Rare audio recording of Anne Moody

The 1969 interview, conducted by Commissioner William H. Booth of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, sheds light on stories in her famous book

By Roscoe Barnes III

Chairman, Anne Moody History Project

Copyright© 2017

#AnneMoody

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Anne Moody (1940-2015) 

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Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, was the day I wanted to scream, “Eureka!”

The reason? I found an audio recording of civil rights pioneer Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi. And it's nearly 30 minutes in length.

I was using Google to search for an article in The New York Times when I stumbled across a link for a 1969 audio recording of Moody. When I saw it, I felt a sense of nervousness and excitement because I didn’t know that the recording existed. I had previously searched for both audio and video recordings of her and had only found a short video clip of her at the Woolworth sit-in in 1963, but there was no sound. No recording of her voice. I had read her book, learned of her speaking ability, and spoken with a number of her family members, but I had not heard her voice. What did she sound like?

When I found this recording, I found an important piece of history, a significant link to our past. It was, as scholars have put it, a real treasure. And it seemed to fall from heaven. It was exactly what I needed.

The recorded interview is conducted by Commissioner William H. Booth of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. It is presented online courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection. The interview is part of the series, “The Black Man in America,” which, according to Booth, is “devoted to examining the history and life of African Americans and the contributions they have made -- and are making -- to the material, cultural and spiritual wealth of this county.”

In 1969, the time of the recording, Moody was 28 years of age and married to Austin Straus, a young Jewish poet. They were living in New York. Her book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, was published a year earlier by Dial Press. Booth notes that the book had won “wide acclaim.”

Angie Creech Green, a retired English teacher, listened to the recording and said she was impressed with the former civil rights worker: “She is so articulate and holds her ground with the interviewer.”

Moody’s sister, Frances Jefferson, was touched by the recording. After listening, she offered a word of gratitude.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “It’s lovely to hear my sister’s voice.”

Moody grew up in the segregated south where she faced racism and bigotry while trying to overcome poverty. She was born in 1940 in the small rural town of Centreville, Miss. She was raised by parents who worked as sharecroppers in Wilkinson County in southwest Mississippi. In the interview, Moody “shares her views on prejudice, and her eventual realization that the issues she has confronted are in fact prevalent in many other parts of America and the world,” according to the WYNC website.

The interview opens with Booth asking Moody about her book being compared with Manchild in the Promised Land (1965), a novel by Claude Brown, and Down These Mean Streets (1967) by Piri Thomas.

Moody replies by stating: “I would say any book … primarily written by a Negro and concerns his struggle… his struggle to exist, can be compared to Manchild … [It] can certainly be compared to the life of any Negro in America, I would say. In a certain way… we’re all in same bag.”

Moody notes that her “book is a little different … because life in the south, life in the rural south, is much different from life in the ghetto.”

Throughout the interview, Moody recounts some of the stories narrated in her book. She also elaborates on some of the sensitive stories that are now well-known from her book, including the hatred she felt towards blacks for not standing up to racism, and the hatred she felt towards whites for terrorizing and killing people of color. She mentions Emmett Till, who was 14 when he was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi. She also talks about the impact of poverty, and how she often went hungry.

When asked about her life growing up in the south, Moody said the thing that stood out for her was “being hungry most of the time” and waiting for her mother to come out of the field. She said she was also lonely.

I invite you to take a moment and listen to this piece of history. Discover Anne Moody. Hear her voice. Feel her passion. Begin right here.

Reference:

The NYPR Archive Collections (Feb 16, 1969)

Website: http://www.wnyc.org/story/anne-moody

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For more information: 

See the Anne Moody page here.

Questions about the Anne Moody History Project may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com For updates on Anne Moody history and the on-going work of this community service project, simply follow this blog or follow AMHP on Twitter (@AnneMoodyHP). #ComingOfAgeinMississippi

Poet Austin Straus, former husband of Anne Moody, has died

Austin Straus (1939-2017)

He leaves rich creative legacy in art, writing 

By Roscoe Barnes III

Chairman, Anne Moody History Project
Copyright (c) 2017

#AnneMoody

Austin Straus, who was known as a distinguished poet and painter, has died. He was the former husband of Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dial, 1968).

Straus passed on July 20, 2017, at the age of 78. He reportedly had suffered from diabetes. A memorial service is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2017, at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. Frances Jefferson, sister of Moody, is helping with the arrangements.

“I saw him last year for the first time since I was nine years old,” Jefferson said by phone. “He was a prolific writer. He was a renowned poet and artist in his own right.”

Straus and Moody had one child, Sasha Straus, "who is his only child," according to Jefferson. Sasha lives in Mississippi. The couple divorced in 1977 and Straus later married Wanda Coleman, who was also a poet. They were married for 32 years when she passed in 2013.

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"I have a split artistic personality so that poems come from one aspect of my mind and visual work from somewhere else, though they do, at times, overlap especially when a poem evokes scenes and places or is very descriptive. I love improvisation, as I write, as I paint or burn (I use fire in my work, usually with a magnifying glass in the sun), and when I perform." -- Austin Straus in Dive Dapper interview

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In addition to being known as a poet, Straus developed a reputation as a painter, printmaker, and book artist. He authored a number of books, collaborated with other writers and published in anthologies. Despite his accomplishments as a writer, he essentially viewed himself as a “book artist,” according to Dr. Bill Mohr, professor in the Department of English at California State University, Long Beach. He shared the following in his blog post about Straus:

“Austin considered himself to be primarily a book artist, and that work can be found in many collections, including Chapman College, Occidental College, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. However, his poems will also remain a steadfast part of the community of poets he joined almost forty years ago.”

Straus was a graduate student at New York University when he met Anne Moody in 1966. At the time, Moody was completing her famous autobiography. She said in a 1985 interview with Debra Spencer that she fell in love:

“…Just as I’d finished Coming of Age, I met a man, (and) fell madly in love. I lived with him for almost a year and married him on March 9, 1967. He was a Jewish guy from Brooklyn, an NYU graduate student in philosophy.”

When Coming of Age came out in 1968, the hardback edition featured a portrait of Moody on the back cover that was taken by Straus. The full portrait has also appeared on the front cover. A cropped headshot from the photo appears on the front cover of the current edition of the book.

In 1971, the couple’s son, Sasha, was born. And In 1972, the family moved to Berlin where they lived until 1974.

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This photo of Anne Moody was taken by her then-husband, Austin Straus.
It was featured on the back cover of the earlier hardback
edition of Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dial, 1968)

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In 1978, about a year after his divorce, Straus moved to Los Angeles. And according to Mohr, he “immediately settled into an ongoing renaissance of poetry in Southern California.” Mohr notes that Straus’ achievements include his role as founder and co-host of “The Poetry Connexion” on KPFK-FM, a position he held from 1981 to 1996. 

In addition to Stand Up Poetry, Straus’ work has appeared in such publications as This Sporting Life, The Maverick Poets, Plainsong, and Alcatraz 3. His list of books includes Intensifications (Red Hen Press, 2010), Drunk with Light (Red Hen Press, 2002), and The Love Project: A Marriage Made in Poetry (Red Hen Press, 2014), which he co-authored with his late wife, Wanda Coleman.

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Drunk with Light (Red Hen Press, 2002) is one 

of several books of poetry by Austin Straus.

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Straus was also featured in Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America (University of Georgia Press, 2004), which is described as a “groundbreaking volume” that brings “together a comprehensive and widely representative selection of poetry reflecting both the diversity and commodity of male experience in the United States today,” according to the book’s publisher. 

Other anthologies in which his work appeared include: The Maverick Poets: An Anthology (Gorilla Press, 1988), edited by Steve Kowit; Amorotica: New Erotic Poetry (Deep River Press, 1981), edited by Elliot Fried; and "Poetry Loves Poetry": An Anthology of Los Angeles Poets (Momentum Press, 1985), edited by Bill Mohr.

In 1991, Straus published Laureate without a Country. He also taught in the English department at Los Angeles City College. 

Over the years, Straus displayed his work in exhibits that featured his drawings, paintings, and prints. Sometimes he presented readings during the events. In his final years, he apparently tried to continue "his life-long exploration of visual poetry with paintings, collages and unique books," according to a post shared by Timothy Green. 

May he rest in peace.

References:

* Professor Bill Mohr provides this link to an audio recording of Austin Straus on Poets Cafe: http://www.timothy-green.org/blog/austin-straus/

* Dive Dapper, which features interviews of "major voices in contemporary poetry," published this piece on Austin Straus: https://www.divedapper.com/interview/austin-straus/

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Editor's Note:

Questions about the Anne Moody History Project may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com For updates on Anne Moody history and the on-going work of this community service project, simply follow this blog or follow AMHP on Twitter (@AnneMoodyHP). #ComingOfAgeinMississippi