WHAT TILLIE OLSEN TAUGHT ME

Would that cultural, literary and community action panels were less about self-promotion (my book, my poem, my looks), more about the issues at hand—a true dialogue, if in brief, under the pressures of public scrutiny—and less dull (like those unfortunately bookish or ill-spoken, if deserving, souls who appear so frequently on C-SPAN). Perhaps it’s the unmitigating circumstances of tinny PA systems, indifferent microphone placement, and banquet rooms where acoustics were never a thought let alone an afterthought. Given 40 years of technological advancement, the phenomenon that gave birth to the phrase “talking heads,” should have more greatly improved. Focusing on content, it was writer Tillie Olsen (Tell Me a Story, January 14, 1913-January 1, 2007) who taught this once shy and tongue-tied poet the value of not being an aggressively well-spoken advocate while under the kliegs. (See http://www.thetillieolsenfilmproject.com/.) The occasion was a Los Angeles writer’s conference panel circa 1978 that also featured Sci-Fi writer Robert Silverberg. I was fairly burning to score points about the difficulties faced by young Black writers, but stewed as Olsen, high off the success of her best-selling Silences, overrode my inarticulate self-consciousness and Silverberg’s diffident sourness. Rather than be angry or resentful, I took the experience to heart and revamped my public persona. Grateful, if still shy in her light, I looked her up in 1989, thanked her for the lesson, and got my copies of her books autographed.