Poet shares life stories through stage characters

Precious Jones is a 16-year-old African-American girl from Harlem and the survivor of her father's incestuous advances.

However, even though Jones' story seems real, the character is not: She is just one of the many painfully realistic figures created by bisexual writer and performance artist Sapphire.

The writer spoke Wednesday night as part of the 13th annual Pride Week sponsored by the Lambda Student Alliance, reading passages from her first two books, American Dreams and Push: A Novel, as well as from works-in-progress.

"I felt that her narration gave life to the characters," said Carrie Jaffe (junior-communication disorders). "She was really able to describe how they felt in a way that made the audience feel it, too."

Sapphire's characters, such as Precious Jones, are often young adults facing difficult life situations with little or no support network to help them.

The writer's most recent book, Push, finds the character of Precious narrating a story filled with pain and suffering.

After becoming pregnant for the second time by her father, the young woman must come to grips with both her illiteracy and oppressive home life.

As Sapphire read selected passages from the novel, the audience erupted in laughter at times and sat in silent contemplation during other moments.

Speaking of Sapphire's fiction, Stephanie Pasker (junior-political science) said she felt that the writer's honest street-level approach to description and dialogue allowed the audience to enter a place that might be unfamiliar for many.

"I felt that she was able to give a voice to something people might not have had contact with," Pasker said.

However, as the question and answer period proved, there were also many people in the audience who were able to relate to the insecurity and alienation that Sapphire's characters exhibited.

Speaking of her own experience, the writer talked about the difficulty of being a bisexual person in the black community.

"I'm finally at a place of peace and honesty with myself," she said.