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.
Russell Price
The Meaning of Reading In Their Own Words
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A Poster Sries Collection of 10 (24" x 36') Posters. Single posters, not sold individually
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.
Nicole Mitchell
Liberation Narratives (CD)
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In 2014, Mitchell was commissioned by the Jazz Institute of Chicago to write music inspired by the poetry of Haki Madhbuti. Liberation Narratives, the latest release by composer, flautist and conceptualist Nicole Mitchell, will be released by the notable African-American publisher, Third World Press. The founder and director of Third World Press is named Haki R. Madhubuti. The album features Madhubuti reading his own poetry spanning his entire career from the 1960s to the present. Known formerly as Don L. Lee, he was a protege of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize.
Cathy Jackson-Gent
Surviving Financially in a Rigged System
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Cathy Jackson-Gent provides instruction about how to avoid such financial mishaps. She represents a kind of public intellectual, a field that is top heavy with those aim is to change the attitudes of millions of Whites about race. Such public intellectuals, religious and secular, perform a service. But Cathy is telling Blacks how to survive in a time when the attitude towards Blacks held by the Democratic Party is benign neglect and that of the Republican Party is benign extermination, which explains Katrina and Flint.
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.
Julia Perkins
The Art & Activism of Marion Perkins
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The Art and Activism of Marion Perkins: “To see reality in a new light” edited by Julia Perkins, Michael Flug and David Lusenhof preserves the art of Marion Perkins (1908-1961), a self-taught sculpture who became one of the most important visual artists in the Chicago Renaissance. Now fifty years after his death, Perkins work has inspired a new audience of artists, art enthusiast and art historians to study the rich cultural history of Chicago’s black artists and writers. This book includes commentary, photography and documents from the 2009 year-long exhibit held at the Chicago Public Library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Third World Press was pleased to partner with the Harsh Society on the production of this book, which will serve as the official archival record of the exhibit.On preserving the art and legacy of Marion Perkins“Through his art, Marion Perkins imparted social and political commentary on the injustices and challenges faced by African Americans during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. This catalogue is a tribute to the man and the exhibition “‘to see reality in a new light’:the Art & Activism of Marion Perkins,” which marked the first comprehensive survey of his legacy and contribution to the landscape of American art.” —Julia Perkins
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.
Adenike Marie Davidson
The Black Nation Novel
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Examining early African American literature from the perspective of a Black Nationalist literary critic, this analysis explores important novels from the 19th and 20th centuries. The discussion demonstrates that Black Nationalist themes were present in many early novels, prefiguring the themes that would become the centerpiece of the Black Power Movement. One of the few books that examines early African American novels, this definitive exploration of them adds to the discussion of black literature and literary criticism.
Gwendolyn Brooks
Report from Part Two (Hardcover)
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Musings and notes about the life, the family, and travels of Gwendolyn Brooks that is a reprise of a prior book, ""Report from Part One,"" published by Broadside Press in 1972. Brooks was the Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress from 1985 to 1986. This volume includes her introductions of visiting writers during that period.
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
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Dr. Lawson Bush, a leading expert on the relationship between Black mothers and their sons and the author of the widely used ""African Educator's Declara-tion,"" assembled a team of advocates for young Black men to create this guide to help mothers understand and navigate the unique challenges of raising African American boys in a culture that sets deliberate traps for failure. An accompanying workbook provides exercises to help parents raise boys to be-come educated and successful men.
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.
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.
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.
Sterling Plumpp
Ornate with Smoke
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Poetry that comes out of the jazz music of African American artists.
Acklyn Lynch
Nightmare Overhanging Darkly
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Writings of the Black heroes and musicians and the intellectual and physical environment that shaped their lives and those of the Black community.
Woodie King Jr.
New Plays for the Black Theater
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An anthology of short plays of some of the well known and highly respected African American playwrights. A glimpse into the early work of some very successful writers.
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.
Joyce Ann Joyce
Warriors, Conjurers and Priests (Hardcover)
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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.
Kahil El' Zabar
Mis Taken Brilliance
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Mis Taken Brilliance is percussionist extraordinaire Kahil El'Zabar's debut poetry collection. El'Zabar's many moods are expressed in an ecology of rhythm and rifts, harmony and phraseology. El'Zabar is the talking drummer who revels in the textures, the tonality, and beat of life.
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.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Medasi (CD)
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A spoken word audio CD that features Haki Madhubuti and the Afrikan Liberation Arts Ensemble.
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.
