[Posted Jan. 23, 2008]

NSU Grad, Baltimore Resident, Pens Book

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

     Larnell Custis Butler, formerly of Norfolk, has released a stunning book of poetry accompanied by her drawings titled Improvise in the Amen Corner.
       Butler, 65, a 1965 Norfolk State University graduate, gives abundant kudos to her high school and college art teachers, including A.B. Jackson of NSU, for helping her develop that part of her artistry.

Butler's provocative 96 page book is entirely produced by hand.

      Butler was recognized last September as the Best Local Author by a newspaper in Baltimore where she now lives. She dedicated the book to her three grandchildren.
      “I tried to find a title that took me back to my experience in Africa, where people would improvise to make life better,” Butler said, explaining that she was a recent college grad when she traveled for the first time to Africa in 1967.
      By improvising, she means using a little to make a lot. “They taught me you can’t survive without reaching out to people. People got up everyday with an agenda. They had many challenges,” she said.
      Her provocative, 96-page book is entirely handwritten. So are the drawings. It contains nearly 100 poems which explore the lives of African Americans in Baltimore, connecting them to individuals she met in 1967 in Africa as a recent college grad.

       Overflowing with handwritten poems and drawings, her new book is jarringly unusual. “I am good at looking at people. I see a nose here, eyes there, I remember my mother’s friends, and I put it all together. I love the style of the forties, I’ll draw lace, a brooch, a hat,” she said once in an interview with another newspaper.
      “My mother was a fine seamstress and sewed all her clothes by hand. Her stitches were perfectly straight and all the same length. I try to imitate her stitches in my drawings.”
This is her first book, which was printed after she won a Passager poetry contest.
      “It is writing that is raw, surprising, uplifting and at times funny,” writes a reviewer in the Baltimore City Paper’s. “She creates an intimate and animated world.”
       Custis, who describes herself as an Afrocentric feminist, is also an artist. She made her drawings with sharpened sticks she collected in the park and dipped in India ink. She created shadows with paper towels.
Two of her drawings are in the permanent collection at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk.
       It’s all like looking in the mirror or around the neighborhood, as you read. Sharp images come to mind. Clear shapes form. Is she talking about African Americans in Baltimore, Hampton Roads, or Kenya? For example, there’s a poem about her mother:

“She was too black in
skin color for my father’s
family to accept her breathless darkness.
Fingers were pointed at her day and night. . .”
Another poem describes her grandmother, while another one is titled Black Church

Mother:
“Black church mother sits on
the first pew of a Baptist
church wearing a Sunday hat
as wide as her double-wide hips
with an extraordinary dress
made by her own black hands. . .”

     Custis, who was surprisingly modest about her literary and artistic skills during a follow-up phone interview, said she is currently working on her second book. It will focus on black men and the challenges they face.
     For more on Larnell Custis Butler, she suggests entering her name on google to access her works.

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