Interviewer Violet Harrington-Bryan asked Brenda Marie Osbey about the chief subject of her poetry, the women of New Orleans and the bayou country. Osbey responded candidly: "See, the women in my poems are women who 'take no shit.' When you're living in a constant state of oppression, you can snap at any time." Osbey's poems detail the strength and resilience, as well as the psychic disorientation, of the colorful characters who inhabit this district. She describes her creative and historical study of Louisiana folklore as "a kind of cultural biography, a cultural geography." Her poems capture the essence of Afro-Louisianan culture and language.

Born on 12 December 1957 to Lawrence C. Osbey (a boxer) and his wife, Lois Emelda Hamilton, Osbey grew up in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans. An honor student, she skipped her senior year in high school (1973-1974) to participate in the Early Admissions Program...