THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 139 lines
PORTSMOUTH NATIVE Raheema Turner Shabazz's first book, ``Trials and Triumphs of the Downtrodden,'' is no less than a testament to the indomitable nature of the human spirit.
A pleasing mix of folksy fact and fiction expressed in poetic prose and prosy poetry, the volume speaks in tones clear and distinct as a bell about what it's like to grow up poor and African American in the South and, later, to endure life as a battered wife and mother in the (literally and figuratively) cold northern city of Chicago.
If it stopped there, the book likely would remain in the box that already is crammed full of victim's tales, but Shabazz attains a higher level, one that glows with the luminous light of truth and knowledge. These are the unexpected gifts that come to those who rise above suffering, according to some who have written and thought their way to omniscient vision - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mahatma Gandhi among them.
In the paraphrased words of the Greek philosopher Plato, in the world of knowledge, the good appears last of all and is seen only with effort.
But Shabazz's book moves beyond even this to a spiritual plane and then gladly shares its revelations about God's love for humankind, a love, the book says, that can and should be mimicked by a family's unconditional love for its members and a community's compassionate love for all its people. And she does it without sounding didactic in the least.
A sample of the book's down-to-earth wisdom from the poem ``Let's Be Together'':
Let's give Satan a migraine
And a case of severe eyestrain
Drop labels that keep us apart
And change what's in our heart
Shabazz, 45, published the volume herself with the help of Liskey & Sons Printing Inc., of Norfolk. While most self-published works never gain much notice beyond the author's close circle of family and friends, Shabazz's appears to have taken a foothold step into the broader market, perhaps in large part because of its use this summer as a textbook at Christopher Newport University in Newport News.
Marian Stevens-Carrington, assistant professor and director of multicultural affairs for the university, is delighted with the book's reception by her freshmen students and plans to require it in future classes.
``It inspired and motivated me as a person,'' Stevens-Carrington said. ``It's very realistic, easy to read, interesting, applicable - her life's experiences and lessons learned she dared to print. I've shared it with faculty.''
Not only was the author local, but she also was accessible, Stevens-Carrington said. Shabazz visited the class and spoke with students.
``That made the book more real'' to students, said Stevens-Carrington. ``They saw the live author, and that motivates them - shows them that you can use your own talent and make the dream happen.''
The book's availability is not limited to those who meet the author, either.
Shabazz writes as though she were speaking, and therein finds the key that opens the door to meaning; it is precisely this cadence and rhythm of the spoken word that allows the reader to enter into the author's insight and the process by which it is reached.
The book's numerous grammatical glitches and colloquial, less-than-formal usages do not tarnish the glow of the volume's message; in fact, like ordinary speech, they add character, individuality and familiarity - a casualness and spontaneity that mesmerize. Shabazz's stick-figure drawings also accentuate the positives of life in a functional family.
Shabazz spent several years of her childhood in the Ida Barbour neighborhood, the rest in Douglas Park, and many of the book's most telling tales are set in familiar nooks and crannies of the city.
The downtown Green Street area, for instance, is the backdrop for the five-chapter, five-page short story, ``Happy and Hard Times in Billy Goat Alley,'' a study in conciseness - the pruning of time and words to their bare essence. As elsewhere in the 230-page volume, the voice of the child bursts into rhythm, rhyme and song as revelations about life's meanings pour forth.
Some excerpts from ``Hard Times in Billy Goat Alley'':
My parents worked their fingers to the bone, trying hard to give us four children a home. Mom worked five days for five dollars per day. She could do very little with such low pay.
She stretched the dollar as far as she could and placed value on being honest and good. Hand me down clothes from the Goodwill really didn't matter, because we were happy still. ... We looked beyond the sandwiches with no meat and the coats on the bed when there was no heat.''
In Chapter 4, a broken couch brings the children together to protect each other:
I ran at full speed and leaped on the couch sinking in the cushions like a kangaroo's pouch. I tried my best to make it there in one big stroke but to my surprise, it suddenly broke.
There was no doubt that I was in big trouble and I had better think of something on the double. My father would never believe it was an accident plus he had bought that couch with his last cent. I needed to find someone to take the blame self preservation was the name of the game. My father would probably lash me good and then chop on me like a stack of wood.
My brothers and sister then came to my aid and together the strategic plans were made. We propped that couch up with a red brick. We were totally convinced this would do the trick. One day my father sat on the couch and it fell. I said my prayers before my departure to hell.
That day we stood side by side and no one told at least not until we were all over twenty years old. Like wild lions my father lined all of us in a row and cracked that whip like in a lion tamer's show. The boys got it worst than the girls that day. By the next morning the sting had gone away.
Shabazz, who graduated from Norfolk State University in 1980, returned to her alma mater recently to answer students' questions and sign books.
Lillie Linnett, a 22-year-old Norfolk State senior, asked the author some probing questions before deciding to purchase the volume, which sells for $22.50.
``What attracted me to it is that it was written by an Islamic woman, and I think that it relates to the lives of youth today,'' said Linnett, who is majoring in education. ``I can definitely get some inspiration from it, because it addresses important social issues. It's nice to see that someone else is aware of the lack of morals and conscience.''
Shabazz, who lives in Churchland with her husband, longshoreman Hamidullah Calvin Shabazz, has written poetry and prose from the age of 9. She was raised a Baptist. Her mother, Norfolk native Kate Ely Turner, is now 71 and a Portsmouth resident.
Kate Turner is proud of her daughter's accomplishment, but she's getting used to her children's successes. Son Vernon Turner has published four books of poetry, and another son is a doctor in Boston.
``I couldn't have done it without God,'' Kate Turner said. ``I prayed for them all the time, brought them up in the church.''
Vernon Turner of Virginia Beach said that the family literary tradition had its roots in the storytelling that family members engaged in ``night after night'' and the example his father set in reading many books.
In tribute to her father, Shabazz includes in her book one of her father's poems, ``Each Tear I Shed,'' wherein each tear he sheds becomes at once:
... a tear of fear
No one knows, but God and me
... a tear of pain
That sends a pain throughout my heart
... a tear of love
For those who have brought me down so low
... a tear of joy
For the sea I swam was the greatest of all
... a tear for victory
For truly God has brought me through MEMO: ``Trials and Triumphs of the Downtrodden'' is available at the
Norfolk State University bookstore and at Shabazz Fashions, at 610 W.
35th St. in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY POETRY by CNB