Poet's Work Sheds Light On Everyday Culture

Her fans call her the Maya Angelou of Seattle. That lofty praise is a lot to live up to.

But Mona Lake Jones, a Seattle voice of black culture, offers up a big scoop of ethnic pride. She writes of sweet lovers and berry pie, of angels and children; of women of all colors, "sisters," gathered for a meeting; of fathers and sons gathered at the barbershop.

"It was Saturday morning around about ten

When I was passing the barbershop and happened to look in."

She read "Brothers," - about a barbershop, "the only place where black men of every strata come together" - at a meeting of the Breakfast Group, an organization of African-American men.

The men responded with feeling to her words.

"There were brothers of all ages . . . waiting in line

Each one of them I would describe as fine!"

At the end of the poem, the men who had gathered at the Stouffer Madison Hotel rose and applauded, mopped tears from their eyes, hugged her as she moved toward the door.

At a national convention of Links, the black women's sorority, 3,000 women in an auditorium in Dallas had a similar reaction.

The service group 101 Black Women of Boston loved her poem "A Room Full of Sisters" so much they commissioned an artist to do a painting illustrating it. The work is to be exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Colleges have invited her to do readings coast to coast and students have stood in line for autographs.

"Essence" magazine published "Being the Mother of a Black Child."

"Being the mother of a black child

Ain't no easy thing

you've got to call on Jesus and listen

to the angels sing."

And she will read at Elliott Bay Book Company at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and in conjunction with the choir at Mount Zion Baptist Church May 21.

Despite the clamor for her work, Jones only began writing poetry about seven years ago.

An activist in the black community and an educator, "I was giving a speech somewhere and I thought wouldn't it be fun to put words down on paper that had a little rhythm."

The audience responded so positively, she and her husband, Joe, who owns the marketing and consulting firm, Impact Communications, several months ago published her poetry in book form: "The Color of Culture."

At times she's sold her $10 books out of the trunk of her car after readings - and still made a profit that has more than paid the publishing costs.

Why is her simple verse so popular? "I think it shares a lot of what the African-American culture is. It gives them pride and talks about things an African American can relate too," she said. "And for the broader population it gives an idea of what the African-American culture is all about.

"I talk about the music, the dance, the loving, the living."

"So little is written about positive relationships between (African-American) fathers and sons," said Minnie Collins, instructor at Seattle Central Community College, where Jones used to work. "I like her range. It's serious and yet . . . Her one-liners make a point where I have to stop and reflect. I have to look within my soul. They're almost a sociopolitical statement.

"Of course, I can't overlook the importance of her delivery. Mona makes her poems come alive. She makes the person in the audience want to come and talk to her."

The mother of two grown children, Jones has worked to instill in them the same ethnic pride her parents instilled in her when she was growing up in Spokane in the '40s and '50s. That was a time of pain - and joy.

"Something was cooking in the big iron pot

I slipped into the kitchen and said, "Mama what you got?"

It was my favorite chicken and dumplins', the kind you barely have to chew, I was so tickled, I hardly knew what to do."

"I really look at what's bright about the culture, rather than the sadness," she said.

And she paints dazzling portraits. As Collins says, "Mona makes the colors of her culture brilliant."

"She's my poet laureate," long-time friend Constance Rice said. "She really gets to the purity of everyday living."

"In the last five years, she's dropped these poems on a meeting or at a gathering or walking down the street. We were in California, standing at the checkout counter in L.A. and she's just created a poem. I couldn't believe it. It was just beautiful."