Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta
Nancy Henderson of Leavittsburg, left, Jeanne Bryner’s sister, and Bryner stand in front of a slide shown during the author talk at the Cortland branch of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library of their parents, Wilma and Willis Henderson in the mid 1940s. The family’s homestead is in West Virginia, where the 138th family reunion will take place this year.
CORTLAND — Jeanne Bryner and Susan Jacobs are both accomplished in their creative fields — Byner as a poet and author of 11 books and Jacobs as a visual artist.
On Saturday, the two appeared together for a Poet and Author Talk at the Cortland branch of the Warren Trumbull County Public Library. The attendees listened to Bryner read her poems, viewed Jacobs’ art piece and met the two creative women.
Bryner’s most recent release, “In Velvet: New and Selected Poems,” is an artistic collaboration between the two women. Jacobs’ artwork is on the front cover of the book, and Byner explained how their collaboration occurred.
“Every year there is a call for women in the arts at the YWCA in Youngstown. The photographs of their submitted work come to area poets. We choose one to three of those pieces and then we write poetry in response to that. That is called Ekphrastic poetry,” Bryner said.
One of the photographs that Bryner viewed from the art show was Jacobs’ depiction of a blue shirt hanging on a door.
“Two days before I got the photographs, I started writing a poem about an old blue shirt I had. Then, I got the files and I said, ‘Oh my God, look at that blue shirt.’ I don’t believe in accidents when things happen. I don’t know what happens in the cosmos. But I thought, I already started this poem. I’m good.”
When her publisher reminded her that she had to choose the cover art for her new book, she thought of the work from the YWCA Women’s Art Show.
“I told him about the women’s art show and there was one I really, really liked. I sent him the photograph and he really liked it too,” Bryner said.
Her publisher thought the artwork was perfect for this group of poems.
“This book is from all my books of poetry from 42 years of writing and publishing. You get to a certain age and you select poems from each book and then you write a section that is new,” she said.
Bryner sees the artwork as a blessing because it is rare to have the artist and poet meet or be in the same room for a publication collaboration.
Jacobs explained the inspiration for the cover art piece. The blue shirt was the shirt she wore to create art and it showed its wear.
“I painted it as a separate art piece and I got it in a couple of art shows. Then I thought it should be hanging on a door,” she said.
Jacobs talked about the creative process and how most inspiration comes in the wee hours of the morning when she wonders how she is going to execute it.
“It’s interesting how this was an inspiration for you. For most artists it’s a matter of putting the pieces together and presenting them,” Jacobs told Bryner.
For Bryner, this talk was also about family. Her sister, niece and cousins attended the event.
“I write from what I know about my life and what I don’t know about my life I went on a search of,” she said.
Slides moved behind her during her talk that showed her family from the Appalachian area of West Virginia. She talked about her parents’ migration from farm work to living in the projects and her dad’s work at the area’s mills.
Bryner discussed her discovery of her great-grandmother’s story, a woman with 14 children, whose husband left her at the turn of the century and how she and the children survived. These stories inspired her new poems, such as “Call from West Virginia to Ohio, 1956,” and “Patches from a Family Quilt.”
“Quite frankly, I owe her (great-grandmother) my life. If she hadn’t found a way for that family to survive, I wouldn’t be here. My sisters and brothers wouldn’t be here,” Bryner said.
