An Interview with Brenda Marie Osbey

Abstract I first met Brenda Marie Osbey in 1985, when we were both Harvard Fellows; I was lucky enough to be introduced to her poetry and her gumbo in the same evening. Moses Nkondo had insisted I come to what promised to be a memorable reading at Radcliffe: “Brenda Marie is not to be missed, especially by a fellow southerner like you!” Moses was right; Brenda electrified the audience, and I eagerly accepted his offer to introduce us. I was immediately invited to a party that featured the famous gumbo and other delicacies that were delicious and exotic, even to a fellow southerner (my native Georgia, after all, is almost as different from New Orleans as Cambridge). Brenda had somehow made her small apartment an outpost of Louisiana, decorating it with tropical colors and filling its rooms with the aroma of her famous food. Little did I know that later that same year I’d be transplanting myself to Louisiana, where Brenda Marie’s cooking-both culinary and poetic-would find compelling visual and sensual equivalents.