Melissa Hillman
English 15
Professor Lennon
September 17, 2012
Looking in the Mirror
In
this essay I will be reflecting on the selection titled “Sanctuary” out of
Frankie Lennon’s memoir titled Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a
Black Woman’s Life. In this selection,
the author describes a place in five different ways for the reader. I believe the author does this so that the
reader can fully understand the significance of the place and the effect it had
on her life. Each story in this
selection tells us, as readers, one thing the author learned of herself from
this place she called her “Sanctuary”. In
the Webster’s Dictionary a sanctuary is defined as “a building set aside for
worship. A holy place. Asylum of safety and security. Place of refuge or protection. A Christian church. Reservation where animals or birds are
sheltered and may not be hunted or trapped”.
I would like to take you through each of these stories and hopefully by
the end you will understand them in more detail.
The
first story is titled ‘The Ebony Showcase’.
“When you walked in to the lobby, you could tell she had been a queen,
but her reign had ended and that she had fallen on hard times.” The Ebony Showcase Theatre is what the narrator
is describing in this quote. Located on
the corner of Washington Boulevard and Rimpau in the heart of Los Angeles,
California. This was a place of history,
where you could see the aging on each seat, on the red curtains with the
threadbare patches, and in the faded colors of the walls. The narrator came to this place out of
curiosity, not for the place itself but for what the place held inside of
it. Every Sunday the services of the
Unity Fellowship Church of Christ were held here. It was in 1987 when the narrator came across
this church for the first time. The
minister was an openly gay man named Reverend Carl Bean. He started this church for all those who were
hiding in the closet about their sexuality.
So that they too could have a place to be themselves. This is one thing that drew the narrator to
this place over and over again. It gave
her a sense of security to be with and around people just like her; a
sanctuary.
The
next story that the narrator tells us is titled ‘Affirmation’. The narrator shares with us that every Sunday
morning at the service Reverend Bean would open up with words of
affirmation. Sharing words of
affirmation is a way that a person can positively assert someone they care
about or can relate to in one way or another. It is a way that we can heal others with the
power of words. He would start by
saying, “Wherever you identify yourself along God’s rainbow, know that you are
not in error. You are God’s
creation. You are not a mistake. Homosexual, Lesbian, Transgender,
Heterosexual, Bisexual. God made you the
way you are. So love yourself and know
that you are very special!” Sunday after
Sunday, hearing these words gradually began to change the narrator’s view of
reality. It changed how she viewed
herself; not only on the inside but on the outside as well. She finally saw herself as a whole person. A
true sanctuary of God.
The
third story is titled ‘The Welcome Table’.
The motto of Unity Fellowship Church of Christ is that “God is Love and
Love is for Everyone”. A lot of people
were attracted to this church based on this motto alone. No one was excluded because of their race or
the color of their skin, by who they found attractive or what gender they
were. Every person was welcomed with
open arms at Unity Church. The narrator
learned that it is not God who discriminated but people that blamed it on the
teachings of God who were the true discriminators. By the late 1980’s, there was a new branch of
discrimination. A virus that became a new kind of leprosy; this virus was
AIDS. It mostly preyed on the population
of gay men. Giving people another reason
to fear their kind; the ones that they called “not normal”. Minority AIDS Project of Unity church did the
exact opposite of this. It welcomed and
helped people who were ill. It gave them
strength and hope that there was someone out there for them to lean on in this
time of pain and suffering. This is
another thing that set apart Unity from all other churches and communities and
what also kept the narrator going back every Sunday. I guess she felt that if she could give a
sense of security to others, she would start finding security in herself; as a
black lesbian woman in that time and era of segregation.
The
second to last story the narrator tells us is titled ‘The Bible’. By this time, in 1989, Unity has moved to a
bigger location at 5149 Jefferson Boulevard.
Unity has gotten so big that it was standing room only on Sundays. On Sundays their choir, the Voices of Unity,
would sing their hearts out. The narrator
tells us that song was an old African and, now, African American way of
healing. She says, “Song freed us from
the worries, the uncertainties, the torments.”
I personally see some significance in the name of the choir itself; The
Voices of Unity. People singing together
in perfect harmony the songs of our Lord to bring together the people of the
community in a place of worship and security.
They helped others see themselves as creations of God and not freaks of
nature and abominations. They brought
people together under the love of God and into the security of his arms. After song and praise, Reverend Bean would
ask the congregation to take out their Bibles. He told them that they had to “…confront the
thing that preachers had used to terrorize us: The Bible.” The Bible was the tool in which people
used to threaten the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community as well
as women and the people of color.
Reverend Bean not only preached the word of God, he also taught the congregation
the lessons in which God wanted them to learn through His words. Everyone can interpret The Bible in different ways.
We just have to make sure it is in the safety of others as well as
ourselves the way we interpret the readings in The Bible. Unity Fellowship
Church of Christ was not only a sanctuary to the narrator, but a place to learn
about freeing herself and others from oppression and injustice.
Last,
but not the least, is the story titled ‘The Pigeons’. In this story, I personally believe we hear
more of the author’s voice than the narrators.
The author explains perfectly the symbolism of the pigeons in the story. These birds had gotten trapped in the Ebony
Showcase Theatre. In a building where
they would stay for the rest of their lives until they found their own way
out. The author says, “Like the pigeons,
we had been flying frantically here and there – for all of our lives, really –
flapping and bumping, lost and looking for a place we could simply be free.” I believe that the author found exactly that
at this place, at the Unity Fellowship Church of Christ. No oppression, judgment, or segregation. It was a place where she could be free to be
herself and also learn about her true self.
It was where she felt the safest and most secure. It was her sanctuary.
In
each story we can learn something, either about the author or about
ourselves. I believe that the importance
of the selection “Sanctuary” is to teach us to truly be comfortable with
ourselves. To know that we are not
abominations or freaks of nature but that we are all created in the image of
God. We are all temples of the Holy
Spirit. Each and every one of us,
whether we are white or black, woman or man, gay, lesbian, heterosexual,
homosexual, transgender, or bisexual. As
individuals, we need to find the sanctuary within ourselves so that we can be
all that we are capable of. To become
the best version of ourselves we can. To
truly live in the works of God and to help others find their own sanctuary.
