Chester, SC, has hosted a special celebration. A famous actress helped make it happen

Famed actress Phylicia Rashad stood under the hot sun in Chester, S.C., Saturday evening wearing her mother’s embroidered Mexican-style dress.

…”Was blind, but now I see,” she sang with a smile on her face.

A choir was singing the hymn “Amazing Grace” in front of a crowd of more than 100 people. Rashad stood in the background.

Then Rashad took the microphone and recited a poem written by her mother, Vivian Ayers Allen.

“Can’t take this town, I used to say. It’s dull and quiet, country way. So I boarded the train, kissed all goodbye, and in my heart was a sentimental sigh…” she recited.

Rashad describes Ayers Allen as a poet, scholar, cultural activist and historian. Rashad was in Chester to celebrate her mother’s 100th birthday. Rashad had invited the public to the Brainerd Institute campus for the celebration.

Ayers Allen was not present for the celebration called the “South Carolina Folk Poetry Fest.” She remained in Los Angeles. But she watched remotely on a live streaming broadcast where she could see other poets perform.

As part of the celebration, Rashad and her sister, Debbie Allen, announced they’ve had Ayers Allen’s poem “Hawk,” written in 1957, republished through the Clemson University Press. Debbie Allen also was not in Chester.

Vivian Ayers Allen wrote a book of poems, “Spice of Dawns,” and the poem “Hawk” in the 1950s. She worked at NASA in the 1960s and was considered a member of the group of Black women who worked there and were made famous in the movie “Hidden Figures.” During a space mission in the 1960s, astronauts read her poetry as images were shown of the flight. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for “Hawk.”

The poem is 64 pages and uses space flight and love as an allegory for freedom, said Ayers Allen’s spokesman Pete Stone in a statement. Vivian wrote the poem essentially as a metaphor for her own journey and work, he said.

““Hawk” was published 11 weeks prior to the Sputnik getting launched into space,” Stone said. “Likewise, Ayers liked to brag when talking to audiences…”we were ahead of the Russians!”

A special version of the book was on sale at Saturday’s event and a different version will be available online and in stores this fall.

Famous daughters

Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen are both broadway and screen actresses, directors and producers. Rashad sang and starred on broadway, earning a Tony Award. Then she landed the role as Clair Huxtable on the popular 1980s television sitcom “The Cosby Show.” She also starred in other TV shows and movies during the next few decades. She had a recurring role on the award-winning TV drama series “Empire” and “This is Us.”

Dancer, actress and director Debbie Allen is an Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony Award winner. She was in the 1980s hit TV show “Fame” and its subsequent films. She starred in “Grey’s Anatomy” and operates the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.

Ayers Allen moved to Houston and later moved with her children to Mexico to have experiences away from the racist climate in the U.S. Southeast, she has said.

While in Mexico, Ayers Allen studied the Mayan culture, as well as Greek literature.

Brainerd Academy

Ayers Allen moved back to Chester more than a decade ago and, for a while, lived in a house two blocks from Brainerd.

Brainerd was a school built for children of former enslaved people who had been freed. Ayers Allen was in the last graduating class in 1939, the year the school closed.

Rashad purchased Brainerd in 1999 after a group of community members tried raising money to save the property from being developed. All but one of the original buildings, the 102-year-old Kumler Hall, is still standing.

Ayers Allen started offering programs to preschool children in 2017 in a program called Workshops in Open Fields at Brainerd. It’s a preschool literary program, where children are encouraged to use their creativity.

“My mother lives in a world of her own imagination and creativity and that’s how she functions,” Debbie Allen said in a 2018 interview with The Herald. “Mommy has just inspired us and made us know that that’s the way you need to live and that’s how she lived and continues to live.”

At Saturday’s event during an interview, Rashad said she had spoken to her mother during the morning and Ayers Allen was “all smiling. She’s just smiling.”

“I said, can you feel it Mommy, can you feel the energy, can you feel it?” She said. “And she said yes, she was just smiling!”

Rashad called the size of the crowd amazing.

“But it says a lot about how people feel about her,” she said. “And she loves Chester…She just gets all heavy and involved and elated.”

Rashad said her mother loves Chester’s environment and the people of Chester.

“So that’s why I’m here today and not anywhere else,” she said “I said ‘people in Chester will want to celebrate,’ so I’ll be here with the people in Chester.”