Poet and activist probably didn't know she launched a legacy. Her daughters Phylicia Ayers Allen-Rashad and Debbie Allen-Nixon are successful in their own right.
But Vivian made some news splashes in her hey day.
CHESTER, SC, June 30, 2009
/Cambridge Who's Who/ -- Vivian
Ayers-Allen, poet, cultural activist and Founding Director of the
"Brainerd Institute Project," a subsidiary of The ADEPT Publications New
American Folk Center, Inc., has been recognized by
Cambridge Who's Who for dedication, leadership and excellence in all various aspects of her career.
As director of ADEPT and the Brainerd Institute Project, Ms. Ayers-Allen
is responsible for the collection of Brainerd archives, the ongoing
development of the Museum-Executive Offices of ADEPT, and Fund Raising
and fiscal management in service to these operations. A Pulitzer Award
nominee poet, playwright and publisher, she did also once serve as a
librarian at Rice University, where she was trained and given faculty
status in 1966. Her published works include a first book of poems,
"Spice of Dawns" and an allegory of Freedom made analogous to love and
to space flight, "HAWK'. The latter work has been honored by NASA in
Clear Lake, Texas on numerous occasions. Much poetry has been dispersed
through letters and formal presentations sponsored by museums, cultural
centers and Universities.
Ms. Ayers-Allen is an alumna of Brainerd Institute. She completed course
work in music and the standard curricula at Barber-Scotia College in
Concord, NC, and course work in drama at Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, NC. She is the recipient of two Honorary Doctorates awarded
by Wilberforce University in Ohio in the year 1995, and by her alma
mater, Bennett College, in the year 2006. Her extended studies include
fifteen consecutive years of Classical Greek training, and twenty years
of independent Mayan research. She hopes to publish very soon a
definitive work resulting from her independent research into
Mesoamerican Math-Astronomy.
Brainerd Institute (1867 - 1939) was organized for newly liberated
African slaves following the American Civil War by the Board of Missions
of the Presbyterian Church, USA. The historic estate was purchased by
Tony Award winning Actress Phylicia Rashad in 1999 and immediately
transferred to the 501 3 corporation, ADEPT, so as to proceed with its
redevelopment and resurgence as a cultural and educational center, under
the direction of Vivian Ayers-Allen in association with her daughters
Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen and a Board of Directors. Debbie Allen and
affable spouse, Norman Nixon, the former Laker "Great," have sponsored
this move to our native Chester.
"It's a new world!" says the poet Vivian Ayers-Allen," And what is a
'new world'... but the self speaking up in the joy of Self-recognition
and expression? Once all America was new."
Edited by pattigurlatl - Feb 07 2013 at 11:41pm
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