Byrdie Lee Howell Langon in Golden Ax: The Afropioneer Archivist

Overview

Byrdie Lee Howell Langon is a real historical figure whose life and work anchor the central themes of Rio Cortez’s poetry collection Golden Ax. She is the poet’s great‑great‑aunt and the author of a self‑published book, Utah and the Early Black Settlers, which chronicles her own life and the Black community of Salt Lake City, Utah. In the collection, she is directly honored in the poem “Far Enough,” and her archival efforts are acknowledged in the Author’s Note as a key source for Cortez’s family history. Byrdie represents the practice of preserving marginalized stories — an act of what the poet calls “Afropioneerism.” She is a quiet but foundational presence whose legacy helps the speaker answer the question “How does a story begin?”

Plot Role

Byrdie does not appear as a character in a traditional narrative; instead, her role is that of an ancestor and a keeper of communal memory. The poem “Far Enough” (chapter 3) is dedicated to her and includes words spoken by her pastor, Jerry Ford, at Bethel AME Church in 1969. In the Author’s Note (chapter 2), Cortez explains that she learned much of her family’s history from Byrdie’s book. Byrdie thus functions as a link between the untold past and the present speaker, enabling the poet to mine “the hidden history of the Black West.” Her book is one of the “tools on the table” (archive, expert, passed word) referenced later in “Family Tree at Earth’s Surface” (chapter 48), where the speaker ultimately moves beyond names to a more emotional connection with the unnamed past.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Byrdie’s primary motivation, as inferred from her decision to write and self‑publish, is to make visible the Black community of Salt Lake City — a community that had been largely omitted from official histories. The poem “Far Enough” portrays her as someone who “puts her hand into our heaped‑up hearts” and “draws out all the beautiful things that many have not looked far enough to find.” This image suggests a person of deep empathy and patience, able to see past superficial weakness to uncover hidden strength. Her traits include perseverance (seeing a book through to publication without a mainstream press), intellectual courage (documenting a community that was often invisible), and a generous spirit (the pastoral praise emphasizes what she brings out in others). These are explicitly observed in the honorific poem, not invented by the reader: they are the qualities her community saw in her.

Chronological Arc

The timeline of Byrdie’s life is not fully detailed in the collection, but contextual evidence places her activity in the mid‑20th century. Her self‑published book Utah and the Early Black Settlers was presumably written in the 1950s or 1960s; the honorific poem was delivered in 1969. She belonged to the generation after Paul C. Howell (the first Black police detective in Utah) and Abner Howell (an early Black Mormon convert), both mentioned in the Author’s Note. She is the great‑great‑aunt of Cortez, who was born in the 1980s. The arc of Byrdie’s influence thus moves from her own historical moment — when she gathered and published the stories of Black pioneers — to the present day, when her work becomes a primary source for a new generation of poets and scholars. In “Family Tree at Earth’s Surface,” the speaker moves past “counting, recording their names at all,” which is not a rejection of Byrdie’s work but a recognition that Byrdie’s effort already accomplished what needed to be said; the speaker can now embrace emotional resonance.

Relationships

Byrdie’s most directly documented relationship is with her pastor, Jerry Ford, who honored her at Bethel AME. The tone of the poem suggests a close, admiring bond. Through the poet’s family tree, Byrdie is connected to Paul C. Howell (the detective) and Abner Howell (the Mormon convert). These are not necessarily her direct ancestors but part of the same extended family that migrated from Louisiana to Utah after Reconstruction. Byrdie’s book also places her in relation to the broader Black community of Salt Lake City — she wrote about them, so she was both a member and an archivist. For the poet, Byrdie is a crucial ancestor whose work validates and inspires the present‑day act of writing. Cortez writes that her family’s story is “autobiographical, but it is also a work of imagined history,” and Byrdie’s factual record provides the solid ground from which imagination can take flight.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Decision: To research and self‑publish Utah and the Early Black Settlers.
Consequence: Her book became one of the few written accounts of Black life in early Utah, preserving names and stories that might otherwise have been lost. It directly shaped the poet’s understanding of her own ancestry and appears in the Author’s Note as a primary source.

Decision: To live and work within the Black community of Salt Lake City, as evidenced by her involvement with Bethel AME Church.
Consequence: She earned the admiration of her peers, culminating in the public honor from Jerry Ford. The poem “Far Enough” captures the community’s gratitude and immortalizes her character.

Indirect consequence: Byrdie’s legacy of archival care and deep seeing becomes a model for the poet’s own method. In the poem “Family Tree at Earth’s Surface,” the speaker uses “expert, archive, attic, passed word, hunch, self” — tools that mirror Byrdie’s own practice. The poet ultimately decides that emotional connection matters more than exhaustive record‑keeping, a conclusion made possible because Byrdie already did the counting.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Afropioneerism

Byrdie is a literal Afropioneer — a Black person who settled in the West and built community. The term, introduced in the Author’s Note, describes “my family ancestry and experience” and “the inner, cosmic imagination” of Black pioneers. Byrdie’s act of writing her community’s history is an act of claiming space and naming, a core Afropioneer practice. Learn more about the Afropioneerism theme.

Memory and Ancestry

Byrdie stands at the intersection of individual memory and collective ancestry. Her book is a tangible archive, but the poem “Far Enough” emphasizes what is unseen — the “beautiful things” that require effort to find. This tension between recorded history and emotional truth runs throughout the collection, especially in “Family Tree at Earth’s Surface.” Explore the memory and ancestry theme.

Identity and Duality

Byrdie’s identity as a Black woman in the predominantly white Mormon state of Utah embodies a dual consciousness: she belongs and is alien, visible as a historian yet often invisible to mainstream narratives. The honorific poem’s phrase “far enough” suggests that true recognition requires sustained attention. This duality echoes the speaker’s own questions in “Covered Wagon as Spaceship” about feeling “alien” in the canyon landscape. Read more about identity and duality.

The Symbolism of “Far Enough”

The title of the poem honoring Byrdie is also its final line: “far enough.” This phrase becomes a symbol for the effort needed to see a person or community truly. The poem describes putting a hand “into our heaped‑up hearts” and passing over “the frivolous and weak things” to draw out “all the beautiful things.” Byrdie is therefore not just a subject but an embodiment of this way of seeing. The act of going “far enough” is the central metaphor of the chapter and a key to understanding the book’s larger project of recovered history and intimate connection.

5 Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

What is the title of Byrdie Lee Howell Langon’s self‑published book?
Utah and the Early Black Settlers.
Who honored Byrdie in 1969 and where?
Her pastor, Jerry Ford, at Bethel AME Church in Salt Lake City.
What does the poem “Far Enough” suggest Byrdie helps others find?
It says she draws out “all the beautiful things” that many have not looked “far enough” to find — hidden strengths and inner beauty.
How does Byrdie’s work relate to the theme of Afropioneerism?
She documented Black pioneers in the West, preserving their stories and claiming a place for Black history in Utah, which directly exemplifies the Afropioneer spirit of imagination and survival.
What relationship does Byrdie have to the poet Rio Cortez?
She is the poet’s great‑great‑aunt; her book was a crucial source for the family history recounted in Golden Ax.