Vivian Ayers Allen, a noted poet, activist honored by NASA and mother of two powerhouse actresses, has died.
She was 102 years old.
Her daughter, choreographer and actress Debbie Allen, announced her mother’s death on Instagram, writing, “Mommy you have transformed into that cosmic bird Hawk that lives and breathes Freedom.”
Hawk refers back to Ayers Allen’s long-form poem from 1957, “Hawk.”
“Hawk” is a book-length poem, written weeks before Apollo 11 launched, that linked freedom with space exploration, according to the Houston Chronicle. She was honored last year at NASA’s Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo building.
“Dr. Ayers Allen’s vibrant and evocative writing resonates as well today as it did in 1957, when it foreshadowed the first successes in space travel,” Clemson University Press Director Alison Mero said of the poem when it was reprinted in 2023, BET reported.
Ayers Allen was born in South Carolina and was a member of the final class at Brainerd Institute, a pre-collegiate school for African Americans. It opened in 1866 and abruptly closed in 1939, with students learning of the school’s closure on graduation day.
Her daughter, Phylicia Rashad, eventually purchased the property that was home to her mother’s school, including Kumler Hall, which, under the Ayers Allen’s guidance, was brought back to structural integrity in 2012. Kumler Hall was the sole remaining building on the former school property.
Ayers Allen said of the school, “Brainerd remains legendary for the success and impact of its students, their off-spring, camaraderie and love of learning. They are the source of the epithet ‘NERD’.”
Ayers Allen was the first Black full-time faculty member at Rice University when she became a librarian at the school in 1965 and started the Adept Quarterly literary magazine. She also founded the Adept American Folk Gallery in Texas, which became the Adept American Museum in New York.
She launched Workshops in Open Fields in 1973, which continues to this day.
Two years ago, Allen called her mother “a true Renaissance Woman,” in a tribute to her 100th birthday, People magazine reported.
“Spice of Dawns,” Ayers Allen’s first collection, was published in 1952 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the Post and Courier reported. She also studied classical literature, Mayan culture, astronomy, and wrote plays.
“As a child, it was amazing to have my mother — and somewhat disconcerting at times, because she wasn’t like other mothers,” Rashad told NPR in 2010. “Other mothers didn’t get up at 3 o’clock in the morning to write. My mother did, every day.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) remembered Ayers Allen in a Facebook post, writing, “The nation has lost a giant among its cultural warriors.”
Ayers Allen just celebrated her 102nd birthday on July 29, People magazine reported.
“It was my mother who gave us a real appreciation for art and literature as living things, not just as something hung on the wall or placed on the shelf — an appreciation for ideas and the power of thought and human intention,” Rashad said in the NPR interview. “My mother gave us a lot — she gave us everything.”
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