Composed of three sections, this collection features the final poems of the late poet laureate of Illinois. The first section, ""In Montgomery,"" is a verbal description of a visit made by the poet and a highly talented photographer for Ebony Magazine, Moneeta Sleet. This is followed by a section of poetic character sketches. The final section is based upon a well known building located in the Black ghetto of Chicago's south side.
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.
Donald G. Evans
Wherever I'm At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry
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The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame has partnered with Chicago publishers After Hours Press and Third World Press to produce a definitive collection of poetry by living Chicago poets. Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry features the work of a widely diverse list of over 160 poets and artists all with strong ties to Chicagoland. With a Foreword by noted scholar Carlo Rotello, the new anthology is edited by Donald G. Evans (executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame) who completed the project begun by the late poet-editor-teacher Robin Metz formerly of Knox College.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Heartlove
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These essential meditations on commitment will bring pleasure and reassurance while confirming one's belief in the power of love.
Randall Horton
Fingernails Across the Chalkboard
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Featuring a wide assortment of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, this powerful volume confronts the existence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the Black Diaspora. Defining a cultural dialogue that will be prevalent well into the 21st century, these writings celebrate life and the living by humanizing the effects of HIV and giving powerful voices to the affected and afflicted. The writings, presented in four major sections, speak out about the hard-hitting truths that surround HIV; the forms of abuse, such as incest and rape, which cast HIV into the lives of girls and women; the issues of grief and loss; and the range of reactions, from acceptance to denial, activism, and the search for justice. The writers featured include Dennis Brutus, Tony Medina, Randi Triant, Truth Thomas, Duriel Harris, Frank X. Walker, Arisa White, Tara Betts, and Lamont B. Steptoe.
Gwendolyn Brooks
Family Pictures
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Family Pictures is a collection of poems dedicated to her friends and fighting against global anti=blackness
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.
Kalamu ya Salaam
Precise Tenderness
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With Precise Tenderness, Kalamu ya Salaam, our long-cherished cosmic deputy, has gifted us another amazing collection of poetry. This volume is a unique exploration of haiku fueled by his seemingly boundless imagination, deft wordplay, and Black Aesthetic wanderings. This creative master artfully paints the page while orchestrating blues/jazz/gospel soundings. "Falling is minor," writes the poet in Haiku #13. What's major is how the poet soars and gets our spirits to fly as we read. Whether issuing political commentary, musing about love and self-inspection, or making his characteristic and inevitable visit to erotica, Kalamu ya Salaam is an immensely profound and inspiring craftsperson. This collection is not only precise tenderness. It is precise brilliance.
Nora Brooks Blakely
Seasons (Hardcover)
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Seasons: A Gwendolyn Brooks Experience captures her life and work in a new book filled with thematic collections of her poetry and prose; photos; memories from family, friends, peers and mentees and gripping illustrations from the award-winning artist, Jan Spivey Gilchrist. Now more than ever the words of Gwendolyn Brooks demonstrate their continued relevance in the 21st century. The national centennial celebration is one part of a resurgence of appreciation for her powerful work and the impact she had on 20th century literature as well as the Black Arts Movement.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Run Toward Fear
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Run Toward Fear offers readers a mixture of poems that challenge and cause both reflection on and questioning about many headline issues that have launched this century. Madhubuti includes poignant moving tributes to Jacob Carruthers, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Amiri Baraka, as well as heartfelt words that provide comfort and guidance to the families of the 21 people who lost their lives in Chicago's E-2 nightclub tragedy. The final section of the book, ""A Poet's Handbook,"" provides personal and sometimes anecdotal insights on the craft of writing poetry.
Patrick T. Reardon
Puddin'
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It is the story of a baby—me—during my first fourteen months, leading up to the birth of David. It’s told from the perspective and in the voice of a baby. Each of this small book’s 101 chapters is imagined. Yet, each is rooted in reality, in facts and feelings.
Kelly Norman Ellis
The Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS
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As HIV continues to change life on this planet, encouraging tough conversations about sex, sexual orientation, healthy relationships and trust, it invigorates those young and old to challenge the status quo of silence. Editors Kelly Norman Ellis and M.L. Hunter have assembled established and emerging writers and artists from around the globe, such as American Book Award and Pew Fellowship winner Lamont B. Steptoe; renown poet and educator Tony Medina; and Emmy award-winner Kwame Dawes, for this haunting and inspiring collection of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction that paints living portraits of HIV/AIDS.
Sterling Plumpp
Ornate with Smoke
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Poetry that comes out of the jazz music of African American artists.
Quraysh Ali Lansana
They Shall Run
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These poems trace the journeys of the great Black historical figure Harriet Tubman and her fugitives through the backwoods of America.
Keorapetse Kgositsile
To the Bitter End
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South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile rejuvenates the African spirit and continues the quest for total and uncompromised liberation.
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 (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.
Useni Eugene Perkins
Memories & Images
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Perkins reveals his personal development into his present philosophy as he recounts his childhood, extols his heroes, and sings about the jazz greats.
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.
Mzee Lasana Okpara (Fred Lee Hord)
Life Sentences
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Life Sentences: Freeing Black Relationships is a Black man's response to the devastating effect of the Euro-Western concept of love on Black relationships. Author Mzee Lasana Okpara (formerly Fred Hord) demonstrates keen insight and confronts complex contemporary and historical issues which thwart efforts towards genuine bonding between the Black man and woman. Okpara's voice is intimate, challenging, and resolute.
Cranston Knight
La Brigada
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The poems in ""La are"" are about the impact of Spain on La Brigada, the American unit that fought in the Spanish Civil War. As Cranston Knight states, the poems are about ""those who struggled in a time vortex to save millions in a forgotten war, a forgotten country."" To bridge the cultural and language gap in the telling of these stories, Knight includes a selection of the book's poems in both English and Spanish.
Haki R. Madhubuti
Killing Memory, Seeking Ancestors
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Written in the tradition and style of the Black Arts Movement, this collection contains lyrical poems, laced with satirical allusions and political exhortations to Black readers.
Wade Hudson
Journey
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Estella Conwill Majozo
Jiva Telling Rites
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This is a collection of poems in verse and short prose that tells the story of a woman's anguish and growth in a hostile environment. The poems move into praise songs for people deemed worthy of recognition.