Beah Richards

Beah Richards Poems

Beah Richards Biography

She was born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi; her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and two years later moved to New York City. Her career started to take off in 1955 when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun. "There are a lot of movies out there that I would hate to be paid to do, some real demeaning, real woman-denigrating stuff. It is up to women to change their roles. They are going to have to write the stuff and do it. And they will." – Beah Richards Richards was nominated for a Tony Award for her 1965 performance in James Baldwin's The Amen Corner.She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.[1] Other notable movie performances include Hurry Sundown, The Great White Hope, Beloved and In the Heat of the Night. She made numerous guest television appearances including recurrent roles on Beauty and the Beast, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Benson, Designing Women, The Practice, The Big Valley and ER (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.) She was the winner of two Emmy Awards, one in 1988 for her appearance on the series Frank's Place, and another in 2000 for her appearance on The Practice.)

The Best Poem Of Beah Richards

'Freedom is living'

I have moved Southern mansions,
but you have moved mountains.
I have seen the heart of the great white hunter,
from the inside out, again and again.
While you pumped water by the ocean.

When I speak of poetry
often, I am shallow and pine
for authenticity. The kind of love
only a black woman deserves.
From under the breast
From fecund preserves.

Beah, you are the night
Beah, you are the womb
Beah, you were right
To be always you.

When I first read you
I knew right then
a rook from the queen
the sword from a pen.

Brave, broad, Broadway
Slave, Home, Democracy
Coal, pressed, diamond
One Strong Woman.

You were never an eight
lined maid in my movie.
You are the closest
thing to a mother I will ever
find, the purest colored
voice I would dare rewind.

Beah, you are the night
Beah, you are the womb
Beah, you are the fight
For what we need
to see through.

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