The heart of this ambitious and energetic collection is the conscientious and trusted mind of a giving and loving Black artist who in his own way understands history, psychology, economics, politics, and, most of all, the unique power of language in his application of “chord inversions” in the use of serving the urgent needs of Black lives. As a poet and empirical scientist who dances with words, ideas, real life, practical clarifications, and humor, Gilyard challenges his readers to act.
Ginger Mance
I Say a Prayer for You Black Men
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This book-length poem is a love poem and prayer to all Black men, a wake-up call for America to atone for its injustices towards Black men, and a voice of instruction for Black women.
Regina Jennings
Race, Rage, and Roses
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In this collection, Regina Jennings' poems passionately reveal the beauty and tragedy of women in the Black Panther Party and beyond. She explores the often haunting reality of growing up Black and female during the spirited, tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. In spare, often brutally honest narrative verse, Jennings spins stories of home, homelessness, and rebuilding home.
Diane D. Turner
Feeding the Soul
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An Africa-centered framework unifies these essays about misconceptions in standard accounts of the evolution of black music. Topics are cross-disciplinary and include Africa and the African diaspora, American black popular music, black consciousness and art, black message music, and the future of rap. Also included are poems by Nicole Sealey and Sandra Turner-Barnes; personal narratives by gospel music scholar James E. Adams and blues musician Byard Lancaster; and interviews with Katherine DeChavis, Kenny Gamble, Wynton Marsalis, Trudy Pitts, Shirley Scott, Ira Tucker, and McCoy Tyner. Rare archival photographs of musical pioneers complete this collection that leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the rich traditions of black music.
Eugene B. Redmond
Arkansippi Memwars
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Celebrating a career that spans four decades, Eugene B. Redmond’s collected work—Arkansippi Memwars—triumphs. An award-winning poet, playwright and educator, Redmond represents through his body of work the veracity and audacity of the Black Arts Movement, the traditions of the Yoruba, and the complex history of the Black American. The poetry of Redmond moves to the cadence of drums stripped from his ancestors and reclaimed by the burgeoning Hip-Hop movement of the 1970s. Fearless, sharp, and satirically masterful are but a few words to describe the excellence of Eugene Redmond and his poetry.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Liberation Narratives
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Spanning a long career, these poems helped define and sustain a movement that added music and brash street language to traditional poetics. Like Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones), this poet and social activist has long combined the personal and the political by adding anger, activism, and outsider art to well-crafted poems. Spoken-word poetry (which recently garnered the author a Grammy nomination) and message poetry aimed at community healing are innovations in the later works, and as a whole the poems provide an overview of emerging Black culture as they borrow language from Black consciousness, hip-hop, political speeches, and motivational talks.
Michael Simanga
In The Shadow of The Son
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Isaiah Bishop knows the sound of war, the smell of violence, the colour of fear, and the taste of blood. He knows the horror of killing and the tragedy of young men dying. These were the tough lessons impressed upon this inner city high school teacher as he served out his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Now, more than twenty years after surviving the jungles of Southeast Asia, Bishop finds that the lessons of the bloody and nightmarish conflict on foreign soil are being revisited upon him once again. Yet this time, the battle lines are clearer and closer to home. He is caught in the throes of America's urban war; the streets of his neighbourhood now are where the contest is being played out.
Aneb Kgositsile
Shrines
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This collection of poetry explores the intimate beauty of our most sacred places. The landscape of these poems is as far-reaching as the continent of Africa and as close as the next room.
Lita Hooper
The Art of Work
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This comprehensive analysis of the life and work of Haki R. Madhubuti demonstrates why he is such a pivotal figure in black literature. Both his life experiences and literary contributions are explored, highlighting his roles as political activist, writer, educator, and husband. A concise yet thorough examination of an oft-overlooked period of black literary history is also included. This discussion argues that Madhubuti more than most of his contemporaries successfully transformed from poet-activist to modern-day visionary and continues to challenge the status quo in pursuit of justice and peace.
Bakari Kitwana
The Rap on Gangsta Rap: Who Run It?
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This book is a critical review of the highly explosive and widely discussed musical art form called gangsta rap. Kitwana examines the ways Black culture, male-female relationships, sexism, white supremacy (racism), and gun violence converge in this controversial music form.
Lawson Bush
The Plan Workbook
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Lays out a simplified step by step guide for parents to use, beginning from before their children are born, to plan the steps they will take to prepare African American boys throughout their developmental years all the way to manhood.
Tony Lindsay
Pieces of the Hole
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The hip-hop culture on the south side of Chicago links these short stories that are otherwise very different from each other in subject and approach. Stark scenes of gang violence, drug use, and prison life are contrasted with light and humorous stories, and the grittiness of urban life is softened by the preoccupations of adolescence, the chance for romance, or the ordinary moments of family life.
Edmund W. Gordon
Pedagogical Imagination
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With essays concerned with the struggle to achieve equal educational opportunity through desegregation and the struggle for equality of educational achievement, Gordon uses logical analysis to exploit the potential of the dominant system's theories (""the master's tools"") to subvert that system's efforts at intellectual marginalization and oppression of low-income people of color. Edmund W. Gordon is the Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology and Education Emeritus and Director, Emeritus of the Institute of Urban and Minority Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Yale University and has been the Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the College Board. The Educational Testing Service created the Edmund W. Gordon Chair in Evaluation, Research and Policy in 2004. The following year, Columbia University named its Harlem facility the Edmund W. Gordon Campus of Teachers College. Locally he and his wife, Dr. Susan G. Gordon, are the Co-Founders of the CEJJES Institute in Pomona.
Bryonn Bain
The Ugly Side of Beautiful
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Racially profiled and wrongfully imprisoned during his second year at Harvard Law School, hip-hop activist Bryonn Bain successfully sued the New York City Police Department and wrote the ""Village Voice ""cover story ""Walking While Black."" Now Bain has taken his own disturbing experiences of racial profiling and personal demoralization and turned them into teachable moments for an entire nation. ""The Ugly Side of Beautiful ""takes an unflinching look at the injustices of our prison system and strives to help us think outside the cage.
Sterling Plumpp
Ornate with Smoke
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Poetry that comes out of the jazz music of African American artists.
B. J. Bolden
Urban Rage in Bronzeville
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An examination of the work of Gwendolyn Brooks with the background of the current socio-political scene in Chicago's Bronzeville in its heyday.
Sterling Plumpp
Velvet Bebop Kente Cloth
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This collection is the third in a trilogy of poetic works created by Sterling Plumpp to allow audiences to explore the language of music articulated through the nuances of jazz, blues, and bebop. The poetry in Velvet Be Bop Kente Cloth utilizes distinct rhythms and a non-conventional use of line and line breaks. It also draws upon the musical innovations established by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillispie, and others.
Joyce Ann Joyce
Warriors, Conjurers and Priests (Paperback)
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In Warriors, Conjurers and Priests: Defining African-centered Literary Criticism, Joyce Ann Joyce brilliantly merges her vision of African American literary criticism with her understanding of the politics of higher education. Collected together, these essays depict the literary critic as a shaman and literary conjurer, steeped in the spirituality and history of Black culture. Her analysis offers perceptive readings of major Black literary figures of the 20th century - including Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, James Baldwin, Ann Petry, Terry McMillan, Ishmael Reed and others. Professor Joyce demonstrates extensive research, while illustrating the interconnectedness of fiction and poetry to historical, political and cultural reality. At the same time, she provides balanced critiques rather than one-sidedness posing as universality. Most importantly, hers is a voice that recognizes the heterogeneity of the Black community and, in hopes of heightening understanding, does not fear discussing the strengths and weaknesses of diverse views.
Maulana Karenga
Million Man March/Day of Absence
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A comprehensive treatment of the 1996 Million Man March using essays, photographs, and poetry.
Brenda M. Greene
Meditations and Ascensions
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Representing conversations from the Eighth National Black Writers Conference in 2006, this collection provides in-depth meditations and analyses of literature by black writers. Reflections on the black experience, the American experience, and a more global experience and worldview are all widely discussed, as well as future trends and ascensions for black literature. Students, teachers, journalists, and other writers will welcome the chance to view parts of the writing process and see inside the heads of prominent black writers. Participants include Marita Golden, Walter Mosley, Ishmael Reed, Herb Boyd, Valerie Boyd, Haki R. Madhubuti, Elizabeth Nunez, Tananarive Due, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Camille Yarbrough, Susan McHenry, and many others.
Mzee Lasana Okpara (Fred Lee Hord)
Longer Than Breath
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When I met Toussaint, I was struck instantly by both his name and demeanor. Over the years, it became clear my son-in-law was a new Toussaint, principled warrior, and community leader. This book of poems is an extended conversation between me and his widowed wife, my daughter. So how many Black women have lost life partners, this, however, was not the result of external violence, just the wearing away of his body. Their love remains intact.
Wade Hudson
Journey
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Gwendolyn A. Mitchell
House of Women
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Creating a storyteller's circle where women share their joy, pain, and experience, the poems in this collection are lyrical vignettes, in which women sing familiar songs of love, solidarity, and sisterhood.
Jacqueline Imani Bryant
Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha
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Ten literary experts on the work of Gwendolyn Brooks unite in this collection to provide in-depth analysis on ""Maud Martha."" Through various essays, this volume explores socio-economic implications, the portrayal of the Black family and the Black woman, the contemporary culture in Chicago's Bronzeville, and the literary skills of Brooks.