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Visiting English professor and passionate storyteller Brenda Flanagan inspired her audience at the Johannesburg City Library.
WHEN literature, music and storytelling meet, they create a dramatic presentation; it is this confluence for which visiting African-American Brenda Flanagan is internationally renowned.
 Inspiring: Brenda Flanagan marvels at a gift from JoburgFlanagan, a literature power house, brought her storytelling magic to the Johannesburg City Library on 19 June. She was filled with stories to tell and was never short of drama in her presentation.
Her visit was organised by the City’s library and information services unit and the US Consulate-General. The professor of English wowed the audience with her zest for life and her dramatic presentation.
In the mesmerised audience were Monyatsi Ramela, the assistant director of the Johannesburg City Library; Tsakane Shiburi, an assistant director in the City; and Selaelo Ramoleta, a cultural affairs specialist at the US Consulate-General, all of whom had nothing but admiration for Flanagan.
The presentation was a display of her passion for poetry and literature, with the emphasis on black men and women. She praised those black men and women who inspired her and paved the way for her to become the success that she was today.
In her performance, she paid homage to the people who inspired her to write her stories. “I wanted to write about the people around me whose stories I thought were fascinating,” she explained. “These people were able to use the English language and rebel. They took the power away from words of oppression.”
 Monyatsi Ramela: Johannesburg City Library assistant directorShe waved the African-American flag high, revelling in the work of other African-American writers. She read a poem by Nikki Giovanni called Beautiful Black Men, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, and one of her own, dedicated to Barack Obama, The Crossing.
Born in Trinidad and raised in the United States, it has not been an easy ride for Flanagan, but she carries herself with admirable confidence. The race issue has been a difficult one, and she said: “I did not know that I was black first (before anything else).”
But she is proud to be living in the US at the moment, because she is able to experience having a black president. “Barack Obama is not just a president for black people. He is a president for all people and he makes that very clear.”
There was much empowerment and strength in the stories she told. She found a reason to continue writing despite the trials and tribulations she had lived through by carrying “the voices of women and their stories”.
A little bit of hard work, passion and finding humour in life’s tragedies could turn anyone into a success, was her final message.
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