Remembering Terri Lynn Jewell: Black, Lesbian-Feminist Poet

Remembrances by LauRose Felicity, Maree Ecrevan, and Pam McMichael
Edited by Rose Norman

Terri Jewell (b. 1954 and d. 1995), a Black, lesbian-feminist poet, grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. While she also lived in Lansing, Michigan, for several years, we are happy to claim her for the South.

In 1984, she attended Womonwrites: the Southeast Lesbian Writers Conference (1979-2019) in Georgia with the Louisville League of Lesbian Writers. She published six poems in the annual anthology that Womonwrites published in 1985. (Womonwrites [known then as “WomanWrites”] annual anthologies were privately printed. They are part of the Womonwrites archive at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University. Terri Jewell’s poems are published here with permission of the editors.)

Terri Jewell with five other Louisville Kentucky poets pose in front of a vulva painting — The League of Louisville [Kentucky] Writers at a poetry reading. Left to right: Pam McMichael, Terri Jewell, Iandras Moontree, LauRose Felicity, and Maree Ecrevan. Mary Zriny is below Pam McMichael.

During her short life, Terri Jewell published one book of poetry, Succulent Heretic (Lansing, MI: Oral Tortuga Press, 1994). She also published the collection, The Black Woman’s Gumbo Ya-Ya: Quotations by Black Women (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1993).

Terri Jewell’s book, Our Names Are Many: The Black Woman’s Book of Days (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1996), was published posthumously. Her poems also appear in scores of journals, and they are anthologized in collections like: A Fierce Brightness: 25 Years of Women’s Poetry; When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple; and If I Had My Life to Live Over, I Would Pick More Daisies.

When our Herstory Project editors went looking for women who remembered Terri Jewell, we found her Louisville League of Lesbian Writers friends eager to participate. LauRose Felicity sent photos from a Louisville poetry reading.

Maree Ecrevan recalled writing poems to Terri after Terri’s tragic death. Terri suffered from depression and took her own life when she was only forty-one years old.

Three stanza poem Thoughts for Terri — Maree Ecrevan’s poem for Terri published in the Womonwrites Anthology 1999 (edited by deJoly LaBrier). Terri, Iandras, Pam, Laura (now LauRose), and Maree were the League of Lesbian Writers.

Pam McMichael had recently dreamed of Terri and was in the process of arranging a trip to the Michigan State University Library to review Terri’s archive there. She sent us photos of Terri’s poetry book Succulent Heretic and her poem from that collection “HA’NT.”

Terri Jewell's book cover has a stylized drawing of an exuberant Black fat woman standing with arms and legs outstretched — The cover of Terri Jewell’s poetry book, *Succulent Heretic.*

Terri Jewell's poem Hant is shown here — The poem, “HA’NT.” from Terri Jewell’s poetry collection, “Succulent Heretic”

Pam recalls that the League of Lesbian Writers had an acronym for themselves, TOSASS, meaning Taking Ourselves Seriously As Sapphic Scribes. LauRose expands on that: “Terri was a fierce, driven poet, probably one of the most prolific writers that I know. She had an urgent need to express herself fully in all of her identities as a Black lesbian woman of size. She was sexy, athletic, a bike rider, dramatic, and beautiful. When I went to her apartment in Louisville, her writing was lying around everywhere. We would dive into intense political and personal conversations.”

Pam McMichael concurs: “Terri was brilliantly talented, and additionally, serious and dedicated to her craft of writing. It was in every fiber of her being and had to come out. Time and again, her work left me, and many other listeners and readers, in wonder at her imagery, and where her poetry took you and what her work evoked.”

A woman standing in front of a fabric sculpture of a vulva — Terri Jewell

Pam recalls how Terri Jewell has informed Pam’s own poetry in recent years:

“Three years ago, I re-engaged my poetry with a couple of friends in a dedicated way, and of course Terri Jewell came into my heart and mind. I took Succulent Heretic off the shelf, and a xeroxed copy of her death notice fell out of the book. I felt like Terri was talking to me, and I wrote her a poem. In seeing what would turn up in an online search, I learned that she is listed on the website of notable Kentucky African Americans, and that her archives are housed at Michigan State University. In that poem I promised to come to her, hence my upcoming trip in May to East Lansing.”

LauRose learned a lot from her friendship with Terri, and she wants it to go on record that “Terri was young, and she had some challenges with her parents, who wanted her to be a button-down, college-educated, straight, middle class Black woman. Understandably in the social climate of Louisville at the time, her parents felt that she already had ‘enough strikes against her’ as a big, Black woman. She hurt thinking that she disappointed them.”

Pam McMichael recalls bonding with Terri over body image: “Terri and I shared the trials, tribulations, and joys of being large women. Many of our conversations about body would happen over food itself, especially at our favorite place, Tumbleweed. She entered medical records during early evening hours at a hospital, and we’d spontaneously head out to eat on her dinner hour, with ‘hour’ loosely defined. We always had much to talk about, on so many levels.”

Terri Jewell speaking at a podium with microphone — Terri Jewell from MichiganLGBTQ Remember.com

Pam McMichael recalls that Terri was serious and dedicated about bringing Black women-loving-women together. Pam writes: “In addition to doing that through her writing, in the 1980s, for months, she put ads in the Lavender Letter, a Louisville area lesbian newsletter. I recall conversations with Terri of her fears and concerns as initial responses to the ads barely trickled in, and then her joy and hopes as more lesbian, bi, and questioning women responded, risking, reaching out and building trust with each other. She and that group were a tremendous resource and support to each other.”

LauRose recalls a moment at Womonwrites that captures Terri’s dedication to lesbian feminism, and especially to Black lesbian writers: “One night, a young woman, who was a tiny woman, was having a challenging moment. Terri held her compassionately within her thighs. I’ll always remember that image of protective tenderness.”

Pam McMichael recalls the last time she saw Terri Jewell: “It was in 1994 at Crazy Ladies Bookstore in Cincinnati at a reading of The Black Woman’s Gumbo Ya-Ya. A year later, she would be painfully gone. Terri would have been 70 this fall. It is another layer to grief to know what might have been had she not tragically gone so soon. I’m deeply appreciative that her memory is being invoked by SLFAHP.”

Terri Jewell at an event honoring her at the Michigan State University Libraries

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