[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E703-E704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       MEMORIAL HONORING ST. LOUIS POET LAUREATE SHIRLEY LeFLORE

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                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 4, 2019

  Mr. CLAY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a great 
American poet who, as a child, fell in love with words and turned that 
love of words into a life's work.
  On Mother's Day, Sunday, May 12, 2019, my dear friend, Shirley 
Bradley Price LeFlore passed into ancestry. She was 79. Her passing 
gave Mother's Day ``a new meaning,'' one daughter said in a local media 
report. A Celebration of Life and Homegoing Service was held on Friday, 
May 17 at Christ Church Cathedral, in St. Louis, Mo., where many came 
and paid loving homage to her life and her works. The visitation and 
service included numerous speakers, musicians, dancers, family, friends 
and fellow poets.
  To her dear daughters--Hope Lindsay of Silver Springs, Md., Jacie 
Price of St. Louis and Lyah LeFlore-ltuen of St. Louis--the depths of 
my sadness at her loss moves me beyond the ties of friendship. She was 
like family. I pray for heavenly grace for her family: her daughters, a 
niece Karen Bohr and four grandchildren--Noelle Lindsay-Stewart, 
Jullian Price-Baez, Jordan Lindsay and Bella Grace Ituen--and all who 
loved and honored her.
  Shirley has been interwoven into the fabric of St. Louis, Mo., this 
nation and the world. She has shared her love of poetry, writing and 
many talents with the rest of us, and we are better off because of her.
  On November 9, 2018, Shirley LeFlore was named St. Louis' second Poet 
Laureate. She was the first African-American and woman so honored. The 
event was held in St. Louis City Hall, with Ms. LeFlore surrounded by 
family, friends and admirers.
  At the time Poet Michael Castro, St. Louis' first Poet Laureate 
called the honor ``the capstone'' of a long career; a career The St. 
Louis Post-Dispatch noted that spanned some 50 years of ``performing, 
mentoring and teaching.'' As her story was told and retold, one 
discovers that not only did she find poetry in everything, she lived a 
poetic life.
  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered the City Hall event and on 
November 17, published a story about her appointment. Reporter Jane 
Henderson noted Ms. Leflore's' life journey and how she was led by the 
power of words to international fame. ``As a girl,'' Henderson wrote, 
``she listened to women in her mother's beauty shop as they told 
stories. She listened in as strangers gossiped on streetcars, when 
churchgoers talked and when female relatives chatted at the kitchen 
table. Young Shirley would make up plays about some of the people she'd 
overheard and started writing in grade school. As an adult, she turned 
talk into an art, becoming a pioneer in spoken-word poetry in St. 
Louis.''
  At City Hall, President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed presented 
the honor to Ms. LeFlore. And Castro, who has known Ms. LeFlore since 
the 1970s, called her an ``iconic

[[Page E704]]

and loved figure.'' He told the Post-Dispatch: ``Her performances were 
very memorable. She had a strong presence and charisma. She read her 
poems kind of with a jazz beat. Her poems were not like anyone else's, 
full of rich imagery.''
  Madam Speaker, that career includes more than 50 years of performing, 
mentoring and teaching. Some call her a ``wordsmith'' and others call 
her a ``word warrior,'' noted Alderman Terry Kennedy, a longtime 
friend. He read part of her poem ``Rivers of Women'' noting that her 
writing cause people to ``think differently.''
  Born, Shirley Bradley Price in 1940 in St. Louis, Ms. LeFlore 
graduated from Sumner High School and attended Lincoln University 
before graduating from then Webster College and later from Washington 
University with a degree in psychology. Among her many achievements, 
she is founder of the Creative Arts and Expressions Lab, was an 
original member of the Black Artists Group (co-founded with her late 
husband, jazz musician Floyd LeFlore) and another underground activists 
poetry organization called Harmony.
  An artist-in-residence at University City public schools, she taught 
at several colleges including Lindenwood University, Webster 
University, Harris-Stowe State University and the University of 
Missouri-St. Louis. As an assistant dean of students at Webster she 
inspired students such as ``Black-ish'' actress Jenifer Lewis, who 
credits LeFlore with having ``saved my life,'' the Post-Dispatch 
reported.
  Though getting on in age, ``She's always had an intergenerational 
perspective,'' said her daughter, Lyah LeFlore-Ituen, in the news 
article. ``She wants to inspire young poets.''
  ``The fire is still there,'' and as poet laureate, LeFlore can be an 
inspiration to young people, her daughter added.
  A TV producer and writer, her daughter directed ``Rivers of Women'' 
for the Missouri History Museum. She called her mother a ``living 
legend'' and is working on a documentary about her. Also, she helped 
compile her mother's 2013 book, ``Brassbones & Rainbows.''
  Among the greats she performed with include saxophonist Oliver Lake, 
trumpeter David Jackson and singer Fontella Bass. People flocked to 
hear her read at St. Louis' Duffs restaurant as part of the River Styx 
artist series. Her mentors and influences include poet Margaret Walker, 
writer Gwendolyn Brooks, poet Sonia Sanchez, playwright and poet 
Ntozake Shange and author James Baldwin.
  In New York she performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and at Weill 
Hall, a part of Carnegie Hall. And her works have been presented as 
plays, including ``Deliverance,'' a production centered on HIV/AIDS.
  Poet Amina Baraka has called Ms. LeFlore a ``literary griot, writing 
and telling stories, creating lyrics we can sing and dance to.'' Other 
honors include: the Warrior Poet Award, a board member for Word in 
Motion, featured in another documentary ``Word Warriors III'' and other 
anthologies.
  Her activism of the 1960s led her to March on Washington and to join 
the Poor People's Campaign. Politics became a part of her poetry. But 
it was the voices heard in her youth that set the stage for the rest of 
her life and career.
  Last fall Poet Laureate LeFlore was featured in The St. Louis 
American newspaper, and later reproduced by St. Louis Public Radio. The 
article noted she toured the world, playing venues both large and 
small, from Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis to ``quaint . . . tiny . 
. . churches'' or a ``hole in the wall'' nightclub or lounge.''
  ``Some of the places I've gone, you wouldn't want anybody to know you 
went there to read poetry,'' Leflore said. ``But if people asked me, I 
would go.'' ``If you're serious about what you do, keep doing it, keep 
studying it, keep mastering it and let it live inside you.'' And 
``Listen--especially when you first start out. You need to listen.'' It 
was her listening--her eavesdropping on her mother's beauty salon 
clients--that caught her ear and helped shaped her poetry in the years 
to come.
  ``They thought I was sitting around playing jacks, but I would be 
listening,'' to the way they talked, what they said, LeFlore told the 
American. Later, she would go home and write in her black and white 
composition book, noting that often the way they said things was more 
striking than what they said. Over time she would note that black 
people have a ``special way with language--in every part of the world--
but especially in St. Louis.''
  Of her funeral on May 17, 2019, the American reported the near-
capacity homegoing service for ``Saint Shirley'' at Christ Church 
Cathedral ``stretched nearly four hours.'' Accolades and memories were 
offered from speakers from far and near, among them poets, actors, 
writers and politicians. Actor and writer Kevin Powell called her a 
``supernatural word warrior'' created from ``black girl magic.''
  Poet Laureate of East St. Louis Eugene Redmond said LeFlore ranked 
among the great jazz poets for her ability to turn musical form and 
history into ``the cross-fertilization'' of literary musical forms and 
techniques, he said. ``She eloped with language and stayed married to 
music all her days.''
  And while people of faith offered words of tribute, LeFlore's own 
poems, spoken by the living meant LeFlore ``essentially eulogized 
herself,'' the American's Kenya Vaughn wrote.
  Daughter Hope Price-Lindsay said she grew up wanting a mother more 
like television's ``Leave it to Beaver's'' June Cleaver but instead got 
Ms. LeFlore, an Afrocentric artist who remained true to her craft, 
whether life served her ``caviar and champagne'' or ``bone soup.'' We 
learned that LeFlore inherited her poetry from her mother, who 
inherited it from her mother, who inherited from her mother.
  Retired 18th Ward Alderman Terry Kennedy spoke again at her funeral, 
having grown up with Ms. LeFlore and calling her ``a mighty spirit 
amongst us'' who was ``small in stature, big at heart.'' He comforted 
guests with Ms. LeFlore's own words from her poem, ``Breathprints.''
  ``Light a candle for me,'' he recited. ``Say a prayer. Whisper me 
into the wind. Lay a love wreath on the altar of your heart and 
remember my good days amongst you. Weep if you must. It's good to 
unburden your tears, but make brief your grief.
  ``Let the joy of my laughter comfort you,'' Kennedy continued in her 
words. ``My spirit will be the music above your head, my love like the 
wind beneath your wings to lift you in your weary years so that you may 
see the sunrise. All is well with my soul.''
  Madam Speaker, today I give to Congress and the people of America, a 
glimpse into the life and times of a world-renown and respected poet 
from St. Louis, Missouri, and her vision for seeing, touching, feeling 
the world around us--St. Louis Poet Laureate Shirley LeFlore.
  I urge members of Congress to join me in honoring the life and career 
of St. Louis Poet Laureate Ms. Shirley LeFlore and her art of language 
and her expression in words, of our life and times. May she rest in 
peace.

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