Endesha Ida Mae Holland
by Ray Delgado
Endesha Ida Mae Holland conquered a childhood of extreme poverty, racism and violence to become a Pulitzer-nominated playwright, educator and civil rights activist. Most importantly, Holland was a survivor, documenting the roadblocks she was forced to overcome in From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir. The book details how she was raped on her 11th birthday, as well as her subsequent spiral into sex work. Holland found purpose – and her voice – in the civil rights movement in 1960s Alabama.
The movement gave Holland the confidence she needed to enroll in college, sparking a celebrated career. She began her tenure at USC in 1993 as a playwright in residence, later becoming a professor with joint appointments in the School of Theatre (now known as the USC School of Dramatic Arts) and the Gender Studies Program.
In addition to being a playwright, poet, professor and essayist, she was a pro-education activist who presented one-woman dramatic readings throughout the United States that often pulled from her own experience of education as a pathway out of poverty. She mentored countless women, particularly women of color, and encouraged them to pursue higher education, said Minnie Wilson, her longtime friend and business manager.
Wilson recalled seeing Holland perform “From the Mississippi Delta” in Detroit, and was so moved she shared her poetry. To her surprise, the response was an invitation to visit State University of New York, Buffalo, where Holland was teaching.
“A bunch of us came from different places, and she marched us over to the admissions office to get admissions packets! She was always mentoring and encouraging us to empower ourselves, capture our own voices, and tell our own stories.” Wilson, who up until that time hadn’t attended college, went on to earn a doctorate in American Literature.
Sadly, Holland’s career was cut short by ataxia, a degenerative neurological condition that ultimately took her life in 2006. Her autobiographical play “From the Mississippi Delta” earned Holland a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1988. The play also received the 1988 Audelco Playwright’s Nomination and the 1990 Drama-Logue Theatre Award and was performed at the Young Vic in London in 1989.
Holland’s work was known for its focus on civil rights, education, community and social justice; “she had a stubborn, courageous, fearless, adventuresome, caring soul, who under any hardship found joy and pleasure in living,”said Robert R. Scales, former dean of the USC School of Theatre.
Barbara Solomon, the former vice provost for faculty and minority affairs who was acting dean of the School of Theatre, described Holland as a “national treasure on our faculty” in a 1997 USC News profile on Holland. Solomon also said of Holland that “[t]here are not many people who are around and active in scholarly work today who were part of the Movement – and she was. And her ability to help students right their lives is almost as magical as her ability to right her own.”
Holland earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1979, majoring in Afro-American Studies and went on to also earn her master’s and Ph.D. in American Studies from there in 1984 and 1986, respectively.
She was a member of the Dramatist Guild, the International Black Women’s Congress, Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, and the Black Theatre Network. She was a founding member of the International Women Playwrights Center in Buffalo, NY and was founder and chairwoman of the Ida Mae Holland Educational and Artistic Scholarship Fund.