Natural Hair: Why Hair length now matters

By Briana Whiteside

Before I went natural in 2013, I did not have a problem with the length of my hair. I knew that at best I would have shoulder length hair. I was used to it, these were the effects of a relaxer on my hair, I was cool.

When I big chopped; however, I noticed I developed a hair-length complex. I say hair-length complex to refer to the monthly growth checks that I do. I stand in the mirror and stretch various sections of my hair to see where they stop on my body. Then, I proceed to use a tape measurer for the accurate inches.

This is a monthly routine on the 17th of every month. As the 17th marks the date that I big chopped back in May 2013. Yet, I didn’t realize the severity of hair length matter until I went to get my hair done professionally and got 1’’ of my hair cut off. Split ends!

One inch didn’t seem like a lot when she said it, but to visually see 1”, which converts to two months of hair growth, gone off my head was a different story. I almost freaked out as I felt that I had been set back two months of progress.

Although I realize that having long hair is not as important as having healthy hair, I can’t negate the effort it took to grow my hair for 10 months. Hair length matters to me.


Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.     

One way I mark up/read texts now that I did not 2 years ago

By Briana Whiteside

I have always been one to write in books as I read them. Ask any of my friends, or anyone who has loaned me a book. I find it difficult to read without engaging in some type of written dialogue with the story.

Before, when I marked texts, I would simply look for various themes, concepts, metaphors, and symbolism. Today, I look for ways that different texts support various schools of thought and theories by scholars.

For instance, when reading books by black women writers such as Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, or Zora Neale Hurston, I look for the ways that they are in conversation with the works of Hazel V Carby’s “Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist,” Patricia Hill Collins Black Feminist Thought, and bell hook’s Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, to name a few.

If I am reading books by men writers such as Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist, or Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Beautiful Struggle, I look for possible ways that they may signify on works by Michael Awkward or Henry Louis Gates Jr., for example.

Over the last two years, I have learned more about the theories of African American scholars. Taken together, it has greatly influenced my critical thinking skills which in turn has heightened the way I read/mark texts.
 
Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.     

Jay Z, Jay Electronica, and a notable practice among black poets

In their remix, "We Made It," Jay Electronica and Jay Z make extensive references to slavery and struggles for freedom and thus connect to one of the most prominent themes in African American poetry.  Lucille Clifton, Kevin Young, Amiri Baraka, Frank X. Walker, Robert Hayden, Natasha Trehtewey, and many, many others have all produced memorable pieces about slavery.

Perhaps we can add Jay Electronica and Jay Z to that mix. Actually, rappers have made slavery references for quite some time in their music. In "Follow the Leader" (1988) Rakim informs his audience: "remember - you're not a slave / cause we was put here to be much more than that / but we couldn't see because our mind was trapped." Years later in "Clones," MARS goes "I hate gettin locked up / cause that upstate bus reminds me of the slave ships." There's Black Thought on "No Alibi" going "On a lyrical Nat Turner mission, reacting off of intuition." Then...well, there are many more.

Poems about slavery are one of the distinguishing features of African American poetry in fact. The topic is one of the subjects that U.S. black poets treat  more than any other demographic of poets, and they've done so since way, way back. I mean, you recall Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921), and further back, Dunbar wrote poems about Frederick Douglass, and Frances Harper wrote movingly about "The Slave Mother." 

During the contemporary era alone, we've had large numbers of black poets writing about slavery. Although there are occurrences of rappers referencing slavery, it is somewhat rare, so this tune by Jay and Jay caught my attention.  

Related:
• Poems about slavery & struggles for liberation  

The Beautiful Struggle, Chapter 6

[The Beautiful Struggle]

At one point in chapter 6 of The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, "…because of your size you will do things that will be seen as a threat. You need to be conscious especially around white people” (173).

How did you respond to this statement about the imperative of black boys being so self-aware of how they
might be perceived as threats? Why or how so?

Applying the Art of Choosing (reflections)

[The Art of Choosing]

We've been reading and discussing The Art of Choosing, and come to some new concepts about the processes of choosing and deciding and how the ways we choose are culturally distinct in some instances.  But how has choosing played out in the real world, in our local worlds?

We're curious: what's one notable way over the last couple of months that you've been influenced to decide or think about decisions or choosing based on your experience studying The Art of Choosing? Why was your consideration notable? 

AR-EN: Drama and absence (con't)

[A Notebook on popular culture, Alyssa Rosenberg & Emily Nussbaum]   

Last week, a group of us focused on Maureen Ryan's article "Who Creates Drama at HBO? Very Few Women or People of Color." We'll concentrate on it a little more this week. Ryan notes that: 

Audiences can and should take individual writers to task for problems they perceive in a given show. But as long as this debate is limited to individual dramas, and doesn't consider the entities that commission and distribute them, the conversation is likely to go around in circles indefinitely.

Ryan points out that half-hour shows that do have a little more diversity are not unimportant. However, the hour-long dramas constitute "the prime real estate of TV culture," and those shows "not only capture the public imagination, but often cement or increase the power of the people who make them."

What particular aspect of Ryan's article drew your attention or got you thinking the most? Why or how so?

Jay Electronica, Jay Z and Black Consciousness

So this new "We Made It" remix by Jay Electronica and Jay Z caught me off guard. Notably, these guys tap into a lot of that black conscious talk, the kind you don't hear in rap as much these days.  Actually, I've noted before that Jay Elect been on that for a second, but since we ain't heard from him in a while, the track was refreshing. 

For Jay Z, I was surprised only because even though he does that conscious talk in bits and piece, it's not so typical. Not surprisingly, in the coverage of their song out there, you see almost no acknowledgement of the "black pride" talk that permeates the tune. Mostly, the commentators mention Jay Z's subtle critique of (signifying on) Drake who was quoted as saying Jay Z talks too frequently about art. "Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk," says Jay in a clear response in this song. "Silly me rappin' 'bout shit that I really bought." It's worth noting that Jay Elect and Jay Z's "We Made It" is a remix of Soulja Boy and Drake's "We Made It."

For me, what stands out though is how much of the song lyrics speak directly to a U.S. black audience about slavery and what it means that we have worked to overcome. Jay Elect opens noting that "the devils" and others have labeled him. "But they can't relate to our struggle, my nigga, we came up from slavery." He goes on to make several other references to slavery and struggles for liberation, and he links black bloodlines from "Solomon to Sambo to Django," thus referencing highs to lows to possible highs in a longstanding struggle. 

As usual, Jay Elect repeatedly presents coded histories concerning the Nation of Islam (NOI). For instance, at one point, he raps "I'm the Farrakhan of rap, and I get it from the wheel / The son of WD, who hung around in the D." Here, he is referring to NOI leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, and "the wheel" relates to a large, powerful mechanical object in the sky inhabited by past NOI leaders who pass on vital information. The "WD" refers to Wallace D. Fard Muhammad, who established the Nation in Detroit. 

Much of Jay Elect's verse focuses on the "lost" or concealed histories of black people, and he infuses NOI and Five Percent ideology. Whereas Jay Z does not go as far, he does elevate his mentions of distinct black histories, starting with the opening line of his first, where he goes ""Hop off the slave ship / Poppin' my chain."

He's using dula wordplay, talking about "poppin" his chain as in the  prevalent gold chains of hip hop discourse and at the same time those chains that retrained black bodies on slave ships he mentioned. Later, he raps

Y'all hella jealous of my melatonin
I could black out at any given moment
I'm God, G is the seventh letter made
So when my arms & feet shackled I still get paid.

Here, he's slyly pointing out that non-black people (Y'all) envy his skin pigmentation or melanin, which he signals with "melatonin." Or, in a direct way, he could be referring to the hormone "melatonin."  He quotes a line from Rakim, a prominent Five-Percenter, when he raps "I'm God, G is the seventh letter made." Jay Z returns again to a slavery allusion with the mention of being shackled. Finally, later in his verse, he playfully extends a familiar black pride idea that African Americans are the descendants of royalty by rapping that "My bloodline's crazy / Kings and queens and Michael Jordan rings."

Now, I'm not naive enough to think a single song elevates Jay Z or any one rapper to some pantheon of black conscious thinkers. But really, to the extent that both Jay Z and Jay Elect draw many of their lines familiar black consciousness ideas and rhetoric, the credit actually belongs to those underground ghost curriculums that give rise to and sustain such knowledge.

I wondered if Jay Z was more likely to engage that kind of discourse because he was collaborating with Jay Elect who is deeply immersed in those ideas. Whatever the case, it's fascinating to see aspects of black consciousness circulating along popular airwaves like this.

Daughters of the Dust

By Tisha Brooks 

Written and produced by Julie Dash in 1992, Daughters of the Dust was the first African American woman’s feature film to achieve widespread distribution. In stark contrast to most Hollywood films, Daughters celebrates the physical diversity of black women, their many skin tones and hair textures, while also speaking into the silence of black women’s historical experiences of slavery and continued sexual exploitation.  

Daughters of the Dust was one of the first films I encountered where I was both the subject (rather than a marginalized, silenced, or objectified “other”) and the intended audience. That move from margin to center was empowering for me, as it was for so many other black female viewers, who were desperate to see a film that did not violate or exploit the black female body but instead bore witness to the pleasure and pain of being black and female in America.


********************
Tisha Brooks is a professor of American and African American literature at SIUE. The above reflection appears as part of an exhibit concentrating on productions and artifacts that first inspired encounters with feminism. The exhibit was coordinated by the Women's Studies program at SIUE.   

How natural hair affected my style

By Briana Whiteside

Natural hair has significantly impacted my choice of dress. It’s like I have become a more conscious dresser. When rocking natural hair, I must choose clothing and accessories that complement the hairstyle.

For example, before I went natural, I only wore Ray Ban wayfarer sunglasses. They were my multipurpose go-to glasses. Now, I must choose between cateye, oval, clubmaster, or over-sized, which are the styles that I have accrued over the last ten months. Cateye’s are perfect for my fro, oversized glasses look good when I’m doing a protective style, and clubmasters make my frohawk chic.

It’s all about the hair. The fro decides if I wear prints, my frohawk is mainly for solid colors, and protective styling indicates a relaxed dress day. My hair seems to have a mind of its own.

I have also begun buying shirts with natural hair logos on them, as further indication that I support the movement. Natural hair has changed my appearance physically, but it also altered my outlook on style and fashion.

Related:
Style and Knowledge 

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.     

Why Mary is one of my favorite characters from the Patternist Series

By Briana Whiteside

Mary from Octavia Butler’s Mind of My Mind is one of my favorite black women characters. She is sassy, sharp, beautiful and has ambition. Not to mention she has the ability and resolve to defeat Doro, the troubling leader/creator of the group of beings with special powers.

As an “experimental model,” Mary was often underestimated. Her “traffic light green eyes” and brown skin were results of the Anyanwu’s (now Emma) genes and the white body Doro was wearing when he impregnated her mother. The youngest of the Patternist women, Mary is undoubtly the strongest.

As “the Queen B” of a mental pattern of telepaths, Mary has the ability to create the superhuman beings that Doro hoped to develop. She can also repurpose the latents—the unsuccessful experiments—and usher them to go through transition so that they can develop their powers. Mary is “the completed version” of Doro, his female “twin” and with the pattern she is his superior.

In a battle between Mary and Doro, Butler writes, Doro “strained against the seemingly fragile thread…She consumed him slowly, drinking in his terror and his life, drawing out her own pleasure, and laughing through his soundless screams.” She defeats the spirit-man, her father, her creator and assumes this position as god.

Related:  
A Notebook on Octavia Butler

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.     

AR-EN: Drama and the absence of women & people of color

[A Notebook on popular culture, Alyssa Rosenberg & Emily Nussbaum]   

Maureen Ryan reveals many disappointing numbers in her article "Who Creates Drama at HBO? Very Few Women or People of Color." She notes:

With one exception over the course of four decades, HBO has not aired an original one-hour drama series created by a woman.

With one exception over the course of four decades, HBO has not aired an original one-hour drama or dramatic miniseries creatively led at its debut by a person of color.

She later notes that:

Audiences can and should take individual writers to task for problems they perceive in a given show. But as long as this debate is limited to individual dramas, and doesn't consider the entities that commission and distribute them, the conversation is likely to go around in circles indefinitely.

Ryan points out that half-hour shows that do have a little more diversity are not unimportant. However, the hour-long dramas constitute "the prime real estate of TV culture," and those shows "not only capture the public imagination, but often cement or increase the power of the people who make them."

What particular aspect of Ryan's article drew your attention or got you thinking the most? Why or how so?

A.O.C.: Zeroing in on Choices

[The Art of Choosing]    

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.

How did Iyengar's observations about the significance of "zeroing in" alter or strengthen your perspectives about the processes of making effective choices?

The Beautiful Struggle, Chapter 5

[The Beautiful Struggle]

At one point in Chapter 5 of The Beautiful Struggle, Coates writes, “She knew that I had no idea how close I was, would always be, to the edge, how easily boys like me were erased in absurd, impractical ways” (141). What did you think of the observation based on what else you'd read in the book?  

Natural Hair Anniversary (10 months)

By Briana Whiteside

March 17, 2014, was my 10-month natural hair anniversary. I have to admit, it seemed like only yesterday that I stood in the mirror and big chopped. Over the last 10 months, I have learned a lot about my hair and the way people view it.

For instance, I notice that the younger sisters on campus come up to me to ask advice on big chop techniques or my favorite products. Or, the way my white colleagues stare in admiration as my hair seems to expand in humid conditions.

When I pass non-naturals both white and black, I no longer feel insecure by their stares. I smile at their amazement and curiosity. I am proud to be a curly girl again.

Natural hair for me is a projection of self-awareness and self-confidence. We have to be confident to wear our hair in an unprocessed state. And, although natural hair is becoming more acceptable, it still takes confidence to rock it.

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.    

African American Literary Studies @ SIUE -- Fall 2014

Our undergraduate course in African American literature for Fall 2014.  

ENG 205: Intro. to African American Texts (MW 1:30 – 2:45 pm)
Professor Tisha Brooks

This survey course is designed to introduce students to a range of African American texts, including poetry, autobiography, short fiction, novels, essays, drama, as well as works from the oral tradition, such as songs, folktales, sermons and speeches.

ENG 341: African American Women’s Writing (MW 12:00 – 1:15pm)
Professor Tisha Brooks

In this class, we will consider the varying purposes for which black women have written in the face of tremendous obstacles and challenges. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, our exploration of black women writers will include works by Harriet Jacobs, Hannah Crafts, Pauline Hopkins, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall and screenwriter/producer Julie Dash.

ENG 343: Becoming a Rap/Poetry Genius (MWF 11:00 – 11:50 am)
Professor Howard Rambsy II

With the popular sites Rap Genius & Poetry Genius as our focus, this course will examine the art of annotation while utilizing an interactive digital platform to develop our skills engaging works by Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and Lauryn Hill.

ENG 465: Black Diaspora Literature (TR 2:00 – 3:15 pm)
Professor Elizabeth Cali

In this course, we will think about the ways that Black diaspora authors and their literatures construct space, location, and time to visualize and revise histories of enslavement, displacement, and estrangement. We will consider how writers such as Teju Cole, Nalo Hopkinson, Chimamanda Adichie, and Mary Prince depict histories of enslavement, construe diasporic experiences and identities, and theorize community and kinship from Africa to the Greater Caribbean to North America.

Related:
• African American Literature @ SIUE 

Toni Cade Bambara and Black Girl Characters

By Kenton Rambsy

In 1972, Toni Cade Bambara released her first collection of short stories Gorilla My Love—a 15 story collection, all featuring black female narrators. Even though, Bambara would go on to release two other collections of short stories and a novel over the course of her lifetime, since 1974, editors have primarily used selections from Gorilla My Love in anthologies. The repeated inclusion of stories from her first collection across anthologies has presented Bambara primarily as a short story writer and helped solidify a spot for young black female characters in the African American literary tradition.

There have even been notable black women protagonists in African American short fiction over the decades such as Delia Jones in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” (1926), the mother Mrs. Johnson, in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” (1973), and Reena in Paule Marshall’s “Reena” (1983). Also, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) includes black girls as the main characters in the story. Still, not many short stories are told from the point of view of a young black girl.

In the mid-1970s, Bambara’s work began to appear in American literature anthologies, as her story “My Man Bovanna” was typically her only story included until the late 1980s. Since then, anthologists, have used either “The Lesson” or “Raymond’s Run” when featuring Bambara in collections. These two stories have been included in more than 14 African American and American literature anthologies since 1992. As a result, stories focusing on childhood experiences of black girls have been regularly included in literature anthologies.

Bambara has been the only other black woman writer since Zora Neale Hurston to be routinely included in African American and American literature anthologies solely as a short story writer. Her work has appeared in more than 27 anthologies over the past 40 years.

Related:
• A notebook on short stories by black writers

Octavia Butler Publications

Compiled by Briana Whiteside

List of Butler Publications:

1971 - “Crossover”
1976 - Patternmaster
1977 - Mind of My Mind
1978 - Survivor
1979 - Kindred
1979 - “Near of Kin”
1980 - Wild Seed
1983 - “Speech Sounds”
1984 - Clay’s Ark
1984 - “Bloodchild”
1987 - Dawn
1987 - “The Evening and the Morning and the Night”
1988 - Adulthoof Rites
1989 - Imago
1993 - Parable of the Sower
1998 - Parable of the Talents
2003 - “Amnesty”
2004 - “The Book of Martha”
2005 - Fledging
2007 - Seed to Harvest 

Related:
A Notebook on Octavia Butler

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.    

High-performing contributors in Af-Am Literary studies aren't accidental

Briana Whiteside (l) greets Elizabeth Cali at our Toni Morrison exhibit (Feb. 2014).

Every spring as I prepare to pat a graduating grad student on the shoulder for a job well done, I'm inclined to look back and realize that any major individual success story is linked to a series of successes and multi-threaded activities. This May, for instance, we'll congratulate Briana Whiteside on the tremendous job she's done while here.

Cindy Lyles (l), Briana Whiteside, and Danielle Hall (March 2013).

She's been accepted to Ph.D. programs; she's produced 75 blog entries; she's presented at conferences; she's participated in a field study in New York City; she has upcoming publications; she's coordinated dozens of public humanities activities; and she's produced study guides for undergraduates. But even she'll tell you: she would not have been half as productive without the blogging model provided by Emily Phillips and the programming lessons she picked up from her predecessors Danielle Hall and Cindy Lyles.

Cindy Lyles (l) and Danielle Hall preparing exhibit (Sept. 2012)

Are contemporary black women poets more likely than men to write sonnets?

Yesterday, my book orders finally arrived in the mail. One of the items I  ordered was Marilyn Nelson's How I Discovered Poetry (2014), which contains 50 unrhymed sonnets. Her book immediately went on my list of contemporary volumes featuring sonnets. When I take a look at that list now, I'm realizing that of the 10 poets represented, 7 are women.  

Now, my list is not a large enough sample to really draw solid conclusions, but I was inclined to wonder: are contemporary black women poets more likely than black men poets to write sonnets? Are there particular poetic forms and modes that one gender tends to prefer? Who, or what kind of poet, is more likely drawn to haiku, sestina, blues poems, jazz poems, or rap?

At least in my collection of poetry, Nelson has been a leading sonneteer. She authored A Wreath for Emmett Till (2005) containing a crown of 15 sonnets; she co-authored Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color (2007) with Elizabeth Alexander, and their volume contains a sequence of 24 sonnets. And now Nelson's How I Discovered Poetry.I have not yet purchased all of Nelson's many books, so it's likely that she has produced even more.

How do we account for the idea that black women poets might be more likely to produce extended sonnet sequences than black men poets? Is there something about the form itself that draws women poets? Or, could it be that the form repels men?

If I am correct in my guess that young men  readers are often drawn to men poets and young women to women poets, then it's possible that we'll see more "new" African American poets not writing and writing sonnets along those familiar gender lines. Maybe. To the extent that MFA programs are likely to assign exercises and projects related to sonnets, more so than say, jazz poems, I expect that we'll often have poets, women and men, with formal training producing sonnets.

For now, until I purchase more books, contemporary black women poets remain the leading sonneteers in my collection.   

Related:
• Sonnet Sequences and Contemporary African American Poetry
• Allison Joseph and Sonnet Sequences   
• Tyehimba Jess, Allison Joseph, and those sonnet sequences
•  14 Sonnets by 14 African American poets  
•  The Strength of Weak Ties in Nikky Finney's Sonnet Sequence 
• Nikky Finney's George Bush Sonnet Sequence, Pt. 1 

Black Studies vs. Black (literary) Studies

I was recently reading the third installment of Tanner Colby's three-part series on massive liberal failures on race. At one point, Colby goes "The integration of white institutions poses an existential threat to the viability of historically black institutions. Jackie Robinson didn’t just integrate the Major Leagues; he destroyed the Negro League."

For some time now, I've had a similar thought concerning the silent tension between Black Studies and Black literary studies. Back in the day, Black Studies programs were an important way in for black scholars, including scholars of African American literature. Well, Black Studies and HBCUs were the way in. But as English programs at major white institutions became more willing to integrate black professors into their departments, Black Studies programs and English departments at HBCUs began to lose potential candidates.

These days, many African American literature professors have appointments or affiliations with Black Studies programs, but those professors' "home" departments tend to be in English. Black Studies programs are almost always smaller and less resourced than English departments at institutions. This might explain why African American literature scholars have dominated more of the publishing landscape. 

The downside, however, is in teaching and links to students. Black studies programs emerged out of a more direct link to student activism across disciplines. So more so than English programs, Black Studies programs have student interests, and sometimes especially African American student interests, at their core. Even today when you read about black student activism taking place on college campuses, you'll see the organizers have links to Black Studies programs more so than Black (Literary) Studies.
 
There are, of course, exceptions to the circumstances I'm mentioning. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for instance, has long been one of the most visible forces in African American Studies while at the same time serving as one of the most prominent scholars of African American literature. By and large however, the majority of established scholars of African American literature are situated in English departments.

The tensions between Black Studies and Black (literary) studies are not really hostile, but the differences do affect the configurations of the fields and how they relate to black students and others. And there might be some intellectual benefit in considering how the integration of African American scholars into English departments influences the development (and stagnation?) of Black Studies.  

Related:
• Black Intellectual Histories 
• Field of African American Literary Studies  

It’s always “Sonny’s Blues”

By Kenton Rambsy

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” first appeared in Partisan Review in 1957. Since its initial appearance, the story has come to define much of Baldwin’s reputation across numerous anthologies. For instance, since 1963, Baldwin’s work has appeared in more than 40 anthologies and “Sonny’s Blues,” has been included in over 13 anthologies since 1995 alone.

From around 1960-1972, many anthologies included excerpts from Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953). In 1965, Baldwin released Going to Meet the Man, an 8-piece short story collection. “Sonny’s Blues” was reprinted and included in this collection.

During the mid-1960s to early 1970s, anthologies started to frequently include Baldwin. In the mid-1960s, other short stories by Baldwin such as “Going to Meet the Man,” “The Outing,” and “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” were included in anthologies. The inclusion of these stories, however, still pales in comparison to the frequent inclusion of “Sonny’s Blues.”

Beginning around the mid-1970s, Baldwin became a mainstay of African American and American literature anthologies. Baldwin’s essays are sometimes included, but his short story “Sonny’s Blues” seems to have become an integral feature of black literature anthologies since 1975. In other words, if you were to pick up a general literature anthology containing major black writers published after 1975, it’s very likely that Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” will be included.

Despite Baldwin’s wide body of work ranging from novels, essays, and short stories, anthologists tend to represent most of his literary legacy by a single short story. More attention to the publication trends related to black short stories may reveal the role editors play in shaping the view of literary texts by black writers that gain exposure.

Related:
• A notebook on short stories by black writers 

Notes on Yusef Komunyakaa's "The African Burial Ground"

Image from the African Burial Ground

Yusef Komunyakaa's poem about the African Burial Ground extends the terrain of poems concentrating on slavery. Many of the more well-known poems about slavery and struggles for liberation focus on prominent historical figures such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman or on famous incidents such as the Amistad Revolt.

Entitled "The African Burial Ground," Komunyakaa's poem, which appears in the March issue of Poetry, sketches the journey of enslaved people who "came as Congo, Guinea, & Angola" to work "fields of barley & flax, /livestock, stone & slab, brick & mortar, / to make wooden barrels." Komunyakaa mentions how enslaved people came to New Amsterdam, which was the name of the 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of what is now known as Manhattan.

The reference to 17th-century events involving African-descended peoples is part of what makes Komunyakaa's poem unique. Poems about slavery often focus on what I refer to as "late slavery," which means a decade or so leading up to Emancipation and the Civil War. In addition, poems about people who were enslaved tend to address issues taking place in the South.  "The African Burial Ground," however, links readers to New York's slave past.

Komunyakaa's interest in the burial ground serves the useful purpose of connecting this historic poem to the contemporary era, as the African Burial Ground is now a notable national monument. (As part of a trip to New York City, I've taken dozens of students to the site, and we've learned more each time we've visited). Komunyakaa notes that "footsteps of lower Manhattan /  strutted overhead, back & forth / between old denials & new arrivals."  Here, the poem references city-dwellers on the go, unknowingly walking over the graves of Africans.

The closing lines are particularly moving, as he writes "The click of heels / the tap of a drum awaking the dead." The burial grounds were discovered, or more accurately rediscovered in 1991 as a federal agency began to pursue plans to construct an office tower and adjoining four-story pavilion. A year after the first  human bones from the site were discovered, "the last of some 420 skeletons had been removed."

As Spencer P.M. Harrington notes, "African-American outrage over the handling of the excavation stemmed from a perception that the black community had no control over the fate of its heritage--that decisions about the burial ground were being made by white bureaucrats with little insight into African-American history and spiritual sensitivities." 

Komunyakaa's poem expands the range of poetic treatments of enslavement and liberation, and at the same time, he contributes to the ongoing saga of the actual burial ground and the awaking of the enslaved dead.

Related:
Poetry about slavery & struggles for liberation

Notebook on poetry about slavery & struggles for liberation

• A checklist of poems featuring ex-slaves 
• Reginald Flood channels Harriet Jacobs and Mary Prince
• Reginald Flood's Frederick Douglass Poetic Contributions 
• Rap Music & Slavery References: A Partial List
• Poet Reginald Flood enters the realm of Douglass poems
• The Speculative qualities of poems about slavery 
• An Ex-Slave's Letter Arrives on RapGenius 
• Covering poetry about slavery & liberation
• Poems about slavery or "liberation" poems
• African American Poetry and Kanye West's "New Slaves"
• 50 Poems about Slavery, Struggles for Freedom
• Poetry, Slavery & Creativity
• 150+ Years of Antislavery Poems by Black Poets 
• Ishmael Reed's Funny Ex-slave Poem
• Evie Shockley and This Douglass Poetry Discourse 

Related:
Assorted Notebooks

My Brother's Keeper Coverage

The coverage and articles about Barack Obama's initiative "My Brother's Keeper" has been fairly extensive. The responses to the initiative have been quite extensive, comprised of dozenss of articles. What follows are some of the pieces that I have read so far.   

2015
May 4: My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to help young men of color - Aaron C. Davis - Washington Post
May 4: Obama Finds a Bolder Voice on Race Issues - Peter Baker - New York Times
May 4: Obama-inspired foundation gets its start, with $80 million in the bank - Liz Goodwin - Yahoo Politics
May 4: Does Obama's NY trip offer a glimpse into his post-White House life? - Greg Jaffe - Washington Post
May 4: What is 'My Brother's Keeper Alliance'? - Nedra Pickler & Jim Kuhnhenn - Christian Science Monitor
May 4: My Brother’s Keeper Takes a Step Outside of the White House - Maya Rhodan - Time
May 4: Obama promotes 'My Brother's Keeper' program - David Jackson - USA Today
May 4: Obama Unveils Nonprofit for Young Minorities After Baltimore Unrest - Peter Baker - New York Times
May 4: Expanding Opportunity Work - Broderick Johnson - Huff Post Politics
Jan. 7: Will My Brother's Keeper Hurt the Ferguson Movement? - Rachel Gilmer and Ashley Yates - Ebony
Jan. 3: Newark to participate in Obama's MBK program - Naomi Nix - New Jersey Star Ledger

2014
August 5: Racial Equity Grantmaking: How Much, and with What Impact - Rick Cohen - NPQ
August 4: Help Boys, but Don’t Shortchange Girls - P. Shifman, G. Steinem, J. Vredenburgh - New York Times
August 1: Post navigation LAUSD holding a conference to help black, Latino boys - LA School Report
August 1: L.A. Girls and Women of Color Demand to Be Heard Amidst MBK - Julianne Hang - ColorLines
July 30: What Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative means for black America - Noah Remnick - LA Times
July 29: The Girls Obama Forgot - Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw - New York Times
July 28: Rethinking Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative - Antonio L. Ellis - Diverse Issues in Higher Education
July 25: Mr. Obama’s promising My Brother’s Keeper initiative - Editorial Board - Washington Post
July 25: Obama Meets With Former Gang Members From Homeboy Industries - Juliet Bennet Rylah - LAist
July 25: The Missing Piece for Young Men of Color: Jobs - Angela Glover Blackwell - Huffington Post
July 24: On Obama's private L.A. schedule - Seema Mehta - L.A. Times
July 21: Urban Schools Announce Commitment to Young Men of Color - Council of the Great City Schools
July 21: Seven California districts join Obama’s initiative - Susan Frey - EdSource
July 21: Discovery Communications To Produce TV Special to Support MBK Initiative - Wall Street Journal 
July 21: Obama Applauds New Commitments in Support of the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative - White House blog
July 21: Obama's Initiative Now Includes All - Emil Guillermo – Diverse Issues in Higher Education 
July 21: Expansion of My Brother’s Keeper initiative aims to end ‘schoolhouse to jailhouse pipeline’ - PBS Newshour
July 21: Portland schools join national effort to improve school result - Betsy Hammond - The Oregonian
July 21: Leaders Pledge Support of San Diego Schools for MBK - Jennifer Vigil - Times of San Diego
July 21: Mayor Emanuel Announces City To Receive Federal Funds to help At-Risk Youth - eNews Park Forest
July 21: President Obama expands ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC 
July 21: President Obama touts expansion of ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ program - Jesse J. Holland - The Grio
July 21: Obama announces $100 million expansion of MBK - Nia-Malika Henderson - Washington Post 
July 21: President Obama Plans to Act as Mentor in 'My Brother's Keeper' Initiative  - Maya Rhodan - Time
July 21: CPS Expands Math, Sports Mentoring Program - Fran Spielman and Lauren Fitzpatrick - Chicago Sun-Times
July 21: White House expands My Brother’s Keeper initiative - Kyla Calvert - PBS Newshour
July 21: Obama Announces New Programs to Help Minority Youth - Perry Bacon Jr. -NBC News
July 21: Nashville joins Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative - Joey Garrison - The Tennessean
July 21: Obama: No ‘authentic’ way to be black - Justin Sink - The Hill
July 21: Austin ISD joins President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative - Melissa B. Taboada - Statesman
July 20: Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative gets $104 million boost - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC
July 20: Obama to Report Widening of Initiative for Black and Latino Boys - Motoko Rich - New York Times
July 15: WH meets with activists calling for gender equity in MBK - Nia-Malika Henderson - Washington Post
July 8: Obama's Plan to Aid Black Men, Boys - John A. Powell and Maya Rockeymoore - Chronicle of Philanthropy
July 1: He's not heavy: black women show support for initiative - Ann Brown - Madame Noire
June 30: Should Girls Be Added to President's Initiative - Lauren Victoria Burke - Politics365
June 30: Black women stand up for ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC
June 30: My Brother's Keeper Gains Support of Top Female Leaders - Breanna Edwards - The Root
June 30: National Women’s Group Supports President’s Initiative - D. L. Chandler - NewsOne
June 29: National Women Leadership Supporting My Brother's Keeper - National Women's Leadership
June 29: Obama and race: life on a high wire - Linda Feldmann - The Christian Science Monitor
June 28: Dallas internship program introduces young black men to careers - Arselia Gales - Dallas Morning News
June 28: Women of Color Urge Obama to ‘Re-align’ My Brother’s Keeper - George E. Curry - Milwaukee Courier 
June 27: My Brother's Keeper SF Data Jam Meetup - SFGate
June 27: Loving Billie Holiday Doesn't Mean Black Girls Aren't Suffering - Farah Jasmine Griffin - The Nation
June 27: UT speaker points to White House effort to empower young men of color - Julie Chang - Statesman
June 27: Initiative Aims to Help Black Men Succeed - NBC29.com
June 26: Three Myths Hurting Young Black Men and Boys - Michael Nutter - Huffington Post 
June 26: Black Elites Look Silly Over ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Criticism - Roland Martin - Manteca Bulletin
June 25: Lansing Launches Plan To Help Young People Of Color - WLNS 
June 25: My Brother's Keeper is good for sisters too [Letter] - William L. Akers - The Baltimore Sun
June 24: Why Girls of Color Should Be Included in My Brother’s Keeper - Salamishah Tillet - The Root
June 22: My Brother's Keeper needs to include some sisters - E.R. Shipp - The Baltimore Sun
June 22: Billie Holiday, Barack Obama, and the Pain of Black Women - Joshua DuBois - The Daily Beast
June 21: Initiative seeking solutions for men of color - Taylor Ferraro - The Durango Herald
June 21: My Brother's Keeper: Stop Writing Letters, Just do the work - Walter M. Kimbrough - The Root
June 20: Roland Martin’s Wrong: Why Girls And Women Should Be Included - Charing Ball - Madame Noire 
June 18: How Dads' Involvement Can Address the Gender Gap - Christopher A. Brown - Huffington Post
June 18: Why did President Obama leave out the girls? - Paul Butler - CNN
June 18: 1000 Women Sign Letter Asking For Inclusion In My Brother’s Keeper - The Roland Martin Report
June 18: Walker, Dawson Want Women of Color Included - Breanna Edwards - The Root
June 18: Valerie Jarrett defends ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ against criticism - Irin Carmon - MSNBC
June 18: Conversation on My Brother’s Keeper Heats Up - Dani McClain - The Nation
June 18: 1,000 women of color want women, girls included - Nia-Malika Henderson - Washington Post
June 17: Why We Can't Wait: Women of Color Urge Inclusion - African American Policy Forum
June 17: Twin Cities Mayors Give Briefing on 'My Brothers' Keeper' Initiative - Jennie Olson - KSTP
June 17: Let's embrace My Brother's Keeper, include out-of-school programs - Paul Meunier - MINNPOST
June 17: A call to action: My borther's keeper initiative - Artika R. Tyner - InsightNews
June 16: Why HBCUs need ‘My Brother’s Keepers’ - Ivory Toldson - The Grio
July 15: How Oakland’s public schools are fighting to save black boys - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC
June 13: Celebrating Fatherhood and Encouraging Mentorship - Eric Holder - The White House blog
June 13: My Brother's Keeper Is a Great Fathers' Day Gift for Our Children - BWR - Huffington Post Black Voices
June 12: Answering the president’s call with My Brother’s Keeper - Roger Caldwell - Florida Courier
June 2: I am my Brother's Keeper - Al Sharpton - Huffington Post
June 2:  Black Men Pen Open Letter Calling for Inclusion of Girls and Women - Ebony
May 31: Prominent black men ask Obama about women, girls - Nia-Malika Henderson - Washington Post
May 31: Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative takes crucial next step - Trymaine Lee - The Grio
May 30: Magic Johnson to help lead effort for black and Hispanic young men - Zachary Goldfarb - Washington Post
May 30: Obama Administration Calling for ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Mentors - Maya Rhodan - Time
May 30: Administration on how Groups Can Support Minority Men - Tanzina Vega - New York Times
May 30: My Brother’s Keeper Initiative Release 90-Day Task Force Report - D.L. Chandler - NewsOne
May 30: My Brother’s Keeper Blueprint for Action - The White House Office of the Press Secretary
May 30: My Brother's Keeper Task Force Report to the President
May 28: Black Men Calling on Inclusion of Women and Girls in MBK - African American Policy Forum
May 28: My Brother's Keeper Task Force Report to the President - White House Gov
March 12: The Assumptions Behind Obama’s Initiative - Multiple authors - NYTimes Room for Debate
March 10: Bad analysis of My Brother’s Keeper - Lester K. Spence
March 6: Race matters for Brother’s Keeper -  Jonah Goldberg - Boston Herald
March 6: Black girls’ zero-sum struggle: Why we lose when black boys dominate discourse  - Brittney Cooper - Salon
March 5: Why being ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ matters - Governor Deval L. Patrick - The Bay State Banner  
March 2: Cory Booker Insists Helping Young Men of Color Helps Whole Country - Joshua DuBois - Daily Beast
March 1: My Brother’s Keeper: Did Obama Just Become ‘the Black President’?’ - Richard Prince - The Root
Feb. 28: Conservatives Agree: Barack Obama is 'The Real Racist' - Jamelle Bouie - The Daily Beast
Feb. 28: Obama Uses ‘Soft Power’ to Quiet Critics, Move Agenda - Carol E. Lee - Wall Street Journal 
Feb. 28: Like Obama Himself, My Brother’s Keeper Is Admirable but Flawed - Mychal Denzel Smith - The Nation
Feb. 27: Obama kicks off outreach to young men of color - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC
Feb. 27: Obama Looks to Boost Young Minorities - Maya Rhodan - Time
Feb. 27: My Brother’s Keeper: A helping hand for young men of color - Eugene Robinson - Washington Post
Feb. 27: The Flaw in My Brother’s Keeper - Jamelle Bouie - The Daily Beast
Feb. 27: Obama Starts Initiative for Young Black Men, Noting His Own Experience - Michael D. Shear - NYTimes
Feb. 27: My Brother's Keeper - Linda Feldmann - Christian Science Monitor
Feb. 27: My Brother’s Keeper - Valerie Jarrett & Broderick Johnson - The White House Blog
Feb. 19: Obama’s outreach to young men of color: too little too late?  - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC
Feb. 11: Obama to launch major effort to help young minority men - Zachary A. Goldfarb - Washington Post
Feb. 11: President Obama: A Young Brother's Keeper - Joyce Jones - BET
Feb. 11: Obama To Launch ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Initiative for young men of color - D. L. Chandler - NewsOne
Feb. 11: Obama to launch initiative re: challenges facing young black & Latino men - Perry Bacon Jr. - The Grio
Feb. 11: Obama wants to stop 'school-to-prison pipeline' for minorities - Christi Parsons - LA Times
Feb. 11: Obama keeps promise to young men of color - Trymaine Lee - MSNBC

Related:
• 15 poems & 15 volumes of poetry about black men  
• A list of short stories by and about black men
• Coverage of books, authors & special topics

75 entries later

By Briana Whiteside

It all started with Alondra Nelson’s book Body and Soul. Now, 75 entries later, I have covered considerable ground. My writings have become more diverse since I first started blogging in September of 2012.

I have written about various literary works, authors, television shows, and poets. However, my natural hair journey is where I allowed my personal feelings to enter into academic conversations. Natural hair, among black women has become an act of nationalism, as naturals seem to congregate and stand together on issues that surround the politics of hair, and support black owned hair care lines.

My latest project on colorism and beauty has allowed me to speak on issues that seem to be universal to black women. This new task has allowed me to think more critically on things that may seem second nature to us, such as personal style, skin color, and hair textures. I now find myself analyzing various representations of black women on television, and theorizing about how their characters would have varied if they were of lighter or darker skin. I also refer on multiple black feminist texts to see how they are in conversation with 21st century popular culture.

This type of “mind work” at this stage in my academic career has allowed me to write in various modes and reach a really diverse audience. To capture an audience and hold their attention for 13 sentences or less seemed daunting at first, now it has shaped my writing and polished my critical thinking skills. Blogging has helped me become more aware of my voice in academia, and has helped me identify where I enter the conversation.

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.   

Images from the Toni Morrison exhibit

On February 27, my colleague, Tisha Brooks, and I coordinated an exhibit "Toni Morrison: Beyond Fiction." Students from Professor Brooks's class produced audio commentary focusing on Morrison's nonfiction. Attendees at the exhibit used our audio devices to listen. What follows are images from the event.

Why I have a new perspective on Scandal

By Briana Whiteside

I am an avid fan of Scandal, haven’t missed an episode, and I waited impatiently for the season to start last Thursday. However, once the episode began I noticed that my perception of Olivia Pope had changed. Within two minutes of its opening we see Olivia passionately kissing the President in the Oval office, as she has taken the position to become his “new” campaign manager.

At that moment I experienced a feeling of discomfort, a double consciousness of some sort. I took inventory of how I rooted for her, why I rooted for her—as the other woman to a married man, more specifically, the most powerful man in the U.S., the side chick of the most powerful white man in the U.S—and was repulsed by her character. Through critical analysis, we could see that Olivia’s character perpetuates some of the most offensive stereotypes attached to black women; the belief that black women are hypersexual.

So why, I ponder, are black women audiences attracted to Scandal? Is it because of her impeccable style, or her ability to outtalk her opponents? Maybe, it is because she is highly educated and uses her wit to outsmart, overpower, and outthink her white counterparts? Or, it could be that she represents the “strong black woman” character type that we are raised to be.

Olivia Pope in uncanny indeed! She is familiar to us, we know her, we identify with her power, and we love her. However, she is unfamiliar in the sense that she is so highly successful as a professional and at ease (and also intimate) among those in the highest levels of power. Could it be that on deeper levels, in one respect or another, we are her, or we feel at “home” with her?

My new awareness surfaced when I realized that black women are not just watching this show, but that a diverse group of audiences also have access to it. These issues concerning Olivia’s love triangle, although not completely private, seemed sacred to black women circles. And, while I am happy that black women have a platform to show complexities surrounding their love life, I can’t help to pause and wonder at what cost.

Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.   

A.O.C.: Values & Choice

[The Art of Choosing] 

By Danielle Hall

As we’ve been reading each chapter of The Art of Choosing, we have had many opportunities to contemplate and discuss the complex processes involved in making decisions. However, I found chapter 5 “I, Robot?” particularly interesting because Iyengar identified the ways that our choices are often “manipulated” by external factors beyond our control. Some of the noted examples from the chapter were the “Ballet Slippers” vs. “Adore-A-Ball” nail polish samples in “Neutral Observer,” color and trend predictions of fashion designers and retailers in “You Say Chicken, I Say Egg,” and bottled water vs. tap in “There Is A Difference.”

According o Iyengar, "we tend to put choice on a pedestal, so much so that we expect to be able to bend everything to our will." However, she notes, "we would serve ourselves better by separating the influences that conflict with our values from the influences that are basically harmless" (175).

What did you find most useful about the discussion of values and choice in chapter 5? Why and how so?

AR-EN: Television & Difficult Women

[A Notebook on Alyssa Rosenberg & Emily Nussbaum]    

In her article “Difficult Women,” Emily Nussbaum argues that the protagonists of Sex and the City were “odder birds by far,” but they were also “real and abstract, emotionally complex…women identified with them…but then became furious when they showed flaws.” Based on Nussabaum’s descriptions in the article, what did you think of those complex or “difficult” women characters (even if you were not familiar with the show)? Why?

The Beautiful Struggle, Chps. 3 & 4 Reflections

[The Beautiful Struggle]

After reading the third and fourth chapters of Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Beautiful Struggle, what did you find particularly memorable or important? Why, or how so?     

A list of short stories by and about black men

By Kenton Rambsy

In light of Barack Obama’s recent of announcement of the “My Brother’s Keeper Initiative,” I have provided a list of short stories that focus on black men and boys from the past 13 decades. Obama’s imitative coincides with some of my own research interests concerning representations of black men. African American male protagonists continually emerge in my studies as I chart the publication histories of short stories by black writers.

1890—Charles Chesnutt “The Wife of His Youth” (1898)
1900—Paul Laurence Dunbar “The Scapegoat” (1904)
1910—W.E.B. Du Bois “Jesus Christ in Georgia” (1911)
1920—Rudolph Fisher “The City of Refuge” (1925)
1930—Richard Wright “Big Boy Leaves Home” (1936)
1940—Ralph Ellison “Battle Royal” (1947)
1950—James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues” (1957)
1960—Ernest J. Gaines “The Sky is Gray” (1963)
1970—Charles Johnson “The Education of Mingo” (1977)
1980—Amiri Baraka “The New Recreation Program” (1988)
1990—Walter Mosley “Equal Opportunity” (1998)
2000—Edward P. Jones “Old Boys, Old Girls” (2004)
2010—Colson Whitehead “Last Night” (2011)

Related:
• 15 poems & 15 volumes of poetry about black men  
• A notebook on short stories by black writers

15 poems & 15 volumes of poetry about black men

I've been following the coverage concerning President Barack Obama's recent announcement of the "My Brother's Keeper Imitative." White House staff, foundations, and organizers will compile statistical information about black men and projects that best assist with their efforts. I'll keep an eye on the developments. 

In the meantime, I'll continue doing the work that I do related to black collegiate men, and I'll further my compilations of poems and poetry volumes that might enliven the educational and imaginative possibilities of the guys who enroll in my courses.

15 poems by or about black men
• "The RhythmBlues" by Amiri Baraka
• "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
• "wishes for sons" by Lucille Clifton
• "Drummer Boy" by Vievee Francis
• "Frederick Douglass" by Robert Hayden
• "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden
• "The Whipping" by Robert Hayden
• "Bad Man" by Langston Hughes
• "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" By Helene Johnson
• "I Sing of Shine" by Etheridge Knight 
• "Hard Rock Returns to Prison From  the Hospital for the Criminal Insane" by Etheridge Knight
• "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay
• "Frederick Douglass and the Slave Breaker" by Dudley Randall
• "Flight to Canada" by Ishmael Reed 
• "Bad-Man Stagolee" by Margaret Walker 

15 volumes of poetry containing poems about black men that we've covered in classes
• Brutal Imagination (2001) by Cornelius Eady
• Carver (2001) by Marilyn Nelson
• The Subsequent Blues (2004) by Gary Copeland Lilley
• Buffalo Dance (2004) by Frank X. Walker
• Leadbelly (2005) by Tyehimba Jess
• When Winter Come (2008) by Frank X. Walker
• Shahid Reads His Own Palm (2010) by Reginald D. Betts
• Lighthead (2010) by Terrance Hayes
• Up Jump the Boogie (2010) by John Murillo
• Ardency (2011) by Kevin Young
• The Big Smoke (2013) by Adrian Matejka
• Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers (2013) by Frank X. Walker
• Autogeography (2013) by Reginald Harris
• Loose Change (2013) by James E. Cherry
• Dear Hero (2013) by Jason McCall

Related:
• 25 poems by or about black men  

Blogging about poetry in February

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• February 18: The art of annotating poems on Poetry Genius
• February 13: A 1960s/70s Poetry Puzzle: How to make poems black and blacker? 
• February 11: Notes toward a history of 21st-century black poetry 
• February 9: A month of coverage on Amiri Baraka 
• February 8: Black Arts poets as problem-finders 
• February 7: The Multiple (Poetic, Sonic) Registers of Amiri Baraka  
• February 2: The challenge of becoming a major black poet 
• February 1: Blogging about poetry in January 2014