Poet Stacey L. Brown discusses Yusef Komunyakaa

In an interview last week on the subjects of poetry and reading, poet Stacey Brown identified Yusef Komonyakaa as a poet whose works she has returned to regularly over the years.

Listen here as she discusses his work and identifies one of his notable poems:




Related:
Stacey L. Brown discusses "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Stacey L. Brown discusses "Barbie's Little Sister" by Allison Joseph

WDS: Progress in Advance of Understanding

Haley Scholar Reading Groups

By Cindy Lyles

In “John Rock’s Error,” Gladwell details how medical doctor and devout Catholic John Rock invented and rationalized the use of the birth control pill. His justification supported how the oral contraceptive was natural because “…the Pill’s ingredients duplicated what could be found in the body naturally” (104). The drug specifically allowed for three weeks on the Pill and a placebo during the fourth week to allow for woman’s “natural” bodily process of menstruation.

This natural menses process is eventually challenged in the article as later research demonstrates that women with higher rates of menses tend to be at higher risk for cancer; whereas women with more infrequent menses are at less risk. If the Pill replaced the placebo week with a dosage of hormones that mirrored the other three weeks, the drug could, in fact, help prevent cancer in women; however this was unknown during the time Rock advocated for the Pill. Consequently, he failed to receive the support he expected from the Church and was shunned for his scientific advances.

A.O.C.: Zeroing in on Choices

Haley Scholar Reading Groups

By Danielle Hall

In the first section of chapter 6 of The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar addresses a few key phrases related to making better choices such as "zeroing in," "simplifying,” or "making a distinction between." She encourages us to think about how having less options often sets the tone for better and sometimes wiser decisions (192-93).

Iyengar's discussion of how skilled chess players consider “only the most viable tactics" in order to "plan multiple moves in advance with relatively little mental effort” resembles the old adage about “playing smarter, not harder” to win. Iyengar notes that “experts can simplify their own choices, which in turn allows them to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by more choice” (193). By contrast, novices need assistance simplifying choices.

Iyengar’s ideas might assist us in becoming more aware of how our respective fields of study lead us to develop expertise in eliminating excess options. What is one way that your major has prepared you to simplify choices or multiple alternatives? Why is the ability to simplify in that way important?

Toward a Contemporary History of Black Persona Poems

Interestingly enough, a contemporary history of persona poems by African American poets begins around 1990 with Elizabeth Alexander's piece "The Venus Hottentot." The poem appeared in 1989 in the magazine Callaloo, and was published as the title poem of her volume the following year.

Alexander's The Venus Hottentot was one of the few works by a young black poet to be reviewed in The New York Times; the nature of the poem and the attention the volume received helped make "The Venus Hottentot" one of the most well-known and likely influential single "new" persona poems of the last 30 or so years. (Several older pieces like "We Real Cool," for instance, remain among our most famous persona poems).

Stacey L. Brown discusses "Barbie's Little Sister" by Allison Joseph

Last week, when I interviewed poet Stacey Lynn Brown about reading poetry for an upcoming black studies project, I asked her to suggest a poem by Allison Joseph that young women at our event might read. Stacey suggested that they check out Joseph's poem "Barbie's Little Sister."

Here's Stacey describing her interest in the poem:



Related:
Stacey L. Brown discusses "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Poet Stacey L. Brown discusses Yusef Komunyakaa

Blogging about Black Women Poets in 2011

In 2011, I published over 200 blog entries on African American poetry with a large number (close to 100) of the pieces I produced focusing on black women poets. I wrote a number of entries about poets Evie Shockley and Nikky Finney, two poets who published books last year. I also wrote entries about established figures such as Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nikki Giovanni.

The writing and blogging processes gave me opportunities to share thoughts I had about a group of poets whose works I've followed for years such as Allison Joseph, Jessica care Moore, and Elizabeth Alexander. I also had the chance to write about  poets who were new to me such as Rachel Eliza Griffiths. 

Stacey L. Brown discusses "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks

Last week, I interviewed my colleague, the poet Stacey Lynn Brown about various issues associated with reading poetry. The interview was part of an upcoming black studies project about reading, which is designed for first-year college women.

At one point, I asked Stacey about a poem that she would recommend by Gwendolyn Brooks, beyond "We Real Cool," for our young women readers to consider. She suggested Brooks's poem "The Mother."

You can listen to Stacey discussing the poem here:



Related:
Stacey L. Brown discusses "Barbie's Little Sister" by Allison Joseph
Poet Stacey L. Brown discusses Yusef Komunyakaa

Black Boys and the Golden Age of Hip Hop

Rap fans and historians have often commented on the Golden Age of Hip Hop--a time period generally designated as occurring between the mid to late 1980s and the early to mid 1990s--when several landmark albums and significant artists appeared. Commentators have given extensive attention to prominent rap artists and groups of that era, including A Tribe Rakim, Called Quest, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Nas, and many more.

But what effect, I've wondered, did the Golden Age of Hip Hop have on  young fans and especially black boys who were listening to the music at that time? In what ways did the influence of that Golden Age manifest in the works those boys would produce as men?

A few notable examples stand out to me.

Going to the Movies with Black College Students

I thought the movie Red Tails was cool when I first saw it. I liked more, however, when I went to see it with 50 or of the students in our program for first-year college students this past Thursday, January 26. The movie didn't change between the first and second time that I viewed it, but going to the movies with a group of 18-year-old college students gave me reason to think about the movie in different ways.

I've read and heard several of the critiques concerning how Red Tails comes up short for some. The movie doesn't address enough of the racism that the soldiers encountered. There's not enough focus on the historical background concerning how the airmen got from Tuskegee to the war. The dialogue is underwhelming and the story is not compelling enough. Those are some of the critiques.

A Notebook on Eugene B. Redmond & the EBR Collection

I first began studying Eugene B. Redmond's work when I was an undergraduate at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, during the late 1990s. His book Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry (1976) was a crucial gateway for my entry into the worlds of black poetry and African American literary history.  I have worked with Redmond on a regular basis since the fall of 2003, when I started working at SIUE.

Since 2009, I have published entries on our blog about Redmond and the EBR Collection. The photographs from the Collection have been integral to our mixed media projects and the many displays that we organize in the Underground Reading Room (formerly known as the EBR Reading Room) in Lovejoy Library. The following links include entries about Redmond and the EBR Collection.

[Related: chronology of the collection]

Black Boys, Imagination & Dungeons and Dragons

Aside from rap music, which no doubt had an important influence on large numbers of young brothers, what other cultural productions influenced the imaginations and wordplay of black boys? What productions and activities stimulated their minds and their understanding about the power of words and ideas?

Ta-Nehisi Coates provides one possibility in a comment he made about the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. The game had several small books, and in an interview with Big Think, Coates cites the game's reading materials as capturing his imagination:

7 Poems by Lucille Clifton on the Poetry Foundation Site

Links to 7 poems by Lucille Clifton on the Poetry Foundation site.

• "homage to my hips"
• "won't you celebrate with me"
• "jasper texas 1998"
• "my dream about being white"
• "wishes for sons"
• "poem in praise of menstruation"
• "cutting greens"

Related:
A Selection of African American Poets on the Poetry Foundation Site

A Selection of African American Poets on the Poetry Foundation Site

The Poetry Foundation site, a vital resource, includes poems by and information about several African American poets. I'm working on developing a notebook of links to the broad body of works that appear on the site.

From the Poetry Foundation site:

• 10 poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
• 7 poems by Lucille Clifton
• 7 poems by Robert Hayden
• 10 poems by Langston Hughes
• 6 poems by Margaret Walker

7 Poems by Robert Hayden on the Poetry Foundation Site

I have regularly visited the Poetry Foundation site to check out a few pieces by Robert Hayden. The following 7 poems appear on the site:

• Frederick Douglass [includes audio]
• Middle Passage [includes audio]
• Runagate Runagate 
• The Ballad of Nat Turner
• Those Winter Sundays [includes audio]
• Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday
• Witch Doctor

Related:
A Selection of African American Poets on the Poetry Foundation Site

Notes on Why Elizabeth Alexander's Presence on Twitter Matters

A New Year's resolution by poet Elizabeth Alexander may have involved doing more to engage social media. She started tweeting on January 1, and noted in her first tweet that "first poem coming later today."

Sure enough, later that day, she tweeted, "diaspora dear/the new year/is here, coast/to coast funky/collard greens/build yr bones/for the great unknown/blackeyed peasly yrs/with love."

Zombie movies, black boys & imagination

It wasn't simply rap and Star Wars that stimulated the minds of a few black boys who went on to become major writers. Zombies were also important, at least in one notable recent instance.

Colson Whitehead's latest book Zone One, released just before Halloween back in October 2011,  contributes to the expansive zombie apocalypse discourse--a discourse that includes novels, movies, comics, video games, and more.  When discussing his book, Whitehead often noted his childhood interest in zombie films.

Outliers & Cultural Legacies

Haley Scholar Reading Groups

In chapter 6 of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell provides a discussion about cultural legacies. He opens with disturbing descriptions of how longstanding cultural patterns and beliefs influenced violent conflicts among generations of families in Kentucky during the 19th century.

The compelling research findings concerning long-term and deeply held values led Gladwell to the conclusion that Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.

Black Boys, Imagination, and Star Wars

Aside from rap's initial emergence during the late 1970s, another major cultural phenomenon that, in retrospect, captured the imaginations of large numbers of black boys was George Lucas's Star Wars franchise. The first Star Wars was released May 25, 1977, The Empire Strikes Back May 21, 1980, and Return of the Jedi May 25, 1983. The Lucas films, along with his first two Indiana Jones movies (1981 & 1984) influenced large numbers of "fanboys" and artists, including Aaron McGruder.

McGruder, who was born May 29, 1974, was quite young when he first saw Star Wars, but it was still a memorable moment for him. "My first memory in life was three years old," said McGruder in a recent interview with Eric Larnick. "My dad took me to see Star Wars, and it's not just the first movie I remember, it's my first memory." When asked what shaped his "geek upbringing," McGruder said that "the biggest thing was Star Wars."

6 Poems by Margaret Walker on the Poetry Foundation Site

Like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker had a notable early presence in Poetry magazine. Her poem "For My People" appeared in the publication in November 1937. That poem has had a really wonderful journey. 

The following 6 poems appear on the Poetry Foundation site.

• For My People
• Childhood
• For Malcolm X

Working with Collegiate Black Men

This semester, I'm teaching four courses and have about about 110 students, and 35 to 40 of those students are young black men. 20 of the guys, all in one class, are 18 or 19 years old. The other guys, in two other classes, are between 20 and 22.

I'm looking forward to working with all my students this semester, but it's also really interesting to work with the young brothers. I had some of the older guys in a class when they were first-year students; they're now seniors. I'll have to put some thought into how they've grown and how I've grown since we first met a few years ago.

10 Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks on the Poetry Foundation site

Gwendolyn Brooks published her first poems in the November 1944 issue of Poetry, and she published her most famous poem "We Real Cool" in the September 1959 issue of Poetry magazine. What follows are 10 of her poems that appear on the Poetry Foundation site.

• "a song in the front yard" [includes audio]
• "kitchenette building" [includes audio]
• "We Real Cool" [includes audio]
• "the mother" [includes audio]
• "my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell"
• "The Bean Eaters"
• "Of Robert Frost"
• "A Sunset of the City"
• "Mayor Harold Washington"
• "truth"

Related:
A Selection of African American Poets on the Poetry Foundation Site

10 Poems by Langston Hughes on the Poetry Foundation site

This year, Poetry celebrates 100 years. To go along with their own efforts to acknowledge a century's worth of work, I'll highlight the presence of African American poets who published in the magazine over the years.

I have previously provided links to Hughes poems that appeared in Poetry. Today, I provide links to 10 Hughes poems that I have enjoyed that appear on the Poetry Foundation site.
  
• "I, Too" 
• "The Weary Blues"

Making'em See Red: Malcolm X's Poetic Touch

The other day, I was reading and listening to Malcolm X's "Message to the Grassroots" speech with my students in our Malcolm X and poetry course. I was mentioning to the students that in addition to being a skilled speaker, Malcolm was also once a poet. Maybe his interest in poetry or literary art haunts his well-known speeches.

At one point in "Message," Malcolm references several historical moments in an effort to clearly define the common features of real revolutions. "Look at the American Revolution in 1776," he says. "That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed."

The Value of Early Support: The Cases of bell hooks & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In retrospect, 1981 was a good year for bell hooks and Henry Louis Gates , Jr. They received or saw the culmination of a high level of support. That support would translate into even more support and recognition over the next several years, helping to make hooks and Gates two of the most notable figures in their respective fields.

hooks's most known early work Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism (1981) was published by South End Press, which was founded in 1977. The book became especially popular among large communities of both black and white women in the academy. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, volumes of poetry and novels by black women had been popular. However, in 1981, hooks produced something that at the time was fairly rare: a nonfiction book that was black and feminist, accessible and scholarly.  

The Upsides of the Vendler/Dove Debate

Aside from the hard and hurt feelings that emerged as a result of the Rita Dove and Helen Vendler debate about Dove's poetry anthology, there might be a few upsides. Maybe.  What follows are 5 potential upsides of the exchanges and coverage. 

1. Poetry is worth arguing about - Arguments about poetry and among poets rarely rise to the levels of popular literature discussions. When a poet wins a major award, people take notice...briefly. But for the most part, there's little extended public discussion and debate about how poets' decisions matter. The Dove/Vendler exchange and the attention it garnered suggested that issues in poetry can and do attract broader notice.  

Why some became major Poets, Why others became major Public Intellectuals

Earlier in the week, I was mentioning how bell hooks was a poet early on, but she ended up devoting her career to prose. For hooks and her generation of writers such as Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the late Manning Marable, it seems that prose and especially scholarly prose about race became a highly recognized and rewarded mode of writing. Folks often mention that black women novelists displaced black arts poets, but what if it was scholarly work that displaced poetry and fiction?

It's notable that such a large number of black cultural figures born during the 1930s became leading poets and novelists.  Maya Angelou (b. 1928), Toni Morrison (b. 1931), Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934), Amiri Baraka (b. 1934), Jayne Cortez (b. 1936), Eugene B. Redmond (b. 1937), and Ishmael Reed (b. 1938), to name just a few, established themselves as creative writers. Some of them wrote prose as well, and there were scholars and other prose writers born during that time period. However, the prevalence of poetry and fiction by that generation of writers is really pronounced.

Studying Afrofuturism vs. Keeping it 100

In the afrofuturism and poetry class the other day, we were talking about Alondra Nelson's essay "Afrofuturism: Past-Future Visions" from Color Lines. We had a good time talking about the limits of what some refer to as "black authenticity."  In particular, we looked at the place in Nelson's essay where she wrote that

Black creative life has too often been determined by this impulse to "keep it real." In order to be taken seriously, we have fostered and encounraged a long tradition of social realism in our cultural production. And we feared that to stop keeping things real was to lose the ability to recognize and protest the very real inequities in the social world. But we created a cultural environment often hostile to speculation, experimentation, and abstraction.

bell hooks, the poet

Prior to publishing more than 20 books and becoming one of the most well-known black feminists, bell hooks was a poet. In 1978, she published a volume And There We Wept: Poems. That was a few years before her first major book Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981).

[Related: Malcolm X, the poet]

During the 1980s onward, hooks was widely known as an author of black feminist essays, and she was a popular and respected commentator on topics concerning sexism and racism. She was frequently invited as a featured speaker on college campuses and at major conferences and symposiums.

Malcolm X, the Poet

Long before he became our most revered black nationalist figure, Malcolm X was a poet. Manning Marable's biography A Life of Reinvention: Malcolm X made me aware of the leader's interest in poetry. Marable explains that while in prison Malcolm became "a devoted letter writer."

[Related: bell hooks, the poet]

Among other topics concerning the written correspondences, Marable observes that Malcolm's "letters were also filled with lines of verse." In one of the letters that Marable highlights, Malcolm wrote that "I'm a real bug for poetry. When you think back over all our past lives, only poetry could best wit into the vast emptiness created by men." 

The ideas that Malcolm was a "bug for poetry" and that his letters were "filled with lines of verse" are fascinating. What kinds of poems did Malcolm read and write, and why did the genre appeal to him? When we consider Malcolm's superb rhetorical skills, it makes sense that he would be fond of poetry and wordplay at that crucial stage in his development.

Afrofuturism & Poetry Course Description

The course description for one of the African American literature courses I'll teach starting today. 

Afrofuturism: 

ENG 345--Topics in African American Poetry and Folklore

Professor Howard Rambsy II

“The future is always here in the past.” Amiri Baraka
 
“sCReeeEEECHHHHHH” –Sonia Sanchez

There’s probably no need to mention Shine, Stagolee, and Kissie Lee, right? And you don’t need a reminder about the beautiful black rhetoric of Malcolm, Baraka, and Sanchez, do you? We’re likely already up on all those poets from Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, and Margaret Walker to Elizabeth Alexander, Tyehimba Jess, Evie Shockley, and Kevin Young who embodied the personas of others, yes? And at this point, we’re all well-versed in the verses and knowledge dropped by Dre3000, L-Boogie, Weezy, and Jay Electronica, correct?

Cool. Good. You’ve studied well.

So in an effort to make things interesting, or better yet, in the spirit of innovation, we’ll take a look at a sample of apparently familiar pieces related to black poetry using the lens of afrofuturism, a framework—honed and advanced by the sister-scholar Alondra Nelson—that assists in thinking about the interactions between and convergence of race and technology. With afrofuturism as a basis, we will come to terms with the ideas that African American folk culture and poetry are comprised of a long line of technologically-infused narratives, futuristic and speculative ideas, human iPods, folks with exquisite verbal skills, and supernatural racism-defying historical figures.

20 Years of Awards & Recognition in Poetry, 1992-2012

I was recently writing that African American poets have been highly accomplished over the last few decades. Below, I provide a brief--not comprehensive--list of 20 awards and recognitions that poets have received over the last 20 years.

1992: Derek Walcott awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1993: Maya Angelou reads poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at inauguration of Bill Clinton.

1993: Rita Dove appointed Poet Laureate of U.S.

1993: Kevin Young is National Poetry Series recipient.

African Americans Assonance and Alliteration

There’s something poetic about the prevalence of assonance and alliteration in African American history and cultural life. Here’s a quick checklist and notes.

The New Negro Movement is the alternate name of the Harlem Renaissance. A couple of decades prior to the movement, W. E. B. DuBois helped popularize the phrase "the Talented Tenth."

In music, jazz folks are familiar with a style known as bebop, and these days, folks are aware of the music and artistic culture hip hop. In addition to those things, consider what assonance and alliteration mean for the names of popular civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, SNCC, and the Black Panther Party. The largest gathering by the Nation of Islam would have to be the Million Man March.

Credentialed & Accomplished, Poets Still Receive Little Popular Attention

There are more black poets credentialed, published, and accomplished than ever before. But somehow, in general, poets are not as widely and popularly known, especially not "new" black poets. I've often wondered why.

In order to earn a living as a poet these days, it's usually necessary to get a job at a university. To secure that job, one typically needs an MFA degree and a book or two published by a "reputable" press. Oh, and it increases a poet's cultural capital and chances for advancement if he or she wins a notable literary award and publishes poems in prestigious journals along the way.

August Wilson, the poet

Long before he was a renowned playwright, August Wilson was a published poet. His writings appeared in one of the leading black arts era publishing venues, Black World.

One of Wilson's poems "Muhammad Ali," published in the 1972 issue of the magazine, pays tribute to the revered boxing champion. "Muhammad Ali is a lion," the poem opens, and goes on to note that Ali is a lion "who breaks the back of the wind / Who climbs to the end of the rainbow with three steps / and devours the gold."

The Ali of Wilson's poem is a legendary figure capable of supernatural feats. In Wilson's poem, Ali's "fists are bullets," his "chest is a drum," and "he carries the sun in his hand." 

African American Poets & The Poetry Establishment

One of the many topics that came up in the Helen Vendler and Rita Dove disagreement was the issue of "the poetry establishment." Vendler critiqued Dove for making vague descriptions of a presumably white poetry establishment. Later in an interview for the Best American Poetry blog, Jericho Brown asks Dove about the poetry establishment, and she responds:

Of course there’s an establishment -- and there are subgroups and counter-groups. Occasionally subgroups and counter-groups can even become part of the establishment, or subdue the old guard. I’d still have to say, though, that -- in very broad terms -- East Coasters continue to hold sway as the core poetry establishment in the United States; the connections and resources are centered there, with the major commercial publishing houses and Ivy League schools orbiting Boston and New York. But the consortium of creative writers and creative writing programs at universities all over the nation -- AWP -- poses an ever stronger counter-pull, with eager students buying books, reviewing, posting blogs, attending poetry readings, eventually becoming teachers and/or writers themselves. You’ve also got the wonderfully mastered poetry books published by many university and a number of other independent presses; many if not most serious contemporary poets publish or began their publishing lives in academia.

An Intergenerational Group of Poets who have written in the Personas of Enslaved People & Runaways

Hughes did it. Check out aspects of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Hayden did it. Consider those poems where he wrote in the voices of runaways and as Wheatley. Margaret Walker, she did it too...has one in the voice of Tubman.

Dudley Randall wrote as Frederick Douglass. Alvin Aubert assumed the perspective of Nat Turner.  And it's not just the elder established figures.

[Related: Persona Poems: A Major Trend in African American Poetry]

The Published Writings of Katherine Dunham, 1964-1979

Island Possessed, paperback

By Danielle Hall

For many scholars and fans of Dunham, it is ostensibly natural to focus on her talents as dancer and choreographer or the Dunham Technique, but one area that also deserves attention is Dunham as a published writer. Over the course of her lifetime, Dunham published five books, several short stories, and journal/magazine articles--some under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn.

In my continued analysis of Dunham as artist-intellectual, it becomes critical to investigate other ways that she sought to engage herself and her audience within Diaspora culture, politics, and black aesthetic traditions. This is just a general list of Dunham’s literary work during the 1960s and 1970s.

1964 Dunham's short story "The Crime of Pablo Martínez" appears in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, published under Kaye Dunn.

1967 Dunham's short story "Afternoon into Night" (first published in Bandwagon Magazine, June 1952) is reprinted in The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, edited by Langston Hughes.

1974 Dunham’s fifth book Kasamance: A Fantasy, a book of allegorical African tales for youth set in Senegal. It was published in hardback with illustrations by Bennie Arrington based upon original drawings by Dunham’s husband, John Pratt.

Both short stories and Kasamance: A Fantasy may be of interest to literary scholars interested in youth and adult speculative fiction, and especially for scholars specializing in African-American, Afro-Cuban or Afrodiasporic literature forms. Dunham may be of interest as a writer of fantasy and speculative fiction of the African diaspora.

Island Possessed, hardcover

1969 Dunham’s fourth book, Island Possessed is published in hardcover. Written during a visit at her home in Dakar, Senegal in 1967, Dunham reflects upon her fieldwork on dance anthropology in Haiti in 1936. This text provides insight into race, class, and gender boundaries. It also discusses Voudun religious practices and Haitian political history and culture.






1978 Kaiso!: An Anthology of Writings, edited by VéVé Clark and Margaret B. Wilkerson is published (later reprinted as Kaiso!: Writings by and about Katherine Dunham, edited by VéVé Clark and Sara E. Johnson in 2005). This is the only and largest anthology documenting Dunham’s life and achievements.








Danielle Hall is a program coordinator and contributing writer for Black Studies @ SIUE.

Persona Poems: A Major Trend in Black Poetry

When poets Treasure Redmond and Adrian Matejka complete their volumes of poems on Fannie Lou Hamer and Jack Johnson, respectively, in the next year or so, their books will contribute to one of the most important trends in contemporary black poetry.

For the last ten years alone, writers have published several volumes of poetry featuring persona poems. Collectively, books containing persona poems, that is, poems written in the voice of a figure other than the poet, have helped shape the landscape of African American poetry.

African American Poets & the Black Female Body

I was reading an article "Michelle Obama’s backside is your business how?" by Mary C. Curtis about Wisconsin Republican congressman Jim Sensenbrenner's troubling comments about the First Lady's "large posterior." Eventually, I imagine, a poet, most likely a black woman poet, will write memorable pieces about Obama as well as about what her physical presence and body might mean for contemporary public discourse. In the meantime, I thought about 7 poems by black women poets that address aspects of black female bodies.

Blogging about Poetry in 2011

What a year for my work on poetry. For one, my book The Black Arts Enterprise, which focuses on publishing history and modes of production during the Black Arts Movement, was published by the University of Michigan Press. Second, our black studies program continued to organize several mixed media projects, including a major exhibit, on poetry for hundreds of students and general citizens in the region.

And finally, and perhaps most visibly to longtime readers here, I greatly expanded my efforts on this blog to write regularly about African American poetry. Over the last 12 months, I somehow managed to produce more than 200 blog entries on black poetry.  The process was and remains demanding and exciting.

Blogging about Poetry in December 2011

Well, we finished the year strong as December turned out to be a good month for blogging about poetry. My contributors pitched in and assisted with writings about the Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection. Toward the end of the month, I started producing wrap-ups and notebooks reflecting on the year in poetry.

I was also pleased to learn that Sonia Sanchez was appointed Poet Laureate of Philadelphia at the end of the year.

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry in 2011]