Fierce Friday: Celestine Davis
“I want them to understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to be visionaries and socio-political activists to engage, instruct, and inspire our communities to become better. Age, occupation, education, or income level should not limit one’s sense of responsibility to help create a better world.” Celestine Davis
I have known Celestine Davis I think for as long as I’ve been in North Carolina, a little over 20 years. 20! In that time, I have come to know her as a fierce woman who is passionate about poetry, film, art, artists, teaching, and, especially, community. I am very lucky to call her friend.
Out of all of your accomplishments, what are you most proud of and why?
I am most proud of my work as a community arts promoter. Serving in two of North Carolina’s top literary arts organizations, as a Regional Rep for the NC Writer’s Network for over 10 years and as Vice President of Programing for the NC Poetry Society since September of 2019, has given me a unique opportunity to promote and support fellow writers. In my role with the NC Poetry Society, I had the extreme honor of inviting NC’s first African American Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, to kick-off or first gathering of 2020. I have also created and led collaborative community writer groups, Scribes and Artists and the Black Literary Arts Collective. All these experiences provide opportunities for me to connect and learn from some extraordinary people who challenge and reward me with their wisdom and their artistry.
What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it? How did you become interested in it/ where did you get the idea for it?
I am currently developing a collaborative project which will include seven artists: literary poets, spoken word artists, dancers, and visual artists under the umbrella of the Black Literary Arts Collective (BLAC).
BLAC is an ongoing platform for collaborative projects for artists, visionaries, and socio-political activists to engage, instruct, and inspire Black communities. Initially, we will execute our portions of the project in our separate spaces, and we will capture them on film for one cohesive project. Post COVID-19, this BLAC for Good Works project will launch future live collaborative projects with these and other artists. The idea for this project came from my awareness of the impact of COVID-19 on local artists who lost access to their typical platforms. Some lack the technology or the experience to use technology to maintain their artistic platforms otherwise. As a collective, we will be able to leverage our knowledge, expertise, and creativity to create a high-quality representation of the artists’ work.
Individually, I am completing a chapbook, Can You See Me? that will be ready for publication by the end of year. It will feature my rural roots and trace my traditional upbringing weaving in and out of my unique experiences and perspectives as a modern Black Southern woman.
What issue are you currently most passionate about? What is the one thing you would like people to know or understand about this issue?
I am passionate about creating a legacy of personal freedom and civic responsibility as a societal norm. I want people to understand that their freedom is not truly possible without allowing freedom for all. I want them to understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to be visionaries and socio-political activists to engage, instruct, and inspire our communities to become better. Age, occupation, education, or income level should not limit one’s sense of responsibility to help create a better world. We are responsible for doing what we can from wherever we find ourselves to the best of our ability.
What book or film with a female protagonist would you recommend and why? What female author’s, artist’s, or musician’s work would you recommend and why?
I love in-your-face, badass, complex women protagonists such as Geena Davis’ character of the spy turned soccer mom, turned back to killer spy in Long Kiss Goodnight, as well as the most subtle but just as badass women protagonists in movies such as Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson in Hidden Figures.
I would recommend the work of Zora Neal Hurston with the caveat that they also read about her life and how she fit (or did not fit) in the landscape of the Harlem Renaissance. Her perspective as an educated and trained social scientist was undermined and dismissed because she was Black and a woman. Her life and her work underscores issues that continue to plague Black communities and relationships. It offers significant universal lessons about valuing one’s culture and allowing space for others different than ourselves. I see her life as an inspiration for bringing one’s whole self to your creative work.
T. S Eliot offered that “When a poet's mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experience; the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary.” This sums up my relationship with music. I recommend that people listen to music that tell stories with their musical form as well as those with lyrics. My musical taste is too broad to recommend a few. I love folk songs, work songs, the blues, country music, rhythm and blues, rock music, pop, hip hop, and opera. Some surprises may be country singers the late George Jones and Dolly Parton because I love stories. I especially appreciate some of Parton’s little known early work. I love original world music, as well as iterations of American music from other parts of the world. A friend, a spoken word artist, introduced me to WuTang, an American hip hop group with an almost fanatical following. I may not have chosen to listen to them on my own, but their music provides important insights that may find their way into some of my poetry. I appreciate what all types of music add to our shared and disparate experiences.
Name one woman who has influenced you/ had an impact on you, perhaps as a mentor. Why and how did she impact your life?
As far as writers-poets are concerned, multicultural perspectives fueled by the indigenous people of the Americas, Africa, and India greatly influence me. Some of my contemporary favorites are Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Warsan Shire, and Amrita Pritam.
As for one woman, my mother has always been my greatest mentor and inspiration in all things. She was an exceptional person, an average working woman on the surface, but a passionate storyteller to her core. She laid the groundwork for my love of stories and community-building through the arts. She was an animated storyteller that captivated us with her re-enactments of family stories and even current events. Her way of changing her voice and capturing the physical mannerisms of the players in her stories always amazed and delighted me. When I write, I hope to capture a similar authenticity.
Celestine Davis, a native Eastern North Carolinian, teaches writing at East Carolina University and has served as a regional representative for NC Writers’ Network for Nash, Wilson, and Pitt Counties since 2009. Celestine is also serving as VP of Programming for the North Carolina Poetry Society. She serves on the editorial board for the NC Literary Review, an annual publication of East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary & Historical Association led by the award-winning editor, Dr. Margaret Bauer. Celestine also assisted in the facilitation of the former Eastern NC Literary Homecoming.
Celestine is a founder and the festival director of the regional Down East Flick Fest, based in Greenville, NC. She facilitates the Scribes and Artists gathering of creatives and the imaginative community think tank, Mindful Encounters. Throughout her life, Celestine has been an avid community arts promoter.
Other collaborations include Artists for Community Enrichment (ACE) a group that connects audiences to socially relevant issues through various media and the online hub called the Black Literary Collective. Celestine serves on the board of the emerging Kuumba Arts Collective based in Kinston, NC and is the creator of the visual journaling workshop, “ReCreations: Rewriting Your Life Script ™” and directs other writing to heal workshops.
As a poet, Celestine describes herself as a user-friendly artisan who sometimes squats along the edges of madness and conformity but always truthfulness. Greatly influenced by traditional storytelling, she writes in free verse and narrative styles to speak authentically of the past and current lives of Southern folk, Southern women, and African Americans.
Occasionally, Celestine freelances as an editor and ghostwriter. As a writing coach, two of her most enjoyable projects have been with Maude Pickett Smith’s Hester: Historical Fiction about the Life of a Slave and Beverley W. Haynes’s Single Against Your Will….12 Things That Keep You Single. Her latest collaborative work with 23 women, Bounced Back on Purpose, includes her chapter, “You Matter: Revisiting Your Dreams and Living the Life You Imagined.” She is completing a poetry collection, “Can You See Me,” which is scheduled for publishing in late 2020. Also, Celestine is planning a collaborative project of anti-ekphrastic fusion of visual art inspired by written text. This collaborative series will be showcased in Greenville and surrounding areas.
Email: downeastwriter@gmail.com
https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/
https://www.facebook.com/blac4good/
https://sites.google.com/site/heartofpamlico/meet-the-poet-1