https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/7597cf480c246dec34d8e10a180307e9.pdf 9ea569eaffdc20817f385704d788ff83 PDF Text Text .o r 1 5 J'(~V\._ 1 \ J .i. 'he the~ s o ~~ land•(; and,-ll!f as: self-esteem, the African ' ' th mother- a n ~mm!!!i11a:!·!1.1!1!11--l•AA--a new poetry as re the h idwest and West contributing i)TIIllensely ~tif. . ~~ f I iv ~ . to 11 1; J . tJ- ey . Ohio , for examp le ,~._,. sue Sf t ho -... oY\.. consciousn~ss ,- attracting a number of ,.,_Norman Jordan (19 38- ), Atkins , James Kil gorett--===:::;;,;;w,&11 ~levelan'.;;) • ··· ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -~-~/e-"I~~~~~~ and Herntonr"' _,.. .:ip the J Jrl&C ed21'!&&\ WM ~~ ' who A. · ~t Obe r lin (lqbf-lr?fl.); i:;1 Hernton succeeded li.e dmond ~ _t;i , ~ou e began a residency at Oh io Unive rsity . uarah Webster - -~al Hernton I s leavef -of- ab e ence . during M!ll•~A~i~;~~;~~ Clevela~~ /'; J r,t.,I) was spurred by tt,dition of Black writers Hughes , Chesnut (one of the founders of 1\.aramu House nontinuum produced Jordan and a host of younger po ets : Anthony Fudge , f La rry Howard, Larry Wade , Ar Nixon, Clint Nelson, R0 bef t F1e:mmng( Ku Wais maga zine) , Alan Bell , .Ho land .t<'o rte - '.l' ed Hayes , E. Buford and >,., t ,# Bi l l Russ e ll of the Muntu Po ets . Othe rl(TJ'te 'II\. - artists 2 !H!c;tJ R bldJ Lil e · f ar t1lb f beJpj'yag ,=0 • ziil.t were Clyde Shy, Ameer lta.shi~ ~ Anne t ta Jefferson . Support for poets and th eir activities carne~il~M . • '• ~ ~Jf•d~ni Call and Post, Afro-Xet/ Black Arbs project , United Bla~ Artists , Free Lance and ~aramu House wh ere Jordan's p lays , were p~o duced. J I "High Rise Dreams" of metropolitan Blacks caught in the urban scrabble . Devotion):iO dedi c a t e d to Uoretta ~cott King/ · �2 A, co nc erns f or Bla ck students , 'fhird World surviva,and • • f as c in1tion wi t h t ~~ !t'ranz l<'anon. sometimes ~ gry, othe r times prophetic and mystical . a .,.J;,tlllPl!ai=a · =ii ,4 differnnt /4:Jf f cynical and violent f ne has published three volumes : Des tinati on :Ashe,(1967 , 1971) , Above Maya(l971) , and with Marcfua uage , Two Poet s( l974 ). LJedicated • , " De~tination ~-="-ut,tlt>C J containe Jordan 1 e best and most memorable poems. ,)r"e emerge majo r fo rc e in the new Bla ck poetry , uni t ing the older symbol i z;9-~ ,..e I ll'ree Lance~a004 1(~}3ntu &i@Fi1 published privately by Jordan, ~ ater b r~ught out !:frhird ~~orld Press C~hicago) with need to 11 . bi& WI Lee,~ J re - write and about - town , 11 Lan ghing and dancing, 11 but now at 26 she is dead t:'"') and her ghost "trembles" in an a l ley wine bott l e "needing a ~ • fix/-~ ..._,,- Jordan ~poofs "High Art and All that J azz 11 : Fuck you and your damn ve-rbs let me tell it like it is nastey and fun.key . "Fe eding the Liona " ( 1966) is his most anthologigmd poem. The "army" ') �3 ~ ~ - of"-social work e rs inva des Black 81 I pass out checks_./ fPQlD Ua,oi• l f I neighborhoods each morning, aSti:t. move quickly from one r-6 ............. 11 door to another, and, after filling their quota, leave <E dark." There .a befor~ are also poems about mysticism, religion, mythology, and karma, including drawings of eyes, triangles and circles--all r e flecting the many influences on Jordan's work and the ap p roaching new mood(Above Maya). But Destination sees thro verses and 1!1/111 parables, , with its s h ort, exr.i g ramrnatic so r romantic 11 uni ty' 4'a! the end and mounts an attack,; -~-·~ • bac}:-s ~ - • violence as ,the onl ~-~-~ I i ~ 11 . ~ liquid ni ght ' ) ~ i d e the f o undation for tomorrow• s lib e r a tion. be seen i n the naJQe lI j' ,.....,_ mystical, magic a l p?weis ~~ t h ewo ~d °'--' ~ ~Al _ tJ.'.•·U'..utU<IU.f )Cleveland maga zine J> psi 8 o; ordan•s belief in D ~ ... "Cosmic Wi~doctorsrr reaffi~.. ~is f a ith ~ Black writers 1111Fll il11..11111i1(d:--ir -e1aei~ far into"--tea c s, to the Resurrection of th e Hen t a lly a nd .:ip iri tually ead. ,.Mt ,, 0,,"""~,.. ~und r---• ouile~ for their work in 01••::oi?::;. 'llack Ascensions (Cu~a C0 mmunity Col le g e), Yroud Black Image s(Ohio ~tate University)1••2 Lifelin t D : When America Sing s She Croaks(Obmrlin). Oberlin students also p ro duc e d a s~ial B1/;J. issue of the college's Activist mag azine; ¥'-it contained poems by\8tudents and well known poets. Fudge, 1979. a staff member of Black Ascensions, publis:ied Mi g ration in Another (jC(]'{:' ) j,J>oet, B. Feltorrought out Conclusions with an Introduction ...--... by Atkinst who praised the young poet for not consciously in the "disfi gurement of p erceptions II to p olemici ze a kind of •relevancef. 111 In 11 11 engaging aonstricted .An Elegy to .i!,t e rruhty, Tear-ducts swell, bursting in a delight of flood and fury. 1Gar.!_ield Jackson, a yonng prize-winning poet, is one of the editors of �4 Proud Black Images. Many yonng and older Ohio poets are included among its pages: 1''a,rrest Gay ,44h ( . . lJianne Gould, Jackie Toone, 1!.brahim Aljahizz, . . Mohsse~ Battmta Lukam a barca, Linda ~allender, Beverly Ch eeks, Antar Sudan Mberi, Leatrice ~irnaz; ,,,---. ~eruwa, Rosflyn Perry Ford, ~ay Mont- and o t h ers. ~hough th~itle sets t nep.a e i~ing theme 0 ~ ide a;;;i ti., /h"'~ • ~ ]i~i~ma~~irrgers, Dancers, ,-., 11 n;r/J do e rs of in,itial de e ds":, a nd ._;,,,; Impleme nt e rs o f t h e inevitable Black life. ~ J u,,-/,_,,;._~ , ,t/4&_ utr«1L!1 ;M.U. n the sixties. (_rlernton, wh o attended Ohio schools,A 1' The Coming of Chrones to the ~ouse of song-•-===•~in 1963 an since then boo k i/on meri- ca's social/sexual han gups. One of his m o powerful ~s poems appeared L:4Jf-~ [ f l fAC6:nfront f Aon: , A . Journal of Third by Troupe at Olb.io Univ e rsity. wl!!st his · I h the II 11 orld L i era ure in/4 ounded and :::it;reet Sc_e,.~<y'' sh ows h em.ton identity qu e stion t II 'Go to hell, sonofabi tch. _____}/_ /1/lfl ~~r things. he receives this answer: 11 C0 nfront a tion ~ishe.S other Ohio poets~ ~ , i t s conc e rns ,Iii. broad as seen i , , c ~ of contribUting editors: Damas, Sergio Mondra gon, Fernando Ale g ria, B~al, ~e and trf1fred eart e Tam F i ~ d e r s o n , Melvin Bd var s Mj~,=AIIIIEiillQi~!!!i:::=l:l!llfi•othe r o .. I Am A Black Woman, conta ining p o ems written ov e r several years, un1 fortnnately did not find a publisher until 1 970. ,rlie b6ok~\ ed ~t~ the Black Academy of Arts a n d Lett e rs~econd Annu~Award. She �has been closely identified with a c tivities in Chicago where Third Wolrd Press publishes her chidren's writings . psychological and • historical tre/ d fingers - 1' Her title poem is a spiritual , journey of the Black woman whose "trigger 11 -µ.J- seek the softness of my warrior ' s beard.... A major poem among the new poetry/it combines the best of~modernis~ techniques with a chart - work of music so as to give the impression o f someone humming along with;.; the reading of it . Mari .!!,vans s c ans~-\ml& fie l dejt!9"t e d women , self- o f Blac k life , writing about lonely and · · and Africa . In "Who c an be Born Black c an be born black and not exult! ~ l o s e l y asso c iated with the Chicago and Detroht movements is Ethridge Knight(l933 State Prison when P f' IV iii I1 ) , who was serving a 2Q-year term in Indiana Poems from Pri son _( l9q8l a~peared in 1968 with by Uwendolyn Broo ks . s~ ~ ~L4 f Vital . Vital . This poe t ry is a major announc ement ••• And there is blackness , inclusive , possessed and given ; freed and terrible and beautiful . ~ own version of the Black AestheticA._in -J ~ he same statement : "Since i!ltheridge Knight is not your stifled artiste , the r e is air in these poems . ~ 11 Knight /\[:_he deep crevices of Black spiritual and psychic experienc language of he prison sub-culture Bla ck Ameri c an ~ as he combino::s ~ with the rhyt~s of street speech . He bounces or drives hard- - ' L 1un~~ ~ "hard bop 11 prison life , love and ancestry . �6 .Prison .i..!.oxceptional from the rtospit a l for the Griminal and mythical "He Sees through the innovati" e ~ "On are - p oignantly dis p l a y e d in hai k u 11 9 11 : Ma k ing jazz swing in .::i e venteen syl l a bles AIN 1 T ~ No square po et ,t' s job. C.; h ni ght , who was 'l ater rele as ed from prison, a lso e dited Black Voices ~ ..~-.,,._ F rom Prison(l970 ) and in 1973 B ed Be l ly 0 ong and ethe r Poems . tilllllalifjlillillll--•1•~•~!!1!1!ll!!l!i~.t/l!Fls::;ii!")1111t when he tries bit uncharitable to over-int e llectualize in his p oetry . to say, belly Song proves that he wrot some fine moments but it ·s still stretching out as a poet , currently doing re - search into oral litera ~re with the aid of a Gug g enheim g rant . Bemly in " 'l 'he Bones of My Father '1 which shows him p ursuin g smile at the moon in Mississi u pi from t he bott om of the Tallaha tchie. 6_11y, a numb e r of . are included in a 1972) edited by Redmond . t h e Forum 0 ch ool of ~ duca t i on and edit e d by l gro American Lit e r a tu r e ~orumQapping, publishe d by Indi ana ~t a te Univers ity J ohn Ba y liss, an ~ng lishman. It regularly reviews Black li t e r a ture . Chicago is a Midwest heart a nd h as a long tradition of Black Arts , going bac.k to, 1927. the ~unset Club in oetry movement t here are : South ,:::,ide Co mmunity Arts venter, Johnson Pu b lic a t i ons , l uumba's Root �7 Theater (ll'rancis ard), OBAC , Insi tute o Post t}-~\\ ¥-u: tion orld 1-'ress( Madhubitm), Free. Black .P;:i~ , ~ l _ ! n ~ Q.ollege 1 tJJ1 b clJfJL✓ ~ ) ..IW,,,¥,~~.....i , Muhammad Speaks~icago Defender , and Thi rd ?1·1 Cohran(Artistic her itage .c..nsemble), to name Phili Jj As a maj or p oint between Chicago remains seene a a '1iub known as the Organization generate of Bla ck Ameri can Culture a nd Gwendolyn Bro oks Bla ck Wo~ld - • Fuller , to OBAC1s Writer's managing edi to t Workshop . In of Nommo , the ID rkshop I s journal , Fuller sai Blac k is a way of lookimg at the wor~d. The poets of OBAC, in revealing their vision, celebra te thetr blackness. In this momen t in history , what might under different circumstances 1:e simp ly assumed must necessatjrly be asserbed. And the OBAC poets know--if others do not --th a t pal e men out of the est do n ot define for mankind the perimeters of art . This they want all blac k people to know . Journal's winter issue of the same ye a r , In theN~BtU~.. _..;i~&X;..i!!111'111 Fuller said OBAC memb e rs ·were s.Q.WiSiiili•li@- '' both si mo le and profound . t1 an "imaginative ~ - • representation of their experiences, , revolutionary . 11 In the first quete, Fuller• s tone, o arr~ing the ~_..__.._~~"even if o t hers do not , for , a mong o t her , Don L. Leell942- t1 seemed to ave been ) , to'----"•r,-~u_,...aJ ~... 1 • since rhere were no sacred cows, as Lee saw it, and others do notl ~ kno a lso what the y o uthful Chiqa go know,,__, Lee's assignment was to t e ach �8 ~ would h a ve died a 1 Negro I fraction . 11 following the Le ) , Johari the editorial st aff•,,-- S)terling Plumpp(l940(lC/3S-rAmini/4_Jewel Latimore) ~9i;., ~ .1:!.,manuel , barah Webster 1'.i'abio , ~ M I ?'t1 a, dj I q ~L~orens(who launched Lee(s .~~national care er in in 1967 ,,..Qil!laiiliiB◄•~811!11'0°8'-Q.,t,;...,~;i,w.,,iliiWilo~~oe-'!""e'~~~:e:-,s,+t~~ : Wa lter Bradford(l937- ), Ca~l Ulark(l932- James Cunningham(l936~ ) , Hohda Uavis(l940- (1937- (1947- ), Lee , · po Gilb er tt l925 - ), Mike Coo~ ( 193 r:.. " r (!( 1 '1.enner ), Sharon ) , and a Sigemonde \vimb 0 r are Carolyn rtodgers ( 1 9)-1-3 - Other b'hic ago • Hc Laurin , 19 wa GE.iri/ Patterson , Jerrod, Zack a rea poets c an be found in Nommo, Black Expeessions , Bla ck Worl d, Black Writers ' News, Muhammad Speaks, and in the anthologies B ·Broadside 'rreasury (l97l).J+ and Jump Bad : A New f• 7 QC 4':!iChicago Anthology(l971), both edite d by ~wendolyn Brooks. They ean also be found in the numerous anthologies and journals alweady listed . ~--::;:;::s:=:::!::t:::::;::__ J • c e ssion won by Chicago area artists and Black \-Jorld ,~as activists , who proteste(¾~he old n ~me Negro Digest in the late sixties . the image ~ tbe pnbJ ie,.-t;iga through the �9 ticklish waters ch has h.ee . ,,......, pnin . t·ing th eir . wor k , poets and writers ,• noting books published, 3 ~ S prizes . new c ei v.;1, 't:' ~!t 1'1argaret ' .n i,&_.!!!iCJU•-----awc an ~co~rcial attention t I a d e s ~~t} he and his poetry have re- sampling of cri tic 7~na schochars mo feel he - o v alkerr , e1' would~ nc /Jai~nder son, >Ii 11 er , Gwend~ brooks , Paula Giddings, Baraka, Ma ri .c..vans , .ttandall Gayl~• Gw~% esus Christ . country . " 11 a11 '' the poetry itj. the u country" ~ statement J,Glllt'5 in view of the 1,coliec ti ve 11 uolicy -- and the ailti - indi "l2i. duali stwr feelin~ - ~' allegedly .Y;ti.le cornerstone o f ~ the Chicago poetry s c ene . be has p ublished five volumes of poetry: Think Blackl(l9 f 7) , Bla c k Pride ( 1968 ) , Don I t Cry , Scream( 1969) , 1/Je Walk the Way oft he New World ( l970 ), DirectianscorelSele c ted and :New Poems ( l971 ) and The Book o f Life (1973 ). His Dynamite Voices'ffil:6' ~ubliih ed in £ 7 1 , is a study of~1ack. p e:t . o,f 'the sixties ; but it~lileilffl-, like/\~ther criticli:sm) M ~~1r:rl~ /J4d..tliillll~ a hazy thinker, who lac ks discretion and~ ~ • page , for example , ~ illuminating and apparently advocating the use of the word "motherfuck e r . " And any book /)./,. ~ • 0 i 1 .< . "t ./_, about the sixties should not come off the press wi thoutA.and exar,&nabiunfof LeRo :iJ. Jones / Imamu Baraka.~:!! l"ee:t;ry . Madhubuti attributes the fathership of the �10 New Black Poetry to irum:im Baraka, but apnarently is incapable of discussing the man· s n oetry . 'I 'here are other, incredible fl a ws J.n the book#, for which this young noet·s oder mentors must share some blame . (~:ff' As a criti c, he did not~ultivate the 11 distance- tt of Brown , Hedding , or Hend~rson, and conseq~ently--already lac he .. · tter oet I • ~ " , I b~-,li~~""'"1!!"t"~M~~;i...,iQQ.~~~ i'fms 11 from The i~ew Poetry of ., A Black Hate)' ~IIM[IIIIWiV'J red pontifica tions The Book of A he re-arranges sayings and parables stated better by Aesop, bush hfricans , Plato, and Baraka, and Tolson. Like and others, his early work~re-inforce casti gatel i tey and encourageC,, up in the ti tlesl ,AA._ at· ay co Think Black! and wel}-...,.. ..... ~.,-------.r. often not ~;'-'ii~~~~rr""mct"ST Wall 11) 0. • n an of effective typography which moves in parallel columns vertically or horizontally on the pages . c ri ti cal arti n Introductions to his books and les Hadhubuti -~~~~--'~ gi veA "directions Black writers - - as he does in much of II to , _...,.A_. the poetry itself . ften - talked- " ,.alegy for Conrad Kent Hi 'Ie rs r~veaI in g s tha t ,uAitt:',w _,,/ cause prema ture black deaths. ~peaking of " too much" sex and drink, he s ~ many r-:--"poets who poet 11 die from But can unknowingly dabble with the most complex aspec~s of Black life a s in 11 ·rhe i:::ielf-Hatred of Don L. Lee" wh e re, �11 1 11 after studying Black hi.s:07, he learns to love the inner' person and hate my light brown outer. Certainl~ a pro~oundAd l~~a is stated here:since hating one's color will not change it; and since one has to live with i.J$he resu of one I s life . It is a good yoem for studying the so-called "solution" '/IA.,_, .~ m~il' BJ,ack wri t c rs ffl!:..1P~M tha 11 found' to the identity problem . --:-,, of conf There are othe r . sion in Ladhubuti's poetry. ...::,,;,, One of his most fa ~~~ I poems ;t Praised ~ighly by ~tephen Henderson , the ( encoura ged of 11.on .t\.a renga Blacks to refnounce the Blues . bute to Coltrane Madhubuti 1 s is largelY.-A.~ll!ii of intelligibilityt i cried for billy h olliday. the blues , we ain't blue the blues exhibited illus i ons of manhood . must Jafheinz Jahn .....--,. knew better . And certainly , today, Madhubuti ( (; 4,"1, 7 • ,if the blues w re destructive, then how did .ai11•-...----~f Inde.ed, how did any~ s ck Omn ioe~r/bake lf ./ 1urviu~}i~m ''.Jj;s~ . Carolyn Rodgers' vol (1969) , 2 JLo ve es are Paper ~oul(l968 ) , ~ongs of a Blackb:ird (broad,side) (1969) , Blues Gittin Up(l972) and How nvincing , she writes of young women , love , I Got Over{l975) revolutionarf music . In Phoeni "she recalls traveling "with the wind" and he a ring the many voices ,. screaming blooddrops of time . "Jazz" describes "three II C at the bar, the drinking glasses/ �12 and the murmur of thick mouths •••• " Re bolushinary 1.-mas/ eastuh juli_e 4/etc . etc . etc . " is a O"'>",.. 11 mil i tan ts •11 And she tells u§ that bits of me swlintered in to a mirror in 11 ~-71~) ... Look at My .t'ac e a 6oll age . " Thes e am e~fiW" ideas a nd theme/1\?an also be found in the poetry of Johari Amini , Pl liqnpp Johari Amini I s books include Images in Black( 1967) , FablK(broadside) (1969) , Let ' s Go ~omewhere(l970) , &nd A Hip T_a _ l_e_i_n_D_e_ a -t h S t ~ h " ett_ow~f · ~ ~ ~ • " E 9 > c o l l o q u i a l i s m s , ~ ~ ~But she has in 11 Black ""tcange1i~~ J.,L, Brother" whi ch longs for the "soil" of Black people, whe re ,they can.wuu11 • • feel~ unive r se shudder •••• ML.. A- l_p1umpp's ' Portable Soul(l969) .-,iit rlalf Black, Ha lf nlacker(l970) and Steps to Break the Circle(l97~) . A southerner~·- a backg rowdd in£ psycholog1/~"•~r:rtten called Black Hituals( study ~ ) . His interests ar e seen in titles like "From Manless • Sisters to Big Bad riappers , " " Black ~ -- Nesaages"("belfeve in us") , epic 11 ) "Living Truth 11 ( 11 black history ••• a banned and Bgyp t ( . _ For Black 1-liotherhood) "' : , ~ ~ r l a s t i n g sunrise awoke ... ~ ~!lip h,w.j,v-tl\J - -..... ~~t'he motTpercepti v/ ~ ski] 11'u.Lffuet~II' 111 ra., ~s Cunningham. 1 His l!!J~olume is The Blue ~arrator(l974) # and he has been published widely in periodicals . "The Ci ty Rises" as a ~ sad sti f f wooden place ... . ~:fib> St . 11 the • 11 il'uli en• s 1>ve : ~ Dennis Cross ear" by Brahms, and /....t here follows the wind- man tearing at the bridge as a man stands wondering why does the river •_ 11 ~,.l.lL,~~n--- ;/k# ~..,_~_::""" "stab bed d ._ II in �13 ~~ to pla ce dispara te ordering s in Kaufman - ville : or a note t hro wn to is a st,.udy of the " fr agments II of carolyn from r t i ~ i~~ ~~-- Bob Kaufman t - a ma dness unlike my own •••• ~ " ' " ' r a m the Na rra tor• s Tr a nce," Door(l971); series'.iiiiiiiill•liiiB•••--•• Ang ela ~agic'Cl974) f; lDamali(Denise Burne tt ) , I Am that Wo~ld Press I New Poets '-' Jackson, Voodoo/Love We May Be( le 74) ; Fred Hord, After {ours (l974)• and Sandra Royst er, Women Ta lk(l974) . These young poets deal with a v e ri e ty of subjects/~ ,.._,~s~m • a- l~~~F · ety o f f ~ mo s t l ~ ~ e concernea_ with r e volution , i e Bla life in tt ~ eme rg ed from Amon g t f( ,, new Gwendolytn Bro oks · uge ~ _.",.........V-""'"'-..• ehic av:ft., J;s wh o , as we saw in Chapter V, ~ o l i Blackness a nd wondor~ul ly magic t\- ~ in h e r in h e r p oetry . The Brooks of In the ~ eccatl968J, hi ot(l 96 9 ) , F amily Pictu r es(i970) and Alonene ss(l971) is ,,;,ti,._ �14 not drastically different from her former self . In neport approve w From a, tougbness , ~oetry whi ch yiel is to ry/ ~ readings . She and dramati c dialogue to white middle class ES inco rpora ~ Bing Cro s by and He 1 vin Van re e bl es/ in and l.le,ao i: t11i:1Nm n ompo si t ~ a c e of a "Hiot , It' aspects of love . Thef':s1ack philosopherJ /is tt t.9 A 1""'11., ~thread that spi~es the section ,e f po I c alled The Third Sermon on terse,,,; t he War pland . 1here are traces of her earlier I ,.. # • as her underfed h ::- un che s jerk jazz . A n d ~} llllilt&q z g a ri'.'.Jf a,#!a) "But WHY do 'lt'heses Pe o ple offend themselves? ' adding that n it is time to "help . " Family Picuures contains the ~ ap - sho ts of her new young heroes , the people who helped her bec ome "Blac k . ~ ~ ~~!e:e:Qr an,d ,19\ung fo. $ 64 .bMJ._~ 11 i c ans ~ the Young, " d"edicate~'\- to own ehildren , the mensitive mother - poet gives advise that many another ~ yo~ng person llliat. might cuddle and cherish: Live not for rhe-~nd- of- the - Song . Live in the a long . ~ t J. �Chica go po e ts were only skip Gary, Indianapolis, Clevela nd, Detroit, and St. Loui s, 1 ana sas City, and t h e ~A._Provided ~ t ~ interc~ang es and exchange s on all leve£s. Motown• r z poetry , like rllDW tha t ~ oth e r comm.uni t i e ~ i n termoven' with odtPtr rel a ted dl.lh.~ . .. ~~e.llr.pressiorf,.__l?ntii 11si~ Margaret Danneir 1 s Boone House ,___ for the Arts, .tiev. Cleag e s illll: 0hrine of the Black rlJ.adonn~, :r~oJfJn O.AJ (J.) 4t-. ~ Redords, Broadside Press, Vaughn's Bookstore, a nd ciiss8Y eimilrn oo!htolJNh • I for the late sixties.iJ!! ft and seventies, of course,~~~'4 andall ha;;;hanged a: a poet and p e rson, he says, in ways that p e rhan s parallef ~•••"ll~ wendolyn Brooks . Black po e ts, he -=-is publi~.4-' new books of his own p oetry, serve~) as distri butor of rl r eman 1 s Herit a ge 0 eries, a nd travels widely as a lectu r er, te a ch e r, librarian and translator of Rustian ~ poetry. -.. A formalist by training and temp e rament, .ti~dall t21M:*ri ••tl&iaasi!lin described his new poetic stance in a statement in Modern and Contemporary Afro-American Poetry(Bell, 1972) f My poetics is to try to write poetry a s well as I c a n. I think I h a ve said elsewhere tha t the function of t he poet is to write poetry. Tv1y e a rli e r p oetry was more formal. 1~ow I am trying to wnii.te a looser, more irregul a r, more colloquial a nd more idiomatic verse. I abhor lo gorrhea, a nd try to make my poems as concen- tratted as possible. , Indeed, ha.ad.all has tried to do just that--movin g from a traditional a ~ve rsational~ . This he attemps in volumeaf li k e Love You1197O)/ and After the hilling(l973). Vfuen Randall is describing a gt,(}1 in an African village or the "Miracle '' of love, he comes over g enuinely and strong . But ialllll1•11P n oems like "Green& Ap ples II and 11 11 ~ ords Word s Words II s ~ow him out of his fiel4 . 'l 'hese and other ~e~ • ~..B ■ '.U me relyflp'rose1 ,~ is primari]y �a librarian, pu.Ib.lisher , and edito r whose service~ Black poets has been and remains invaluable . _ . This is seen not only in his production of their work , but in the many anthologies which he has edited. With Chicagoan Margaret Burroughs,~Mi--he co-edtied Malcolm; Poems on the Life an d Ueath of Ma lcolm X(l967), a foresightful and commanding work . Also to his editing credit are Black Poe try (l969 )• and The Black Poets tl 971) , the latter imbalanced and apparently quickly f:! ' ,_~~ thrown together sinc e it hasi\EWi: ic1:rf fl 1 snt Introduction and contains no bio-bliog raphi cal and Margare t Danner, )' James Thompson(l936 Hayden, Rocky Taylor\ Tejumola' Ologboni) \/Q!. J, ; ~~Ullo,v; \ now living in Atlanta~ 194~ - CONJ ., , u1_12-7- ) onebeyatta 195~- d~ W1 (1 950 - (JJ3~- \ . Darnell Hawkins(l946- '-1- \h,(/)• , J, I\:. eonea ~ ("\_ - _ ad B~ily (l9Q6- Lo. .,,J ) ..... :·. -Jfll \J ither spppn(l 947 - Pearl Glee~ Lomax ., 1, ))f~rency ·Hodges(l940- )' . MelQ._a Boyd Q 5i - ), f{:itella Crews 1 ~ 50 - J ), ), poeeis can be found in Ten , ABroadside Treasury_, The Black i:Jihcse indivmdua and in the sm ooks regularly published by ~ a dsi de Black Press • . -• ~ .;;;;.till ' . . ,~~~ l1'W'-- ~ ~~ a~o t~,..........._,a>~ Qo.d {l(>.,LfY, ,q 7'l). James handal 1 has published Don 't Ask Me Who I Am and Cities and Other Disasters(l97J). His poetry is intense,~ commanding - £ UH ii ii In "~ etwork News , 11 ~"""'"""'"""\IMJI.,('__ we are told that For years he'd watched the growing madness of the ~t a te. There is irony and pathos. as in "'Stre et Games II where a boy/fl is black as the ancient curse of Afri ca •••• A different kind of poetry is writtmn by Ologboni who int e rmingles establishment-directed drum rhythms, inc antatory medi tationa and sharp~rbs in Drum SonJ{l969) , Introduc ed by Gwendolyn Bro oks . '!'he poet is als o an, artists,.Jdl tells us in "Untit led 11 that the night contains indifferent st a rs •••• �& liayden h a s been ~--~~il alma mat e r , since (1970) 11 · urningtime he 'IM1'P 218.liii@ Gheme 11 BJ are fri gh t e ning p oemsAi o;I! Jayne Gorte.x• s ~ a s eeks a pl a ce wh ere man kite or hunk ie , b'§It 11 man . " Th e re wi 11 M't~ be c a l ~ ni g~e r 1 g~k , • 11 i g an , h is th -F'e stivals&lllliii. Fun erals . jok e a nd men ) , · 11 wlds as .tiayden surveys the boledad 11 {ncra dl e d by dru g s , by j a zz 11 ) , ::;phinx" l "my 11 1.odachromes t h e Island -....... ... ~~. ~~-==-=~·-~z.. . ( "finger l e ss hand ~Bl- a i • ~ d - - - Malik El - Sha bazz 11 { "the wak ing dre am 11 ) visit to , t h e rledstone ~ '"feus ov e r h edeye 11 • Ft ;;:_ Ars enal . Jilt M.. It ,it.7'.11119. ,......,.,,.-,... r ",;I~ ,--...._ great p oems as a major st a tement on our times . ill D Western man s mythic totem, his depravi -- on/\ all a re · es ~ n a m ~ whetqe d e ~h - mytholo g ical f i g ures . At!!!!!lliliia~iWl..-•~!!l'IPM...,_.._. to birth invis1 11 ted • eN7iol8nce are dra gon , h ydra , b a silisk , tulips , corollas , ~ Zeus , Apo l lo , Ni k el\ He rc u les . 1'111!1.-:t~e -t::J,. ~ ,1 missile's ·~ o beoorno a s a c red phal lic g rove •••• ~ Apparent ly the guides at t h e arsenal about the missil e s ' de s tinies a nd d ange rs : _ , . 'four partial answe rs r eassure me less than th ey a p pall . I f e e l as though invisible fu s es we re burnin g a ll ~ro und us burning a l l around us . Heat - quiv e ring s t witch da n g e r 's h yper s en s itive s k in . The very s unli ght he re se e ms f lamma b le. questions • • �And shadows give us no relieving shade . Dismal and final , - adds its own particula r tone , t of the New Black Poetry . st~le and language , despite his disagreements with the Black Aestheticians , there is no doubt th a t 11 L.eus 11 ~~f a d spol(esman,-,: from bobby Dylan to Billy Graham. goes back before the days of famous , Dred Scott lovi:;,f_, -- Arts Movement . a the and / alternately war~ worked closely together during the height of the Black Poets an BAG(Black Art i st Group), House of Umoja , The Blacksmith ~hop of Black Culture , Black Liberator project , the House of 'i 1ruth , Impact 5< House , the .c..xperiment in Higher .c..ducation at ill( ii L.- ~- area were Q...., SI , ~atherine Dunham ' s Perfomm.ing Arts '11raining Center( t HE..-SIU), Black rtiver and the ~outhend ., riters , ~~ igh1):]prhood Center . poets .: 1 • in the f.J .Pl GM. ( ' '-' Rutlin , herman Fowler , rt~;;lm~DS , CYI];thia CG.llley(wh6 Et11 & <c XV..,:~ u '-- (Jq;1, ,J ~ • -~) , Arthur Dozier ,~ustin Black..(who went to Los ' I w -'14 I\ 11 Fred horton, enetha ashington , Donald Hender~5,n , Henry v~,u,. ~ i I~ . · , t14 l).ek'a ~ : e iJ Osborne , Jon \rd lson , ~loria \IIJalke r , Vincent Terrel , 1~ayne Loftin , Derri c k \'/right , Gregory Anthony, Kath erine Dunham, and others . �Writings by these po ets · in Sides of the Hiver : Be t ty Lee ' s A Tlfini - An t h o lo gy of Bl a c k Uri tin ,~ s l 196 9', rtedmondJ ,. St . Louis-based :. Proud magazine which offers pri ze s, The Mi ll Cre ek Inte lligeneer, !f67) ~ ilQoomm a spe c ial issue of Sou 1 wester ( fall , 196 8 , selected by Redmond) , Tambourine ( 1966, \✓hi te and :::,chwart z) , The Black Liber a tor, The Creator(l969) ,ACollection(l968) , allli\i. Volume I of Poems by Black s(l970) . Dumas , who ~ ~g~:t' St . Louis{S/()-E#f}J'~ co-s ponsored "m'!~~~,-b...._.....,......_..,...,.__......,;i,..,,,...s/)and Blac k h i~er und e r Dumas ' supervision, with Fo wler and Linda Stennis serving as editors • .1.:.i11iott writes , in 11 The .Urearn Time , 11 about the "spiroch e te womb 11 of the mo t her o f t h e universe , t he Phoenix, and the death ►7 f& "fashioned at the end" of 5 0 0 years . Great Pho- enix tha t she was/ the moth e r of the un iv e rse :iiD now le aves the drea me r With onl y h e r g r eat murky sexuality •••• Elliott is a dreame r and surre a list but Bl a ck temp e rament with his The Torn ado i n J t.u ushers in a J a a: 1~ i f f -1;;-e ] My Mouth (l966) . He h a s the irreverence . of the Be a ts, the funkin e ssl,f2f the h a rd bopp e rs , a nd the sexuality of one in hot purs uit . "Asexual Fli ght" says a man's l a st wish is to be banished to the island of remi8bRtW and loose lo v e . 1-' Another mood is p r esente d in "rtazor 1•1ama Democracy/ the ache in 3- D" whe re 'rhe blue haze h urts and now the hair is t u rning 11 11 into an "a ch ing g rey . '' ~ a Bl a ck salutes the gladiator" in"Coeval Drums for Leroi II but in the me an t i me f he cove rs quite a bit of ground : "the dead art e ria l insanity"; ;' futi l ity in j agge d crags"; "Ki er kega a r d/ Sartre"; 11 like dri pp ing brine " ; "over the window of my b eing" ; an d f i n al l y "He r p owe r i n h owJ ing winds " bri n gs �A DRu:MBEA.r FOR LEROI . "Black Funky'~ is subtitled a &. 11 o-D a hypothetical orga-srnf"f!PJ\there is irrevem-ence in "DAMN YOUR god ftt subtitled 11 the liberated Har - horse . " l1::_ Ga rrying 11 a 0tick , " Fowler asks : Who cares~that I had yesterday ' s stale gum for breakfast? "Thinking" allows l'lin i!,e, leis various images stream and burst forth vomiting tidings mind can hear . omenetha Washington writes about the pressure a on today 1 ~ Black woman watching people Scurrying from sun to sun ••• ong , she says I protest but still I run . Loftin, a young poet who writes with ec onomy and simp :}.i s:tty , \Jright and Baldwin up in 11 Heali ty'f : out of the cotton field s and burning suns to overcro~ded cities and shades of slums hedmond and Fowler founded the Bla c k ~iver Writers publishing company which brought out bides of the River • ..;?'currently under the supervision of Catherine Younge , the press has published Redmond 1 s volumes: A Tale of Two Tom:: (liSlf:- (broadside) (1968; , A Tale of Time & Toi l et Tissue (b~ pamphlet) (1969) , 0 en t ry of the Four Golden Pillars t l97O ), Rive r of Bones and Flesh and Blood ( l971) , Songs From In A 'l'ime of Hain &t anJ r-::--.. Desire (1973) , and an Bloodlinkf s and MO Consider Loneliness as These Things,t-n 1973 by the Centro Afro/Phone l l972) , ~tug.i B ~cam.bi Inte,;rnazjona.J.i in Italy . 0 acred Places(1973 ~ �for t h ~ h o o d f i n his poetr~immediate -~~-,liJ, .'illll•••• --.:;:~i,1.l.. ~ his without for c ed allegi a nces ds come naturally and historically. His poetry ranges from hiiJiorous fol k portraits like 11 Invasion of the Nose": His nose wa s his radar , His eyes icy darts th a t moved f as ter than speed- of -s ound jets . He could rap like a pneumatic drill Or croon like .:imokey Bill when the occasion arose . ~~ to considerations of love Aas in "Inside My Perimeter" : Inside my perimeter er fears A unit of guerillas Strikes at the barbed- wire 8ovels that hmaed our love : That inc a rcera te our needs -An insurgent a rmy .:itorms the b a stille of pride Shells this fa c a de of s ustom, Knells the collaspe 6 f the stra w men inside us -Accepts the sun , Allows the contorted face of Stress to smile again -To glow againjl AJlows Love to Live . :jM';C;:/;;, b e r e in I» there wer/ ~her ~°l[//!':_T in poetry! Iowa , Nebraska "-Kansas City where Wilbur Rutledge~ and othe:izs associated with the Afr o - Ameri c an Cultural Center re c ei v ed assis t anc e and exposure . �. . • v~~:aJ:r-·'{?Ml wf4} 7/ - Spicer, l \-i llesse Hester .- nd Jac k ie ~J ashington. ~ UlOU ~) ~~W.14:) 1'lidwesx.fle a 61 t more than fhe poets of the a hop , s k ip a nd jump from California , but ma.ny of them were insipred b y ~ t v ~ l magazine oov erage , en d cross-c ountry tours of r;;;-b etween t h e ~ . f ornia . the Watts poets . Born, a s 1· t were , Mllsicmr ~C ali :,un and the re bellion of 196.5 , the \.atts ~J ri ters 1 orkshop wa s ini tlilally under the diredtiJn of Budd Schulberg . Later, as ol der writ er s left ~ . and newe rfl\came i ~he supervision of the workshop was assumed by Har ry Dolan ~th 'IS$) SlrSCC'iit i'Wili: He rbert Simmons . helated cent e rs of culture and infJuence included the Watts Bapnening Co ff e e {o use, the sho rt-lived Shrew magazine, the Watt s Repertwry .t·heate r, the Acquiarian Books tore, the Sons of Watts, the Blac k Panthe rs, ha ren ga s US organ ization, a nd Frederick Douglass Writers' House which hou sed t hose associated with the Wat ts writers program . Among this and o ther writing groups were IIilton IJfc Fa rlane, Clyde Mays(l943Troupe(l943Donegan(l943- ), Stanl ey Crouch(l94.5- ), ), Robe rt Bowen, Pamela ), ~mmery ~vans(l94 3- ) , Fanita(l 943- L~ ) , ~effers , ~l~~ Lino , K. Curtis Lyle(l944) Leumas Sirrah(l948 Blossom Powe, , ), Vallejtl947Simmons(l930 - ), Cleveland Sims(l944- ), ~ric Priestly(l943- ), c. Ojenke(Alvin Saxon, 1947- Jmmny Sherman(l944 - ), I i:.rne st ), Johnme Scott(l948- ) ), K. Mo~eland, Mayh and, ), Fannie Carole B~wn(l9h2 )j David 1'..Jayne ortez ( 193eI\ ), Edna Gipson( l 946 ),;Blossom Powe(l929) , James Thomas Jackson(l927Reese Moody(l 933- Sonora McKe ller(l914 - ), Harley Mims (l92S- . Ridhiana, and others. Their· works are ~ c .fll:lll•llt' ¥Q ), Birdell Chew(l913- ) , IFe in two anthologies: Ashes(l9 67, Schulberg) and Watts Poets and Wri ters(l 9 68, Troupe) . --,.....~;:;;l'.:--perio di cal s poems are ~ sca~ed through such~ca s Los Angeles Magazine, Shrew, Conf ront a tionl'\West ' a J_ ILi§. ~ ......---. Seen as a movement , the \Jatts group ,;\qualitm.tf ~ and quantity , emerge ' �insert this p a ra/ page 22 • . . at the University of ~en¥e r fo r the yea r 1974- 1975. . . - 'l::J?h:d 1 r, /fphahl le during a l e ave o f absence , .Kgositle(l938 - . -:C ~~-••--••M~ tle 1..t ' Pan-1->.fri c ani·s act and symbo J_. was born in Johnanne sburg , South Afri c a , end has been exiled in the United 8 tates since 1961. His articles , noems 9.nd interviews h a ve been published on an i n ternational scale , and he ~ has taught at seve ra~/\co~~eges and universitt~ ' In addi t i on -SCIIII~ ooks already mentione';Jhetfublished "1y Bame Is Afria a(l971) and edited The \·~ord is He r e : Poetry from I·-odern Af ri c a {19 / 3) . His own e sthetic is sta t ed in his i nt oduc t i on to the antholo gy : Poetry , the word at its most expfessive , c a n be a praye r , an a ppe a l , condemnati on , encourage~ent , affirmation-- the list of ende a vor s is endless . And if it is auth entic , a s anything else e xp ressive of a people ' s s p iri t, it is a lways social. Thisfhe where in the Introduction , Gwendolyn Brooks writes th 0 t his ~ Arl t is life worked with ; ••• i n to their works and, m 1ciS.;?' indiginisms B~ckisms . He Gr :s"7 as says the combine s his own with a mastered fluen cy Ameri c an who le o f ~ tumultuous~ ~ A~), ~ ntermingling • • /"'I i.llli·•,==-111a~1J~m~s~mMittr~~~•INi ■Msrra·a~s--1111111iai·■:•J~ A Black s t ree t language with most ab l e c raftsmen, he· · ---.--,-~~ an a c quired fo:r;fl • One of the ~ ·,o childr en , women, v i o lenc e , musi c, Nalcolm X, Lumumba , Gwendol!'::J..-.J,'l.. _,. . ~ ~ ctl: , '.Jnl,fl.'(JV~~ Br oo ks , ~ ~._,.- 111 Afri c an d r- nce s , • Bill y Holiday , or "The Ni tty liritty 11 wnJ rew,-----¥.!""-i f r o zen on batte r ed bla c k lips •••• �as ,j) of the most power f ul on the Ne the po~try is not uni formly good or exc e llent, there is ~ visio~ style!.._and them~tha t one looks hard to migratory patterns of find in other g r oups. This may be due in p art to theAli.,lhiei a Blacks in the West-not born in Los ee.;tlf•■ t •s11e:..-1 we re~ of Galifornia. Whatev e r the reasons, the re is a prismatic rang e in the p oetry tha t moves from the earth-woman musicality of Jayn~Cortez, across the allusory a n tical M excursi ons of Lyle, the siJ;}:~~ lso wlieli-ai! s omel{!,';ijnal blues i n t e rludes of the ~ournal of Black Poetry. Ain 1 t No Ambulances for Mo Ni g ~ s Tonight(l972) i s ~ 1'!lllle-- of both his Lp r e cordin o:-f -which includes "rap" as contains liner notes by Lyle. Croudh uses fo~k well as po e tr'Y) ~orms and themes int e rtwined with music and various ~ramatic techniques. Many of the p oems are dedicated to musicians like Parker the and Coltrane; oth ers attempt,-complicated spontaneit ,, • The title p e '~" day of the final riot when t h e re fl!ilblwill not be ~ mbula nces ~ o e m s hero, Monkey Junior, 11 got on his job '' l ike Nat 'i' urner. Lyle says his influences are Artaud, Octavio Paz, Cesar Vallejo, 6esaire, a nd oth ers. His poetry is ~rounded in elliptical phrases and oscrure i nformat i on which he constricts into fri ght ening , surreal images and ~ st e tes. "Sometimes I Gof to Camarillo & bit i n the Loung e II describes how th e p o e t st a res into 1 'an aiming of s piri )" ¥~viewing the world as y ellow trump ets of st a rving blues yet wearing a Vietnamese mothe r•s "ult r a-h i gh -f r equency scre ams." (I. 1 ie a re told tha t 11 coba lt bu 1 lets II smash t h e h ea rt of the "lone range r Af -1.J./ .; ~---;;:~ _o ~~~/~' ~- to Sc r eam. " • ', .., a--t bl. ,, J> • .J) "-) -.P.. {) 1 AA ;"I~ 1 11 �Ojenke has an unlimited range of intellectual and social concerns as he sculpts his poetry from 'fC-, the f"i' di verse ingredients that produced the Afro - American . Apparentl.Y}\verse ~~ . reaeco - oman clas re of "Black Orpheus" pierce the dark solitude of a Hadean world : ••• ire wonders into ancient lireece and Nigeria in the same poem . In commotion caused by li~)ltning and famime , 11 1/atts '~A-4 X assassinating tin people and whole grass - blades? Later on Diogenes, ~&crates a nd the But these f ,..---.. Oracle of Delphi en t er the po~ ~ . heracters .......,.,._ only come to Jatts to find people escaping into a "toxicant" and fleeing from some too - true - ' truth •••• Ojenke also wrote an Introduction to ~vans' book The Love Poet(l971) . About ~vans 1 reading ability, o·enke said• is into your ear. " two roaches dance across the room to the tune of poverty; ••• ( Sco~ t is ~ one of the more well known of the ·J atts poets . In "The F ish Party , " he says The fish are gathering again tonight , ••• And fish - watchers , ignorant of the world 1 s problems , get their charges - from trying to guess what the fish will do . During the conversation , Scot t talks parenthetically about war and poverty , but all is exc* lamatorily interrupted : "Watts , 1.966" is difference . But ~cott closes it on memorable lines : ~h~ man named Fear h a s inherited half an acre, ~ l (J..~M• Other Watts po~ts deal with love violence , e:n ei i 8 &H e.;, ! 50 co~templati~~l\and music . 0 �2i Many left ~Jatts after the late sixties . ·univ ,, ) and ~~~~~~~~~~~u Troupe went to Ohio , ~mbryo(l973) , ~fter moving on to New York . not published a volume , went to Washington University in ~t . Louis , and recently returned to Los Angel e s . Jayne Gortez went to New York where she has lived and wrote since the late sixties . Her three books are Pissstained S · Man ' s Ware s l l969), She has also recor ~:;_:;~..Mto'-'-~:..i...~~~~-----....,.....,._i.w...~(1974) . Festivals and 'fi'-unera!s 1971) and carifi c tions 197J . er themes and styles are broad , but mostly embrac e musi c as aspect--..-~ rm. Afri c 5Mstruggle and a dominant theme in her poetry . Pissstained ~...._..1 music i s espe c ially i " The Ro ad 11 and struggle . is 11 where anothe r Hank moan s " and is "Lead" describes ."JLt~ . r kind of hard lifEJ\ crackl in hot a sunrise . " Lead, of c ourse , is Lead BeJly whom the 11 nig p-uhs" desperat e~ ~ hear spi t the blues out . hardships and goodt i mes o f Dinah , Brown and othe r s -- a deat h , from one who would ••• eat mud to touch the root of you •••• Among o t h e r ~ Arthur Boze(l945 - ets are Robert Bowenll936), Mc Neil,/ ) ,1 Kinamo Ho dari(l940 ) , Dee DeeJ1943 - Northern California has also been characterized by in- and trans migrations o f d writers . Inde ed a lis t ing of poets from the general area of the San li'rancsi co Bay read like a national convention Goncalves,1937Youngt 1939 - ) , Harper(l93.$ - Clyde Taylor( Ma ck(l947- ) lnow at Brown) , Conyus(l G1L2 - , ), Angelo Lewi s(l950 - ), El Muhajir(l944- J, Reed , Miller , Lawrence Mclraugh(l940 ) (Marvin .X) , Leona \ elch( J, ) , L . V. ) , ), Joyce varol Thomas �(1938- ), David Henderson, Joseph !Vic.Nair( ) , Jon .l;!;ckels ( George Barlow(l948 De Leon Harrison(l 941- ), Herman Brown ( ) ~Jfuumba), Pat Parker( tebster Pabio(l928- ), bara Anderson~aya Angelou(l928- ), Glen Myles(l933 'f." )' ), ) , William Bay area activity in the arts has been heightened and enhanced by the 0 an F'rancisco Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society, Bookstores such as Moa,e• , Ha rcus and 1~ew Day (Goncalves) , activities of Panthers and similar groups, the Hainbow Sign cultural center in Berkeley, Nairobi Colle g e, and nume rous other cultural and literary projects . Poems by many r.,~ ~ these bards~~-- · Mi ll e r ' s Dices of Black Bones(l970), Journal of Black Poetry, Yardbird Header( a semi:enual edited by rteed , Young, Cecil Brown , Young and Myles) , Umbra Blackworks(11!!1!l Henderson , ~ e s , especially 1970-71 ), a ntholo g ies and per1 and other nationally distributed dicals . Reed h a s published thr ee volumes: catechism of d neoamerican ':'I hoodoo church(l971) , Conjure: ~, elect ed Poems ! l~ 63-i~70(1972), . • f .,Chattanoogatl973) , a nd s s veral novels • .m.• • • , His work has drawn,-.,~ e mixture of "brillim t," adje ctives from critics: "cute," ,-.. "jumbles and I'<Zles," "important," "bad comics II and so on. Indeed rleed ~rites~oetry~lb.is novels and~vels In this service, i ~his poems . j(e employs ~[l ...,..c;_,,,.. occult, whimsicality, J wit , mysticism, aatire, mam.;m,liiltmmmmW.lllli*ijlillli!m all r einforced by assorted information l~brarJ and street-instinct He violates time barriers , placing arr ancient ~reek fi gure in a con,roughly recalling temporary u oem, or vice versa. His verse forms are experimental,,\: ,_----.._. ~ ] ] $ tg the Beats and other. recent-9-I' past stylistic irreverencies . There are no sacred~lll!!i~ for rteed who~ambasts Black n a{.ion a lists e~d white, l i b e r a l s ~ i n the same poem . Generally , his techniques wo but he often spends too much time attacki"ng real °t)•----....-...~- t t · I') or crea e an agonis--t- s --= ~, . �His titles alone are epou@ to keep you slapping your thighf or .,, '1-q..e '1•ni,r · l' sc r atching your head : "I am a cowboy in the ,..b9a ¼ of 1a, 11 11 ,~,~~~ a whale in my thigh , 11 Dev_il "~n>. a Ford, Pi 11 J\11 Gris 1 Lrris , o ,jlich ,; e als8 !to t d • " ~iQ)vt.~af&......,._,._. Uonc The fe r al pioneers , ~t'l , 8d, - •11...,.......-.-.-~ 11 '.L1here I s ({And the '/7 ~~• • n o ccasional poet , is unique in his intellectual - typographical tapestry of ideastsee Black Fire~ but his service to Black poetry h a s been more o bvious in his work as founder editor of J o urnal of Black Poetry. He also served as poetry editor of Black Dialogue . A quiet, but steady , influence on the New Black Poetry, he has written some of the most informed criticism to come out of the period. Currently he run s operates J.~ew Day Bookstore in ban Francisco, where 'l'he Journal and its press are headquartered. (Penetration , 1971)) Among poets 1)Ublished by the press are. Neal and \,el ton Smith.a a virtuoso C poetl{1imMU!B ~ who was born and raised inAthe £2,,r . are@ . ~ "Malcolm" ends discussi~ the kinds tracks tears make and telling the re der that in my heart there are many unmarked graves . (J.i,,~ rhere areJ\word-gifts in "a the danger zone, 1 for Light , " 11 11 11 If I could hold You for a sorceress "("you keEfchanging me into air")J "Black i,rother"("an odd e cstasy moving") ; these j_oin blues, excursions through city streets, and thoughts on Africa . Young and Harper both teach wri ting'jl,1 ~rown . Young has nublished • lit at Stanford and Dancing(l969) and The Back i nto Itself(l971) , as well as novels and articles . 0 ong Turning is poetry satirizes militants , salutes white and Third \IJorld poets,.-, and incorpora tes legends~ f1illlt a br fl base of linguisti c knowledge . There is a consistency of interest as seen in the titles of his books . In 11 8;rosong 11 he finds himself dancing "naked II though All my shores had been pulled up •••• "Yes , the Secret Mind whispers , " ~ .orif.._. , dedicat ed to Kaufman , c-iii1:riia ~ --- 0 '4/"\..L(_ A_ ,, �for ~ve r at your door •••• Young ~ ranges over the whole oftbe life experience , writing about squirrels , jazz mus i cians , Spain , ~tockholm, night time and sorrow . His poetry is markedly different from that of Harper who left Galifornia ~ 1970 . Dear John, Dear Coltrane(l970) , History i B Your Own Heartbeat(1 q71) , Photographs: Negatives : History as Apule 'l reell972) , Song : I \r,ant a ~'Vitnesstl973) , Uebridement,:J,.973) , and Night mare Begins hesponsibili t yf( 1974) . Praise for his, poetry has come from a wide spectrum of';_crit1c.....,wp~r~i-marily academiAc~i~a~n--w 7 recently of Black:,S5t.s Wff it I■ contributing to the new American poetry scene(The New York Times Times Hagazine , Novemberl 24, 1974)f~ieberman has also praised Harper i<!'-~M:3 received nominati ons for the National Book Award as well as the the Black .t1.cademy of Arts and Letters 1''irs t Annual Poetry ~ward . kept a consistency of1'-1Rlillill•m tone critics particulat rly · and though his poetry sometimes lack'!meta (1 ?) ignite uhorical tension~to~iiWiilili• P. statements he makes about Black musi<;,c ru p ooial 1~ 9 there is a at work, :ill·~===- ~ Y • His themes are illusionf, pained creativity , war , racism, ~ D I ~ ' deat~, and the J$thologj:cal evolution of mankind . Much of his poetry is personal , c onfessional, and he interweaves a medical vocabulary into of it . He often includes chants , hums , and names of songs and musicians . His musi c o - poetic concerns can be seen in these lines from" J ear John , DeaJ> Co 1 trane 11 : Why you so btac k? <;muse I ii~ WhI you so funkz? ~use. I al,IJ .W4Y. xoy §Q black? - · �Qause I am - ~•hxy you so sw.e.at;? "v!J::l:y yon sa blac k? cause I am ,a......,love supreme , a love ;;µ ;preme : •.. El Muhajir\ Marvin X) is a different k ind of p oet , Islam- influen c ed a nd adamantly Black : Fly to Allah(l969) , Black Man Listen~l969) , Woman .... ..., Man's Be st ,---::---. Fri endtl9'(3) , the latt e r obviously a rejection of white America • s fetish for animals . bach book· salutes Allah and contains some occasionally wih ll - turned poetry int e rmingled ·with p roverbs , parables and song s . He p raises C:lijab Huhammad , Tommy ~ith , and :k announces tha t " Bigg er Thoma s Lives!" In" e (') ri g ins of Blac kness" he says Black is n o t a color . but that A rom B\~9k •••• +.OLAi i). t6 My es published Down t& Country in 1 n74 as a collaJe of his drawings ~ contemporary life , his~•~•-9R on " Bebop and poems . He suveys and blues in Pho e nix 11 , a nd hi~periences a s an artist and art student . h a s moved from a p o e t ry o f anger and protest to a "po etry written by a human being , d5'or human beings . " :is books include Blac k Dawn , This Time i1 omor,baw, 1 J Bla c k Right On Home is Where the Soul I s( l969) , Our Busine s is in the ~treets(l9 7O), a n d Fire Sign(l9 73) , 1-in.ich g ive s its name to his new p r ess . In his early phas e .c,ckels "In 1v1emo ry of Harcus , 11 11 A J. wrote about " Bla ck Is , " "Hell , Mary , " esponsible l'Jeegrow Leader , als o co i n ing an interesting term : 11 and other poems/ ( Western byphilizati on •••• Fire ;:sign )P:Qrx sknn■Hkirmi "for the fre e and will be , " shows a themat ic and cultural bread th as he writes love poems and salutes f ~e edom in g eneral . �McNair, a cosmic poet who bridges African spirituality and his own psychis r e vel a tions , h 2 s p ublished Larthbook\1972 ) and ~x Juba lirl \1973). Gertainly the world wi J l he ~r more from this g ifted young writ e r . ~ , ; Jaya Angelou is primarily a prose f poems : ~ Jus t Give and script wri ter ,~ t has published • Me A C661 Dri nk o f - ~ ,. J ± ater rFor I Diiie ~971) . )(__Pat P~rkerJJ, J 2·mav poetry can be found in an excellent little volume called Child of MyselfJiB15(1 972) and Dices . Sbe,~i~Mto assess Nandsc a pe of t h e current atiliFe"S her own woman-fe elings 11 upheaval . Brothe r 11 reveals c ontra di c tions in the love - but-hurt EP P ra a ch some __. Black men take towards t h e ir wo men . The 11 system" she has jus t been struck wi t h / ~ -'Mt'.,...- is c a lled a fi s t . Othe r p oems deal with humor and husba iid - wi fe relat ions . In "A Moment Le ft behind 1' she asks Have your eve r tried to catch a t e ar? "From Deep Within" says the way of a woma n is turbulent with many forces e nd colors of f oeling s , but A woman's body mu s t be taught to speak- - ••• . Pat Park er ' s work se arches behind the cosmetics and the vogue to ·<@111111!._ truth ahd ~ isturbance . So does the work of Joyce Ca rol Thoma s whc;;,wo books , Bitt e rsweet ( l973) a nd Crystal Breezes(l974) , were uub lished by Fire Sign p ress . ~er poems are abo u t womens moods , church , Black music , children, and love. 1 f x There is a modern f e el and texture displaying in her l i nes which economize snd withou~abruptne ss or undecipherable aB co de . Yet h e r strength is unmis table I know a lady A c areful queen uhe bows to no one ~ "I Know a Lady ": �3f Her will is a Fine th r-ea<\_ of steel •••• ~ sees In these poems , -,t;ne works of rat f'arker and Leona ~Jelch, one gi::k:!7J.pxiuix a strong ~ health and future in Bay area woman poets . Black Gib r altar , Leona welch 1 s first book , wa s published r.-.. in 1971 . Here and there , one finds subdued rage and impatience before racism and ignorance ; b'§It h e r - poetry also exalts the Black woman and s n e a ks in low tones to men . He r of love . 11 langu ag e r a n ge s from folk ex-pressions to form a l ~ta tus ~"uo 11 1ffimrnhmx:ln is the study of a Black wi 1.,h e xaminat i ons II class II a nd d i gni ty : Got my white poodle by the leash . Less able than the oth e r women , her poetry salutes a numb e r of heroines including women in her family and Nikki Ll-iovanni . Finally there is the much~traveled Sarah Fabi o, intrumental in Black Studies development in north ern Ga lifornia , but who now lives in Iowa . jj a,n She published t r,ro volumes , A T1irror : A :St,ul ( 1969) and • Black I s a Panther va g ed(l972 ),~hen,without notice brought out seven 1 vo lumes ( ! ) all in ~ 1973: Soul I s : ~oul Ain 1 y , Boss Soul(also the name of her Lp) , Blac k Back : Bac k Black, Jujus & Uu bile e s , My Own Thing, Ju jus / Alchemy of the Blues , a l) d T _ o....._e_t_h_e_r-'/'-t _o_---jf--T_un __e_ o_f_ C_o_ l_t_r_a_n_e_;!_~_ s Equ i n o x . Her later work is more f o rmal tha t than late r -wh ich shows she has toined the new poe t ry mo v ement complete l y . One of h er more memo r able earlier p i eces is "~vi l is No Black Thing 11 in whi ch she takes a l l ,.-----... btJ!!~!Sfflt dark things tradition ally associfited wi t h evil a nd r ever s es them ; or, allo ws them to be seen u n a larger wh erein they invari ably embra c e something th a t is light. Her effo rts deal ·with exp e r 11imental blues , rap - s t yles , ont ext ,.i.,.;.,__7 • v o luminous folk n ar rati v es , and the r econstructi on of a general Black oral his t ory . This she does quite we l l on h e r album but much of the writing in the new books is c onversation a l. �~<-1-1,,,/1;14~• ~~ief.1~ cfrj u~~~~~~~-V:,~~~~~ . - briel , 1974 ) @_i)ha s done impuessive things with l a n gu a ge and histor #• B. hap publi shed t evolution Is(1969) ..,. and Het a morphis of buperni g g e r , 1973) . ma .. Q n ;uadsa vJhile ail inmate a t Va c aville , Brown(Muumba ) published &Ctine Poems and Things(l971) . In ~acramento, tije young poet Clarence McKie Wigfall has shown promise in 'f ue Ot her ~ide( 1970), while Wes Young published Life roday(l970) and Rambling a nd fuings(l972) . At J-rant Hi gh School~·&~lllilill!!•~IIIA- young Black p o e ts were i n cluded in Omnibus(l973) 9 ~~~~fil younger and olde r po et s e re stud Jng at California ~tate University --~'\,,Q-970 , with ~,edmond, #l* workshops1-,: ocated • on the campus as well• as in 0ommunity sites like the Oak Park School of Afro-American 'f hought . Meanwhi~n Se attle , Black Arts \Jest is attractin g • many poets; ait-N,cross s i:; ate at Washington State University~imus ~t . John wr ites and works with othe r writ e rs . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_07_27 Title A name given to the resource Draft of partial manuscript of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, p. 1-32, 1975 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975