Jayne Cortez

Sallie Jayne Richardson was born on the tenth of May 1934 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the daughter of a United States Army sergeant of the segregated Tenth Cavalry — at the principal Tenth-Cavalry Fort-Huachuca-Buffalo-Soldier post-Second-World-War post-segregation period. She was raised at the family relocation to Los Angeles in 1944 in the principal post-Great-Migration Los Angeles Watts community.

She completed her secondary education at the Manual Arts High School at Los Angeles in 1952 — and attended the Compton College from 1952 to 1956 in the principal music-and-jazz programme.

She was married on the fifth of November 1954 at Los Angeles to the principal Black-American jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman — and was married to Coleman from 1954 to their separation in 1964. They had one son Denardo Coleman.

She co-founded with the principal Black-Arts-Movement playwright LeRoi Jones-Amiri Baraka the principal Watts Repertory Theatre Company at Los Angeles in 1964 — at the principal Watts-Black-Arts-Movement community theatre-and-poetic-performance period. She held the principal Watts Repertory Theatre Company artistic-and-poetic-director position from 1964 to 1969.

She published her first poetic volume Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares at the principal Phrase Text Press at New York in 1969 — the principal first poetic volume of the principal post-1968 Watts-Black-Arts-Movement spoken-word-and-jazz poetic canon.

She relocated to New York in 1967 — at the principal post-1965 Watts-rebellion-and-Black-Arts-Movement New-York-relocation period — and joined the principal Black-Arts-Movement Greenwich Village Black-and-spoken-word community.

She published nine further poetic volumes across the principal post-1969 spoken-word-and-jazz-performance period — including Festivals and Funerals of 1971, Scarifications of 1973, Mouth on Paper of 1977, Firespitter of 1982, and On the Imperial Highway of 2009.

She founded the principal Firespitters Band at New York in 1979 — the principal post-1979 spoken-word-and-jazz-performance ensemble of the principal post-1979 New-York Black-Arts-Movement spoken-word-and-jazz-performance canon. The principal Firespitters Band included her son Denardo Coleman, the principal Black-American jazz bassist Bern Nix, and the principal Black-American jazz drummer Al MacDowell.

She recorded across the principal post-1980 Firespitters Band period approximately ten spoken-word-and-jazz long-playing-record volumes at the principal Bola Press at New York — the principal post-1980 Firespitters-Band spoken-word-and-jazz long-playing-record canon.

She was married in 1975 to the principal Black-American sculptor Melvin Edwards — and was married to Edwards from 1975 to her death in 2012.

She died at New York on the twenty-eighth of December 2012 of complications of a heart attack, at seventy-eight.

She is honored here as the principal Black-American spoken-word-and-jazz poet of the late twentieth century.