edu
Cortez's work was featured in several prints of the Yardbird Reader. The Yardbird Reader was a literary annual founded by Ishmael Reed (a fellow Black Arts Movement poet) in 1972. Branching off the Black Arts Movement, this magazine sought to celebrate minority poets and provide an outlet for these marginalized artists. Each annual featured several minority poets and, as such, offered a chance for collaboration and community among minority artists in the New York School. In these excerpts from the Yardbird Reader V (1976), Jayne Cortez's poetry was written about and celebrated by fellow New York African-American writer Clyde Taylor. [4]
The Firespitters
The Firespitters
Cortez wasn't just a poet; she was also the lead singer of her own band. Cortez's band (the Firespitters) was a modern jazz ensemble that she chanted her poetry alongside. Through the Firespitters, Cortez collaborated with fellow Black musicians Bern Nix and Denardo Coleman. This process of performing her poems in conjunction with avant-garde music is both a reference to traditional African chanting and the New York School technique of blending artistic mediums. To the right is a recording of Cortez and the Firespitters reading one of her most well-known poems: If the Drum is a Woman (1970s). In this poem, Cortez centers on the specific struggles that African-American women faced during the 60s and 70s. In this recording, we can hear Cortez emphasizing that women, and especially women of color, were abused and treated as “docile,” “invisible,” and “inferior.” Cortez's repeated use of the drum metaphor is a reference to her African ancestry, which she was heavily influenced by. However, this poem also utilizes elements of the New York School, such as, frequent repetition as heard here by the use of the phrase, "If the drum is a woman." [5]
Recording of Cortez reading If the Drum is a Woman with her band the Firespitters. Courtesy of O.A.O. Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Notable Poems by Jayne Cortez
Notable Poems by Jayne Cortez
I Am New York City (1973)
I Am New York City (1973)
Image from On the Imperial Highway
In I Am New York City, Cortez focuses simultaneously on race and gender. She explores the injustice of urban violence within the Black community and, at the same time, she characterizes New York as a woman who has “plaited ovaires” and “imitates no one.” Just as she challenges the acceptance of racial oppression, she also challenges the view of women as pretty, docile, and dependent by using New York City, with all its grit, steeliness, and individuality, to represent womanhood.[5] It should also be noted that there are several New York School techniques present here. Cortez uses vivid juxtapositions such as, “my marquee of false nipples,” “steelspoons and toothpicks,” and “my star spangled banner of hot dogs.” Also in this poem, it is evident that Cortez is making familiar images (the star spangled banner, hot dogs) unfamiliar by putting them in conjunction. Finally, the open-ended, unexpected conclusion, "break wind with me," ic characteristic of both the New York School and Cortez's own frank style.[6]
[5] Hinton, Laura. Jayne Cortez, Adrienne Rich, and the Feminist Superhero: Voice, Vision, Politics, and Performance in U.S. Contemporary Womens Poetics. Lexington Books, 2016.[6] Cortez, Jayne. On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems. Hanging Loose Press, 2009.
For the Poets (1969)
For the Poets (1969)
(Christopher Okigbo & Henry Dumas)
(Christopher Okigbo & Henry Dumas)
One of the most notable examples of Cortez incorporating her African identity into her poetry is in For the Poets where she references needing, “congo square” and “spirits from the birthplace of Basuto” and “the smell of Nsukka.” Cortez then goes on to juxtapose these aspects of African culture that she misses and “needs” with systems of racial oppression in America such as, “ashes from a Texas lynching.” This poem also references two prominent Black poets -- Okigbo and Dumas -- who died in 1968 and 1969 respectively. Okgibo was an African poet who died fighting for independence in Biafra. Dumas was an African-American poet who was shot by the police. Therefore, For the Poets simultaneously explores several aspects of racial oppression that Cortez was passionate about, including, police brutality and the nuanced difficulties faced by Black poets. [5]
Image from Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere
[5] Hinton, Laura. Jayne Cortez, Adrienne Rich, and the Feminist Superhero: Voice, Vision, Politics, and Performance in U.S. Contemporary Womens Poetics. Lexington Books, 2016.
Header image courtesy of David Corio.
To learn more about the other artists of color in the New York School:
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