American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1980) Winner
Jayne Cortez
ジェイン・コルテス
Jein Kōrutesu
Aliases:
Sallie Jayne Richardson
Pen Names:
Sallie Jayne Richardson（Birth name. Adopted the surname Cortez (maternal grandmother's maiden name) early in her artistic career.）
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1934-05-10 （Fort Huachuca, Arizona, U.S.）
- Died
- 2012-12-28 （Manhattan, New York, U.S.） age 78
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Watts, Los Angeles → New York City → Dakar, Senegal
Career
- Occupations
- poet, jazz poet, spoken-word artist, small press publisher, activist, teacher
- Active Years
- 1964-2012
- Affiliations
- Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA), Rutgers University (English teacher, 1977–1983)
- Influenced By
- Langston Hughes, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, Christopher Okigbo, Henry Dumas, Amiri Baraka, Richard Wright, Federico García Lorca (poetic parallels), Josephine Baker (performance inspiration)
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compton Community College | — | — | — | 1950年代（在籍中に中退） | United States |
Compton Community College
Period:
1950年代（在籍中に中退）
Country:
United States
Dropped out due to financial difficulties.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Rockefeller Foundation grant | — | — | Rockefeller Foundation | 助成 |
| 1980 | American Book Award | Mouth on Paper | — | Before Columbus Foundation | 受賞 |
| 1987 | National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) | — | — | National Endowment for the Arts | 助成/受賞 |
| 1994 | Fannie Lou Hamer Award | — | — | — | 受賞 |
| 1996 | Arts International Award | — | — | — | 受賞 |
| 2001 | Langston Hughes Medal | — | — | — | 受賞 |
| — | New York Foundation for the Arts | — | — | New York Foundation for the Arts | 受賞/助成 |
Rockefeller Foundation grant
1970
Organization:
Rockefeller Foundation
Result:
助成
American Book Award
1980
Work:
Mouth on Paper
Organization:
Before Columbus Foundation
Result:
受賞
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
1987
Organization:
National Endowment for the Arts
Result:
助成/受賞
Fannie Lou Hamer Award
1994
Result:
受賞
Arts International Award
1996
Result:
受賞
Langston Hughes Medal
2001
Result:
受賞
New York Foundation for the Arts
Organization:
New York Foundation for the Arts
Result:
受賞/助成
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares
1969 Poetry (jazz poetry / avant-garde) 52 pagesEarly collection combining jazz rhythms and urban voice, interweaving political themes and personal memory.
jazzcivil rightsurban lifefemale identity
Festivals and Funerals
1971 Poetry (socially engaged poetry) 44 pagesPoems that incorporate voices of working people and confront social issues, reflecting personal experience.
laborsocial movementspersonal memory
Mouth on Paper
1977 Poetry / performance poetry 63 pagesContains performance-oriented poems; one of her notable works that won the American Book Award.
freedom of expressionpolitical indictmentvoice and body
Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez
2025 Poetry (collected poems)Collected poems from 1969 to 2012, edited by Margaret Busby with a foreword by Sapphire.
diasporapolitical poetryimprovisation and musicality
Adaptations
- [film (documentary)] Yari Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future / Jayne Cortez (1999)
Bibliography
- Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares (1969)
- Festivals and Funerals (1971)
- Scarifications (1973)
- Mouth on Paper (1977)
- Firespitter (1982)
- Coagulations: New and Selected Poems (1984)
- Poetic Magnetic: Poems from Everywhere Drums & Maintain Control (1991)
- Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere (1997)
- Jazz Fan Looks Back (2002)
- The Beautiful Book (2007)
- On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems (2009)
- Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez (2025)
Adaptations
- Poetry in Motion (1982)
- Ornette: Made in America (1985)
- Yari Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future (1999)
- Femmes du Jazz / Women in Jazz (2000)
Translations of Works
- Her poems have been translated into 28 languages (detailed list not provided here)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- incantatory, performance-oriented style emphasizing jazz rhythms and repetitionpolitical, agitprop elementsbodily and vocal focus in spoken-word delivery
- Recurring Motifs
- drums and percussionvoice and protestdiaspora and return to Africafemale body and resistance
Health
-
Heart failure2012（死因）Died of heart failure on December 28, 2012
Legacy
Jayne Cortez was a key figure associated with the Black Arts Movement, significantly influencing spoken-word and jazz poetry. As co-founder of OWWA she promoted international networks for women writers of African descent. Her politically charged, bodily performance poetry left a lasting impact on subsequent poets and performers.
Academic Societies
- Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA)
In Popular Culture
- Memorial events in 2013 and a Spring 2013 issue of The Black Scholar were dedicated to her memory
Quotes
-
“Being unemployed and without food can make you very sad. But you weren't the problem. The problem existed before you knew there was a problem. The problem is the system, and you can organize, unify, and do something about the system. That's what I learned.”
Source: 1990 interview with D. H. Melhem (1990)
Trivia
- Birth name Sallie Jayne Richardson; she adopted the surname Cortez (maternal grandmother's maiden name) as her professional name.
- Her son is jazz drummer Denardo Coleman.
- Founded Bola Press in 1971 and published much of her work through it.
- Her poems have been translated into 28 languages.
- Co-founded the Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA) with Ama Ata Aidoo and others.