As Gayle Pemberton took the podium at Russell House on Wednesday night, she gave a regal wave and a mock bow, before spending the next several minutes jokingly attempting to curb the crowd’s adulation. But to the University community, the former professor of English, African American Studies and American Studies might as well be royalty. Chair of the English Department Ann duCille unabashedly conveyed the pride that she, along with many others, feels regarding Pemberton’s tenure on campus.
“We claim her as our own…[she is] a writer and teacher par excellence,” duCille said.
Dressed from head-to-toe in Cardinal red and black, Pemberton demonstrated these teaching and writing skills as she read two new essays to a rapt audience. She opened with “Lost Idioms,” which explores her mother’s decline and death at the hands of Alzheimer’s. The essay resonated with chords both “familiar and transcendent,” adjectives that Publisher’s Weekly used to describe her 1998 collection of essays, “The Hottest Water in Chicago.” The storytelling sparkled with humor but surged with an undercurrent of loss. Later, when asked about her aim in writing “Lost Idioms,” Pemberton explained the process as an experience of gripping catharsis.
“Not writing it is harder than writing it,” she said.
In the second essay, from her forthcoming book, “The Road to Gravure: Black Women and American Cinema,” Pemberton addressed the historical role of African American actresses in film. The essay began with a focus on the “embarrassing qualities” of actress Butterfly McQueen’s role as the black maid to Joan Crawford’s Mildred in the film noir “Mildred Pierce.”
From here, the scope widened to the whole of “classic” American films, an elite grouping in which Pemberton said she saw no real place or message for black actresses. The essay, while focusing on one black actress in one 1940s film, succeeded in exploring the limitations placed on all African American actresses of the time, reminding the modern audiences of the depth to which racism is ingrained in some of America’s most revered pop culture artifacts.
Following the reading, Pemberton opened the floor for an irreverent Q&A session, in which she delivered candid answers punctuated with her trademark humor and engaging storytelling sensibility. When asked for her opinion on writer/director Tyler Perry, Pemberton openly questioned his limitations as an artist.
“Why can’t he create an authentic, authoritative male character?” she asked.
According to the author, black actresses still aren’t playing roles that represent black women. The mention of Halle Berry prompted Pemberton to shake her head and deliver a less-than-glowing evaluation of both the actress and the Hollywood system within which she works.
“We may never know if she can act,” Pemberton said with a laugh.
At this point in the night, the audience had begun to fully appreciate Pemberton’s good-natured criticism of the status quo, and the evening concluded with laughter.
While Pemberton’s reading, the first in this year’s Russell House Series, was overall lighthearted in tone, the author also left her audience with much to consider. She concluded “Lost Idioms,” for example with a sober assessment of the current societal landscape.
“Death means becoming unstrung in time—right now, in the United States, there is more death around me than I ever could have imagined,” Pemberton read.
Anne Greene, director of Writing Programs, expressed the hope that hearing writers like Pemberton speak on campus will affect them both now and in the future.
“[I hope the readings] will be a part of our students’ education that will stay in their lives forever,” Greene said.
For members of the Wednesday’s audience, it is likely that the words of Gayle Pemberton will form a permanent part of this education.