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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 23 august 2019

Paule Marshall, novelist of diverse influences, dead at 90

By HILLEL ITALIE old British novels, from “Tom
Associated Press Jones” to “Great Expecta-
NEW YORK (AP) — Paule tions.” But she longed for
Marshall, an exuberant and books that included peo-
sharpened storyteller who in ple more like herself and
fiction such as “Daughters” so made an instant and
and “Brown Girl, Brown- deeper connection to the
stones” drew upon classic poetry in dialect of Paul
and vernacular literature Laurence Dunbar, and lat-
and her mother’s kitchen er to writings by Hurston and
conversations to narrate Hughes among others. All
the divides between blacks along, she had been listen-
and whites, men and wom- ing to her mother and vari-
en and modern and tradi- ous neighborhood women
tional cultures, has died at gather in the kitchen and
age 90. expound in “free-wheeling,
Marshall’s son, Evan K. Mar- wide-ranging” style, voices
shall, told The Associated she fictionalized in “Brown
Press that she died Monday Girl, Brownstones” and oth-
in Richmond, Virginia. She er works.
had been suffering from “They were women in
dementia in recent years. whom the need for self-
First published in the 1950s, In this Nov. 22, 1991 file photo, author Paule Marshall poses during an interview, in New York. expression was strong, and
Marshall was for years vir- Associated Press since language was the
tually the only major black United States. Reading her tion. “I like to take people Award for books “that have only vehicle readily avail-
woman fiction writer in the novels often felt like read- at a time of crisis and ques- made important contribu- able to them they made
U.S., a bridge between ing my own family’s history tioning in their lives and tions to our understanding of it an art form that — in
Zora Neale Hurston and on a global scale. She will have them undertake a of racism and human diver- keeping with the African
Toni Morrison, Alice Walker be greatly missed.” kind of spiritual and emo- sity.” She taught at Virginia tradition in which art and
and others who emerged From the start, Marshall con- tional journey and to then Commonwealth University life are one — was an inte-
in the 1960s and ‘70s. Call- trasted the values of Ameri- leave them once that jour- and New York University. gral part of their lives,” she
ing herself “an unabashed cans and other Westerners ney has been completed Other fellow writers mourn- wrote in “The Poets of the
ancestor worshipper,” Mar- with those from the Carib- and has helped them to ed her passing, which Kitchen,” a 1983 essay.
shall was the Brooklyn-born bean and tallied the price understand something came a week after the Marshall graduated Phi
daughter of Barbadian im- of assimilation. In “Brown about themselves,” Mar- death of Morrison. Nicole Beta Kappa from Brooklyn
migrants and wrote loving- Girl, Brownstones,” her au- shall told The Associated Dennis-Benn, Ishmael Reed College and during much
ly, but not uncritically of her tobiographical debut, a Press in 1991. and Jason Reynolds were of the 1950s worked as a
family and other upholders young Brooklyn woman Marshall’s admirers includ- among those posting trib- magazine researcher, trav-
of the ways of their country seeks her own identity amid ed Walker, Dorothy Parker utes on social media. eling to Brazil and the West
of origin. the conflicting values of her and Langston Hughes, an Award-winning playwright Indies among other places.
“Paule Marshall was a Barbadian parents — her early mentor who sent her Lynn Nottage, Marshall’s Since childhood she had
profound and luminous hardheaded mother and encouraging postcards in goddaughter, tweeted been “harboring the dan-
writer, as well as a gener- tragically hopeful father. green ink, brought her on that Marshall was the “first gerous thought” of becom-
ous teacher, mentor, and In “The Chosen Place, the a State Department tour champion” of her work and ing a writer and in her spare
friend,” the Haitian-Ameri- Timeless People,” idealistic of Europe and urged her had urged her mother to time completed “Brown
can author Edwidge Danti- American project workers to “get busy” when he “Just let her write.” Girl, Brownstones,” pub-
cat wrote in an email to the in the Caribbean encoun- thought the young writer “I wouldn’t be here without lished by Random House
AP. “Her work delved deep- ter the skepticism of the was working too slowly. her,” Nottage wrote. “#RIP in 1959 after editor Hiram
ly into what she considered local community. “Prais- Marshall received several Another beloved elder has Haydn suggested she trim
her triangular journey from esong for the Widow” tells honors, among them Ma- crossed over.” her 600-page “sumo-sized
her ancestral homeland of an upscale American cArthur and Guggenheim Born Valenza Pauline Burke manuscript” to the “slen-
on the African continent, black woman’s awakening Fellowships and, in 2009, in Brooklyn, she was an im- der, impressive” novel bur-
to the Caribbean, then the during a Caribbean vaca- won the Anisfield-Wolf Book mersive reader who loved ied within. q
Kodak Black pleads guilty in federal weapons case

Associated Press say a weapon purchased drug, weapons and sexual
MIAMI (AP) — Rapper Ko- by Black was found at the assault charges in other
dak Black has pleaded scene of a South Florida states. He is known for the
guilty to federal weapons shooting. singles “ZeZe” and “Roll in
charges. Authorities say he could Peace.”q
Black entered the change face up to eight years in
of plea in Miami federal prison. A federal judge de-
court Thursday, months af- nied his request for bond
ter he had pleaded not saying he was a danger to
guilty. Prosecutors in May the community based on
charged the 22-year-old his lengthy criminal record.
rapper for crimes includ- Black has remained in a
ing falsifying information on federal detention center in
federal forms to purchase In this Aug. 27, 2017 file photo, Kodak Black arrives at the MTV Miami since his arrest.
three firearms. Prosecutors Video Music Awards at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The rapper also faces
Associated Press