A truly remarkable life: Russell Goings - a Renaissance man

A truly remarkable life: Russell Goings - a Renaissance man

Mr. Goings has been studying at Fairfield University with award-winning poet Kim Bridgford. He will be reading selections from his 300-page epic poem on Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in the Fairfield University School of Nursing Auditorium.

In "The Children," Mr. Goings takes the reader through a multi-layered odyssey, through periods of time and struggle in the African-American experience. The triumph of both mythological and real people over adversity run through the work and present one dominant motif that speaks to the universality of the black experience.

Listen, call the children of children, Marcus's father raised him to the sky. He offered his son to the spirits, to ancestors, who sang: Marcus is the son of a black man, a man who swims in the Niger, who climbs Kilimanjaro, who crosses the Gobi, who dances under stars and meets the rays of morning.
Listen to his father's call: I am the son of a black man, holding my son, and together we fish from the edge of exasperation with the strings of experience; we bait and lure that which is below the surface. I embrace Marcus with the lore of a teller of tales. Tales that heighten wonder.

(From the Children of Children Keep Coming)

Posted On: 04-06-2001 09:04 AM

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