François Clemmons
Autore di Officer Clemmons: A Memoir
Sull'Autore
Opere di François Clemmons
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1945
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- Birmingham, Alabama, USA
- Istruzione
- Oberlin College
Carnegie Mellon University (MFA) - Attività lavorative
- actor
singer
playwright
professor
choir director - Organizzazioni
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Metropolitan Opera
Harlem Spiritual Ensemble
Middlebury College
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 2
- Utenti
- 110
- Popolarità
- #176,729
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 5
Recently in connection with my “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series, I wrote about François Clemmons after discovering that he also grew up in Youngstown. I also learned that he had recently published a memoir, and intrigued as I was, I picked up a copy to learn about this man who worked on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for twenty-five years, breaking down racial barriers through his very presence.
My article viewed Clemmons as an outside observer. The memoir gave me a sense of what it was like to be François Clemmons from those early childhood years, the years of awakening to his homosexuality, the extraordinary relationship he had with Fred Rogers, and his later career. He begins with his troubled childhood with a violent father. His Great Grandmama Laura Mae protected him, forcibly removing him when his father kidnapped him at gunpoint, shooting the father in the shoulder! It was his Great Grandmama who led the effort to gather enough money to send a group of men, his mother Inez, and himself to the industrial north, to begin a new life away from his violent father. He also writes of his Granddaddy Saul, from whom he learned to sing.
Youngstown was not any better family-wise. Inez, his mother, took up with Warren, who she adored, but who became an abusive step-father to Clemmons. Singing, especially in the city’s churches became an escape and he rapidly gained status, learning to read music, eventually becoming choir director at his church. Even then, he was beginning to realize that he had feelings for his own sex, “tamping” these down, discouraged by both friends and his church’s, and especially his mother’s, beliefs. He also discovers the racism that would put him on a vocational rather than a college track and excluded him from music venues, except for special Blacks-only nights. His ticket out of Youngstown came in the form of a social worker who paid for music lessons from a well-trained choral director and encouraged his application to Oberlin College. He describes the day a high school principal who was part of the Oberlin Alumni Association called him to his office to share the news that he was going to ask the alumni to provide a scholarship to attend Oberlin, which had a very fine conservatory. That support was crucial because, by then, he was living with friends to escape his step-father’s violent temper.
The next part of the memoir recounts Clemmons musical training under the tutelage of Ellen Repp and his acceptance of his homosexuality. Ironically, an effort of his mother and stepfather to “fix” him by taking him to a prostitute led to his taking refuge with the Beechwoods, whose son was gay and who fully accepted both him and François. They would be his home in Youngstown until his graduation. He became involved in civil rights advocacy, meeting Dr. King and learning about Bayard Rustin, a key organizer who was also a gay man. When he met Nick, he experienced deep fulfillment in a relationship with another man.
The final part of the memoir covers the years in Pittsburgh and the development of his singing career in New York. Much focuses on his extraordinary relationship with Fred Rogers, who he first met during his MFA studies at Carnegie Mellon, while singing in the choir at the church Fred and Joanne attended. From the first lunch he had with Fred, he discovered someone who loved him unconditionally. He describes on particular episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where Rogers ended as he always did, saying, “You make every day a special day by being you, and I like you just the way you are.” Clemmons felt like Fred was looking at him, and asked him, after the show, “Fred, were you talking to me.” Rogers replied, “Yes I was. I have been talking to you for years. You finally heard me today.” While Rogers personally accepted Clemmons homosexuality, he would not permit Clemmons to be publicly out and remain on the show. That just would not have been possible in the 1960’s. Clemmons describes the tension he struggled with between his homosexuality and his recognition of the work he was able to do on the show to change perceptions of Blacks. He admired Rogers support of civil rights, typified by a time when they were on tour in Cincinnati and a music director refused to let Clemmons rehearse. Rogers asked the man to apologize or they would not work with him.
Rogers supported his singing career, including standing with him, supporting him financially, and mentoring him through further racist treatment with the Metropolitan Opera. Eventually Clemmons retired from the show, going on to research and perform the great spirituals in the Black American music tradition, first with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, and later, at Middlebury College, where he now makes his home. One of the heartwarming episodes he describes is the opportunity to invite Rogers to Middlebury to receive an honorary degree.
The memoir concludes with a man who seems to be at peace, having finally found the way to forgiving his two fathers, accepting his own sexuality, championing the distinctive music of his people, and reveling in the love of this most unusual figure in television history, Fred Rogers. The memoir helps us to see how hardwon this peace was, given the racism, the opposition from family and society to his sexuality, and the challenges of making it as a Black in the classical and operatic world. It’s a story of both persevering in a gifted calling, and the difference that a few people who did the right thing–a great grandmother, a social worker, a choral director, a principal, a music professor, and finally, Fred Rogers. In the end, through teaching and through this memoir, Clemmons has turned around to give to others the best of what was entrusted to him.… (altro)