Today’s show is a tribute to Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989). Throughout his life, Brown was a poet, teacher, and pioneering folklorist who took Black speech as a key to unlocking the depths of African-American character. John Edgar Tidwell: “On numerous folklore-collecting trips into juke joints, barber shops and isolated farms, Brown absorbed the wit and wisdom of Mrs. Bibbe, Calvin Big Boy Davis, Slim Greer, and many more actual persons who are refashioned into the many memorable folk characters of his poetry.” One can hear in Brown’s work just a trace of the “rap” that was to come.