2022 National Poetry Month Recognitions

DR. JAMES W. WASHINGTON JR & MRS. JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON

FOUNDATION

2022 NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

April 2022

Dr. Washington often said, “The spirit in the stone spoke to him.”

If the sculpted and unstoried stones that Dr. Washington left with us could speak, the conversation between he and each stone would be poetic indeed. A story well-worth listening to; perhaps a book of proverbs. We only have our poetic imagination.

James W. Washington, Jr., at work in his studio - 1965 Photo by Mary Randlett Washington is the perfection with which fundamental humanism, generosity of spirit, and depth of emotion are embodied in their simple and humble forms.

It is this quality that emanates from Washington’s sculptures of birds and other small creatures. What sets them apart from a host of other animal sculptures is the inexplicable, yet undeniable, spirit in the stone.

The Spirit in the Stone The Visionary Art of James W. Washington, Jr.

By Paul J. Karlstrom Page 4

In the ancient Egyptian language, the words for “sculpture” and “sculptor” emphasize that images are alive. They come to life through ritual: the word for “sculpture” means literally, “a thing that is caused to live,” while a sculptor is “one who brings (it) to life.”

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Juan Alasco Rodriguez Barry Johnson

Contents The Spirit in the Stone ... Page i In Recognition ... Page 1 Finding Yourself ... Page 2 Janie Rogella Washington ... Page 3 The Fountain of Triumph ... Page 4

Sabah al-dharer

How to Tell What a Child will Be ... Page 5 Quincy Davis ... Pages 6 & 7 Tamara J. Madison ... Pages 8 & 9 LaVerne C. Hall ... Pages 10 & 11

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In Recognition of National Poetry Month, it is only fitting that we and express our thanks and recognize James and Janie Washington. During their working years, they gave thought and pen to the future of creativity and their wishes to continue their encouragement long after their waking and working days. They both died in 2000.

This month, the Dr. James W. Washington Jr and Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation (The Washington Foundation) gives special thanks to James and Janie as we recognize selected poets, artists and Lake Union Partners LLC for their successful efforts in restoration of the Fountain of Triumph by Sabah al-dhaher, and the commissioning of Barry Johnson to render a six foot bronze of Dr. Washington, and Juan Alasco Rodriguez for his Holly Hocks adorning one wall at Mid Town Square. Dr. Washington has holly hocks in their garden. These artistic renderings lend signature to 24th & Union, Mid Town Square, adding “Touch” to his community fame and national recognition. This “Touch” has added to this visionary’s inclusion into the prestigious Artists Homes’ and Studios, a program of the National Historic Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Washington Foundation recognizes and expressly thanks James and Janie Washington for their hindsight, insight, and foresight in establishing in 1997, the Dr. James W. Washington Jr & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation. The express purpose of their creativity and thoughtfulness is extracted in part from their Last Will and Testament and delineated here: The mandated purpose is To preserve the art, writing, and lifetime works of Dr. James W. Washington Jr. and share their vision through the preservation, interpretation and showing of his works and studio, and the family’s gardens and home. Also, to encourage others by providing a setting where they can grow beyond the book, spiritually and artistically and to share their talents with a larger audience. It is to be a site where community and creativity come together and support each other.

The Board is charged in part, with the responsibility of being ever mindful of and inclusive of these (their) Imperatives in what was entrusted to them by James and Janie; the caring for of their life and legacy.

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We leave you a thirst for education and scholarship We leave you a mandate to encourage others to explore their creativity.

We leave you an obligation to engage young people in activities that will inspire and influence them to use their creativity in positive and productive ways.

We leave you a commitment for documentation, critical analysis, and preservation.

We leave you a responsibility to collaborate with other community and church organizations.

We leave you a respect for cultural and ethnic diversity, especially for outreach and inclusion.

We leave you a faith in church and family.

We leave you confidence in leadership and concern for the business of this Foundation.

We leave you the authority to maintain the Dr. James W. Washington, Jr. and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation and the African American Museum & Cultural Center.

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James Washington enjoyed a deep and abiding love for his wife Janie. Here is his prose and poetry dedicated to his loving wife. The photo is dated February 29,1944, USO Camera Club.

“God has blessed me with various talents. Among them, painting, sculpturing and poetry. Then he united me with my wife, Janie Rogella Washington, who in turn created a congenial environment in which I could animate my creations. Without which I wouldn’t have had any success. Thank you Rogella, I love you.”

Finding Yourself Finding yourself in this life is your greatest task to perform, until you begin to start the search, you are left alone.

When you decide to start, be it now or then, close your eyes to the outside world and begin your search within.

Some folks search for themselves among their relatives and friends, but each time they miss themselves and have to start all over again.

Try reflecting on this, again, again and again; you will never know yourself until you search within!

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JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON Janie Rogella Washington was a writer as well. These words have no title and no date, only her name as the writer.

No road of life runs smooth and straight.

There are many little lanes that mark a change decreed by fate for losses or for gains.

No road of life runs to the end without a hill or two; But I won’t mind the hills, my friends If I may climb with you.

April is National Poetry Month Launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month reminds us that poetry matters and that poets have an important role to play in our culture. Over the years, it has become one of the largest literary celebrations in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, families and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our lives.

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THE FOUNTAIN OF TRIUMPH THE CYCLE OF LIFE

Life is the truest cycle that ever will be.

A symbol of this is the salmon’s return from the sea.

As the salmon starts back on its physical trend to complete the cycle where life began.

So it is with black of the racial trend on the American scene who has struggled like the salmon to reach his or her pinnacle of life and the free spirit again.

This is the goal of the African-American women and men: to pass onto their offspring the energy in their body and recycle their physical remains in Mother Earth to be used again.

About the Cover - The cycle of Life above was written by James W. Washington Jr to explain the Fountain of Triumph shown on this cover. The stone fountain was originally located on 23rd Avenue near union Street, Seattle. The photo by Josef Scaylea.

It was recently restored by Sabah Al-Dharer. Mr. Al-Dharer currently teaches stone carving at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. He paints and sculpts. In his paintings he uses a lot of mediums such as oil, watercolor, acrylic, and ink. He is most famous for using coffee as a medium in his paintings.

The Fountain of Triumph was relocated to 24th & Union, Midtown Development, Seattle, February 2022, along with a six foot bronze by artist and sculptor, Barry Johnson.

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How to Tell What a Child Will Be James W. Washington, Jr. Let him or her be born and we all will be able to see.

Take the abortion tools away and let life see the light of day.

Then we all will be able to see what God’s miracle was meant to be.

He or she might have been a genius to set mankind free.

If we fail to let nature be...

God’s miracle will not be there for us to see.

Just watch the children playing on the floor, there is where God teaches each child the first lesson of going within to find their innate ability to serve both women and men of our time.

1963, The Birth of a Child Private Collection Stone Photo by Josef Scaylea Private photo collection of The Washington Foundation

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QUINCY DAVIS

. . . Is a blossoming young Seattle writer who has published her first book in 2020, titled, Camp Misticor, and has nine chapters Excerpts are printed here with her permission. It is a novel and in its entirety, a work of fiction. Every word is from the author’s imagination. Quincy loves her older sister, Waverly, pets, and traveling. She has already traveled to such places as Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Here is the share: Chapter 1 - Wonderland Lost in time. Asleep. In a trance Stuck. “Candy wake up” “Wake up” “Wake up” Snap, the flowers turned to stone and the statues became Wonderlandeans again. When we got to camp, we were heroes and grounded, but we saved everyone. We are all mad here.

Chapter 6 - The Maze Hi! I am Stella, the daughter of Snow White and I am blind.

I am heading to camp Misticor. I may not be able to see with my eyes, but I can “see: with my feet, I can feel the vibrations by the slightest piece of grass I can see everything.

When I got to camp, I went down to the cabins so I could get to the cabins first.

Chapter 8 - Stuck Ya, I had the moon stone flower when I was a baby.

Whoa James said.

Does that make her my sister?

Ha, she chuckled.

Here, let me heal you, I said as I rapped my hair around her.

You must be the one with the sun stone.

I now have a sister cause we adopted Mai she is learning what her powers are so I am helping her.

Chapter 9 - Who Am I? “Magic! Magic! Wait, “I am going with you and I will never leave you she grabbed my hand and walked into the distance to find somewhere we could live in peace

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TAMARA J. MADISON

Elegy for Tree to behold the beauty blemished to cringe the jeering crowd to flinch the blood-letting to shudder beneath the cameras’ incessant flashings, suffer the bristling rope Oh, Tree! you too will be frozen horror in the photograph obscenity printed on postcards abomination framed as trophy your branches lulled by the swinging Body the Body that once knelt beneath your shade to pray the Body that leaned against you sharing a first kiss the Body that ran, toddler feet chasing butterflies the Body squealing with joy now a dangling body bait for a murder of crows Oh, Tree, how your leaves claw the vapid air as you weep this vile morning

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Tamara J. Madison is an author, poet, editor, and instructor. Her critical and creative works have been published and recorded in various journals, magazines, anthologies, podcasts, and exhibits including Linden Avenue, Poetry International, Extract, Web del Sol Review of Books, Tidal Basin Review, Black Magnolias, and aaduna. She has also been published in the anthologies, SisterFire (HarperCollins), Temba Tupu (RedSea Press), and Check the Rhyme (LitNoire Press).

She is the author of Collard County (short stories), Kentucky Curdled (poetry), and Sistuh’s Sermon on the Mount (poetry chapbook – Open Hand Press). Her most recent poetry collection Threed, This Road Not Damascus is published by Trio House Press (May 2019) and was short-listed under the title, Breast Poems, in the 2015 Willow Books Literature Award. Threed, … has been reviewed in Poetry International, Cider Press Review, Empty Mirror Review, and Cordella Magazine. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net. Tamara is the creator and host of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems, a conversation series on YouTube to spread awareness of poets and their poetry as inspiration and motivation for everyday life.

Tamara has performed and recorded her work for stage, television, and studio. She enjoys facilitating creative writing workshops for campus and community. She is an MFA graduate of New England College and an Anaphora Arts Writing Residency fellow (2021). She currently lives in Orlando, Florida where she teaches as a professor of English and Creative Writing at Valencia College. For more information, visit www.tamarajmadison.com.

With permission from Tamara Madison: Writer/Poet Tamara J. Madison

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REV. DR. LAVERNE C. HALL Exec. Director The Washington Foundation The new must never ignore the old for within the weathered, tired, and tried are answers that should be embraced As we welcome the avant-garde of young and new honor, we must, the wisdom of aged and old that which is known as tradition and lore Unique beauties can co-exist for it is God who created each

The Rock of my Salvation told me so . . .

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If only trees could speak Silent though they are Trees have Ancient stories embedded within . . .

Their roots go deep beyond the stones that you see . . .

The dialogue between them and the stones Would keep our ears earthbound for eons . . .

Ruth’s Tree by LaVerne Mercer Island WA

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JAMES W. WASHINGTON JR & MRS. JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON

FOUNDATION

CAVEAT All poetry in this publication, including those of poets and writers, Tamara, Quincey Davis, are copryright and cannot be recopied, printed in other publications, posted on Facebook and social media without the express written permission of the copyrighted poets. Each of the poets can be contacted through The Washington Foundation.

Information on Poems of Life by James W. Washington Jr. Can be obtained from The Washington Foundation, a 501(3)c Organization, The Washington Foundation.

The Washington Foundation # PO Box 22952 # Seattle WA 98122 # (206) 709-4241 # jjw181626@aol.com # www.jameswashingtonculturalcenter.org

This is a Copyrighted publication of the Dr. James W. Washington Jr. & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation. In total or in part, this publication cannot be reproduced with permission from the Washington Foundation.