— Foreword By

Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashad an accomplished actress and stage director, became a household name when she portrayed Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Her film and television credits include: A Fall From Grace, Creed and Creed II, For Colored Girls, Soul, Jingle Jangle, and Black Box; This is Us (two Emmy nominations), David Makes Man, and Empire. Inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2016, Ms. Rashad received Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her performance as Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, the Lucille Lortel Award for her performance as Shelah in Head of Passes, and a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. Ms. Rashad has directed plays by August Wilson (Gem of the Ocean, Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), Stephen Adly Guirgis (Our Lady of 121st Street), and Paul Oakley Stovall (Immediate Family). Rashad was recently appointed Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.

Foreword

— Foreword By Phylicia Rashad

“A Gathering Of
Voices”

One of the most vivid memories from my early childhood is the sound of my mother’s typewriter. “Tat tat tat ta tat tat ta tat tat…………” then “ding!”- the sound of the bell as the carriage was returned signaling the completion of one line and the beginning of the next. My mother was a writer. Not everyone understood why. I mean to some it wasn’t “real work.” So, why bother?

For my mother it was very real work; creative work that required discipline, space for introspection, skill, knowledge, imagination, fervor, patience, spontaneity, and- most of all- the belief in one’s own voice. What she had to say was meaningful and, therefore, of value. Writing was a way for exploring, expressing, and sharing value. Witnessing this work taught me to respect those who give of themselves to this endeavor. It is not an easy undertaking. So, when Hattie Winston called to ask if I would write the foreword for this volume, “yes” was the only response possible.

Having met each other during Hattie’s time as a member of the Negro Ensemble Company, we had been friends for a long time. During one of our visits, she shared that she had begun to write. Hattie then showed me to the space that she had created in her home for this sole purpose and offered a chapter from her memoir for me to peruse. That she was on to something was undeniable. “Miss Hattie,” I said, “this is good stuff!”

With a mind to make the “good stuff” even better, Hattie joined the Longwood Writers Workshop: a small, select group of people with diverse backgrounds, extensive life experience, and like minds. After years of successful careers in other fields, now the aspiration was towards writing. Like a confluence of rivers, they would meet: two well-known actresses (one, already a published author); a former lawyer turned Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer of documentary film and television; a former union representative with a degree in psychology and an affinity for history; a contracts executive who secretly wrote poetry; and one who had been a Medical Doctor specializing in anesthesiology for 45 years. Shared enthusiasm and commitment to purpose defined this circle of support as they gathered to read, listen to, and offer critical analysis of their own and each other’s work. One can only imagine what these sessions were like.

This anthology is the combined offering of a creative collective. The narratives presented here reflect thoughts, feelings, memories, factual accounts, inspirations, and imaginings of its individual contributors whose senior voices ring fresh, spirited, and true as they speak to us of times gone-by that give context to the present and possible future. They impart stories about life: of love, loss, and longing, of knowing and unknowing, of triumph and defeat, and ultimately of the importance and power of human dignity.

Let us pause and suspend other activity as we give ear and attention to “A Gathering of Voices.”

By Phylicia Rashad