Bessie's Resurrection

Bessie's Resurrection gives voice to Richard Wright's fictional character Bessie Mears from his novel Native Son (1940). These poems offer Bessie room to articulte her experiences as an African American woman and how she suffes in her unenviable position, powerless and unseen. Here, Bessie's fictive character is self actualized by two historical African American trailblazers: Bessie Coleman and Bessie Smith who lived during the same time period when Bessie's story takes place. These poems, which reimagine their lives, are a microcosim of the lived experiences of African American women who face violence, limitations and challenges, Their voices and bodies are resurrected to articulate their ideas of worth to claim a space to speak not only for themselves but also for their sisters who are voiceless. Their lives become three songs which are analogous to the sections in Wright's novel: Fear, Flight and Fate. While Bessie Mears supplies the soundtrack to Bigger's story, it is Bessie Smith's blues sung by Colie Aziza which serve as the soundtrack for Bessie's Resurrection. This collection of poems, written for all three Bessie's, honors Black women as the necessary backbone to the fight against their voices and their bodies being buried alive.