Reflections on Somehow Tenderness Survives: Remembering Dennis Brutus

Dennis Brutus at the 2008 Split This Rock Poetry Festival
Photo credit: Jill Brazel

Split This Rock's new intern, Scott Zimmerman, contributed this post. Enjoy Scott's reflections on Somehow Tenderness Survives: Remembering Dennis Brutus and welcome him to the Split This Rock team.

This past week has thus far been an amazing first step in what will be a wonderful two and a half month journey in D.C. Little more than seven days ago I boarded a plane from a familiar 75-degree Southern California and landed in the midst of a frigid East coast winter. From the time of my arrival I have been absorbing the many different facets of D.C. So far the city has reached a point of personal familiarity, but yet there lies level a culture almost foreign to me. Diving head first into a new urban lifestyle, I find myself welcomed as the newest intern at Split This Rock Poetry Festival. The program, which greeted me with open arms, is already a place I may call a home away from home.

Last Sunday (Jan. 10th), I found myself in awe, listening to the tales of a captivating poet, an enduring activist, and an inspirational leader, a man by the name of Dennis Brutus. Personal accounts of Mr. Brutus’ closest friends and acquaintances were joyfully shared with me by a lovely memorial event at local restaurant and cultural gathering place, Busboys and Poets. First arriving to the event, I had little to no knowledge of what a powerful person Dennis was and continues to be.

Photo Credit: Karren Alenier

The evening progressed with an exciting line-up: poetry, engaging chants, and testaments of an enthralling man who lived courageously, and we left admiring Mr. Brutus. I have heard the tales of activists, poets, and even teachers, but never have I heard the story of man influencing so many people in all three areas. Though I feel wronged for not knowing Dennis Brutus personally, I am thankful for now learning about him.

The thoughtful anecdotes and the words of Mr. Brutus’ poetry spoken throughout the evening helped me piece together a portrait of Dennis Brutus. I saw the image of a tall slender framed man who spoke compassionately of the world injustices. Dennis was as wiry in character as his beard that adorned his face. The empowering lyrical mantras and songs of global and South African activism was spot on, as the room packed with more than one hundred people chanted a powerful saying: Keep the oil in the soil, Keep the coal in the hole, and keep the tar sand in the land!

Photo Credit: Karren Alenier










In keeping with the mood of the event, an insightful 50-minute film by Vincent Moloi, fittingly named “I am a Rebel,” was screened by one of Mr. Brutus’ dear friends, Patrick Bond. The documentary of Dennis’s life helped solidify the passionate words spoken earlier throughout the evening. Words reverberated around the D.C. and back to South Africa during the tribute, originated by Split This Rock and Busboys and Poets, as well as other organizations. The tribute appropriately honored a tall poet with a slight frame.

To define is to limit, and I do not wish to put such an injustice on a man like Dennis Brutus. He touched the hearts of many and each heart has a voice of their own.

Viva Dennis Brutus Viva!!!

Isla Negra: For Neruda

Now
the earth that loves you
and that you loved
welcomes you again at last
its dark brown arms
open to embrace you:

the crowds that swarmed the streets
at your funeral
shouting “Chile is not dead”
will shout your return
crying amid tears and laughter
“Presente!”

“We were waiting for you here on Isla Negra.”

The sea, the brinky kelp, the seagulls
will know that a lover has returned
the scrawled messages to Pablo
on the walls of your shattered house
—all will fill the air with chants and poems
and songs that sing you home.

1993 (Written by Brutus for Neruda upon learning that Neruda was to be reburied at his home)


Scott Zimmerman is presently interning for the Institute of Policy Studies under Split This Rock Poetry Festival. He is pursuing his BA in International Sociology and an AA in Film and Media at the University of California Irvine. Scott is currently working through UCDC, a program that allows students to experience D.C. and intern at a local organization, which appeals to their interests. He has been an active leader in Global Connect, which utilizes college students in teaching local high schools on the importance of global issues. In late March, Scott will be working with local communities in Honduras, through the Public Health Brigade.

Karren Alenier Write-Up of Dennis Brutus Memorial

The following is an excerpt from Karren Alenier's blog discussing the Dennis Brutus event last Sunday. To read the full article and see more pictures of the event, click here.

The occasion of the Dresser meeting the venerable Brutus was the 2008 Split This Rock poetry conference. As a keynote speaker, Dennis Brutus viscerally made real what conference organizer Sarah Browning meant by naming her conference Split This Rock. What was especially moving to the Dresser was how such a modest and giving person could stand and suffer great hardship in the name of social justice and good common sense. Without hearing him speak, the Dresser would not have attended the LaFayette rally that crisp Sunday in March. The Dresser told those assembled that she was inspired to speak because of what Dennis Brutus said at the Split This Rock conference and she saw that Mr. Brutus who was standing in front of the crowd was moved by that confession. Afterwards, she spoke with him face to face and he embraced her. He said he was hoping people would be moved to action.

Photo credit: Karren Alenier

Stone Hammered to Gravel

Head over to Foreign Policy in Focus to read "Stone Hammered to Gravel" a poem by Martín Espada, a featured poet at the 2008 and 2010 Split This Rock poetry festivals, for poet Dennis Brutus, who died at age 85 on December 26, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Somehow Tenderness Survives: Remembering Dennis Brutus, January 10

Sunday, January 10, 2010, 4-6 pm
Langston Room, Busboys and Poets

14th and V Streets, NW
Washington, DC
www.busboysandpoets.com
202-387-POET

Please join Busboys and Poets, Split This Rock, TransAfrica Forum, Africa Action, Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, and Haymarket Books as we celebrate the life and work of South African poet and pioneer for justice Dennis Brutus (1924-2009).

Featuring poetry and remembrances by poets Kenny Carroll, Elen Awalom, Holly Bass, and Sarah Browning, Sameer Dossani, former director of 50 Years is Enough, Zahara Heckscher, Emira Woods of Foreign Policy in Focus, Neil Watkins of Jubilee USA Network, Dave Zirin, author of What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States, and others. Audience members will also have an opportunity to offer their memories or to read a favorite poem by Dennis Brutus. Program to be followed by a screening of I Am a Rebel, a 50-minute documentary of Brutus' life by the South African filmmaker Vincent Moloi.

A world-renowned political organizer and one of Africa's most celebrated poets, Brutus was a life-long champion of peace and social justice. As an early opponent of Apartheid in South Africa, he spent years in prison on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. Upon his release and exile, Brutus successfully organized an international sports boycott of South Africa. Among his many books are Poetry & Protest: A Dennis Brutus Reader (Haymarket Books, 2006).

Photo Credit: Jill Brazel

Please Consider a Gift to Split This Rock

As you may have heard, we lost one of the world's great poet-activists this week, the South African Dennis Brutus, a fierce and beautiful advocate for justice.

We were so fortunate that Dennis joined us at the inaugural Split This Rock Poetry Festival on the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq in March 2008. Dennis was uncompromising in his challenge to all of us in attendance: our taxes pay for the wars our government wages. What are we going to do about it?

Here at Split This Rock, as we put the final touches on the second biennial festival, scheduled for March 10-13, 2010, part of our answer is that we work hard to give poets and poetry lovers a forum for speaking out, together, here in the nation's capital.

This March, as we remember Dennis Brutus and honor his contributions to the struggle for justice, we'll speak out for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for true health care and economic reform, for a future that celebrates the dignity of each of us. We'll speak through our poetry, as Dennis so eloquently did, as in his poem "Somehow We Survive":

most cruel, all our land is scarred with terror,
rendered unlovely and unlovable;
sundered are we and all our passionate surrender

but somehow tenderness survives.

Will you help us bring the vital poetry of tenderness and resistance to a diverse public hungry for authentic and visionary language?

* $40 provides one student scholarship
* $75 provides one full scholarship
* $250 flies a festival featured poet from the East Coast
* $500 flies a festival featured poet from the West Coast

Any amount will make a tremendous difference. All donors are thanked on www.SplitThisRock.org and donors who can give $100 and above will be recognized in the festival program book. All gifts are tax-deductible through our partnership with the Institute for Policy Studies.

Three easy ways to give:

* Click here to give on-line;
* Register for the festival and add a donation to your registration fee. Register here;
* Send a check made out to Split This Rock/IPS to: 1112 16th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036

Thank you!

With hopes for peace and justice in 2010,

Split This Rock Team
Sarah, Abdul, Alicia, Regie, Jaime, Katherine, Melissa

Photo of the Week: Dennis Brutus

This new feature will highlight a different photo each week from the 2008 festival. For more photos from the last festival, check out Split This Rock's Flickr.

2008 Featured Poet Dennis Brutus reads.

Photo Credit: © jill brazel photography
To contact: jill at jillbrazel dot com