My Love, My Love, or the Peasant Girl
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Day 11: Rosa Guy
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Prolific writer and activist, Rosa Guy was born on September 1, 1922 in Trinidad. She immigrated to New York City in 1932 with her family. Ultimately she and her younger sister were orphaned and spent times in the foster care system before Guy was able to find factory work to support them. After a stint at the American Negro Theatre, Guy turned to writing. Her first published work was a set of short stories titled "Magnify" and "Carnival." They were both published in 1965 in a Trinidadian newspaper called Nation. Her first novel Bird at My Window, was published in 1966. Guy, along with fellow writers John Oliver Killens, John Henrik Clarke, Willard Moore, and Walter Christmas, founded the Harlem Writers Guild in 1950. This group, the first organization specifically for Black American writers, still exists today. The Guild boasts members such as Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Ruby Dee, and Walter Dean Myers.
The events of her teen life appear in many of Guy's novels. Her work frequently focuses on families (and found families) and centers around the lives of adolescents. In a 1973 review of Guy's The Friends, Alice Walker wrote "this book is called a 'juvenile.' So be a juvenile while you read it. Rosa Guy will give you back a large part of the memory of those years that you've been missing." In 1971 Guy compiled a collection of interviews with Black American youth called Children of Longing. In addition to stories about family and friendship, Guy wrote about homosexuality, class, sex, and other coming of age topics.
Besides her young adult novels, Guy also wrote for adults and for children. Her adult novel My Love, My Love: Or, The Peasant Girl, was adapted into a musical called Once on This Island. The show ran on Broadway from 1990 to 1991 and was nominated for 8 Tony Awards. Her activism not only manifested in her writings about her underrepresented community, Guy was also a member of Black nationalist organizations. After the assassination of Patrice Lumumba In 1961 she participated in a sit-in at the United nations.
"The full responsibility of writers I believe should be trying to make the world a better place for us all to live in."
