An Interview with Ernie McCray
The La Jolla Theatre Ensemble proudly presents a One-Man Show with ERNIE McCRAY, "STILL ME, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS" on February 23rd and February 25th
I had the great good fortune to connect with our wonderful friend, Ernie McCray, recently. He’s been giving us his poems every week—and through them, his spirit, his joy, his sorrow, and his enormous will and inspiration. Ernie will be performing in a one-man show at the La Jolla Library on Sunday, February 23rd at 2PM and on Tuesday, February 25th at 6PM at the La Jolla Library (7555 Draper Avenue; La Jolla, CA 92037). A donation of $15 is suggested, but above all they want folks to be there for this memorable offering.
Tell me about yourself: your history, your activism, your work, and your time and experience in San Diego.
I was raised by a mother who always listened to me and asked what I thought of things which enabled me to go through life thinking I had something worthwhile to say.
We travelled every summer to visit family and her college friends from Howard University and down south we sat together at the back of the bus or at the front of the train and drank from the “colored” water fountains – which led to me learning from her how to maintain one’s dignity, no matter what the circumstances happen to be. My mother was politically active and dragged me along, so I’ve been in the struggle practically since the day I was born.
These experiences helped me immensely when I moved to San Diego in 1962 and began teaching at Perry Elementary in Bayview Navy Housing where I had the time of my life helping 6th graders and myself get a grip on the Vietnam War and the Beatles and Motown and the Civil Rights Movement and assassinations, et al.
Teaching is my calling, all I ever wanted to do, and I approached being a school principal in the spirit of really knowing how to make a classroom come alive, fun, blending lessons with poetry and prose and music and movement and creating sketches sometimes to make subjects like social studies relevant to the lives of students.
How did you get into writing poetry? Into performing? What was the first thing you published?
I started writing and reading at age three and loved playing with words and being on stage, be it on a sports field or court, or cracking the audience up doing a bit at a school assembly or at youth Sunday at church.
The first thing I remember publishing was a piece I wrote about a dodo bird in fourth grade which earned me an eighteen dollar plus war bond which I cashed in in my 20’s.
What do you see as being the intersections between art and activism? How do they work together? Your poetry is often very pointed politically. What can literature and art accomplish that political/historical/sociological writing can’t?
To me art is activism in and of itself and I’ve taken it further by sharing a poem or a song at political rallies or by taking part in guerrilla art performances, as I did in support of the Zapatistas in the early 90’s, portraying Sub-comandante Marcos.
Anything else you’d like to share?
As one who doesn’t like to be messed with, I’ve tried all my life to act out of love, something I got a lot of growing up: in my house, in my neighborhood, in my schools as a student and from the thousands of students and parents for whom I’ve had the honor of creating a learning environment.
And, also, although I’m not very religious now as religion is a bit too rigid for me, I received a lot of love from the church I attended in my youth – and what I took from that was a genuine desire to live by the Golden Rule: “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.”
And that has worked for me.
AMEN.
The La Jolla Theatre Ensemble proudly presents a One-Man Show with ERNIE McCRAY, "STILL ME, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS" -- The Poetry, Reflections, and Dreams of An Activist, Artist, Athlete, and Educator.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd at 2PM
And
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25th at 6PM
At the La Jolla Library
7555 Draper Avenue; La Jolla, CA 92037
Ernie McCray is a retired educator. He spends his time writing essays and poetry, reading, staying fit despite a back that gives him fits, and traveling with his soulmate, Maria. A social and political activist, he rises every day to do whatever he can to make the world a better place.
Ernie will share his poetry and thoughts with us over the course of this 70-75-minute program; Ernie's is a voice we want and need to hear at this very moment in our community's and our country's history.
Produced by Ernie McCray and John Tessmer.
A Donation of $15 is Suggested, but above all we want you to be there for this memorable offering.
~ We Look Forward to Seeing You There...!!