![]() ![]() YOUNG: His picture was still there in the antechamber when you - if you were late - I'm not saying I was ever late. ![]() And although Reverend Brown was no longer in the pulpit, Young says his presence was still very much felt. Reverend Brown's pastorate occurred before Kevin Young's time, but his daughter Linda played the church piano when Young was growing up. Board and Reverend Brown and Linda Brown and all that that implied but also James Brown and John Brown.īATES: Young's church was pastored by the Reverend Oliver Brown, the man whose lawsuit began the desegregation of America's public schools. YOUNG: Well, I was really interested in this idea of Brownness, both in a sort of a literal name like Brown of Brown v. In his new book, Young writes about the many permutations of brown, like the brown people and the brown wooden pews of his childhood church in Topeka, Kan. He's also the poetry editor of The New Yorker and the director of Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: It's a wonder Kevin Young has time to write. MARTIN: NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates from our Code Switch team spoke to Young about the meaning behind these poems and what inspired them. KEVIN YOUNG: (Reading) Four little girls bombed into tomorrow in a church basement like ours, where nursing mothers and children not ready to sit still learn to walk. It's one more titled "Brown," encompasses good things and sometimes tragic ones. Kevin Young's latest volume of poetry is colored by his family and childhood, United States history and black culture. ![]()
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