10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 3: In the mix

Yeah, the lists I was developing grew and grew, after I read Tyehimba Jess's Leadbelly. I was realizing that aspects of the musicality, history, persona poems, character-driven approach, and more in Jess's book were also in all these various volumes that had recently appeared and were appearing.

Here's a look at 7 volumes that caught my attention that were published prior to Jess's work and then 7 volumes following the publication of Leadbelly.

2001: Carver by Marilyn Nelson
2001: Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady
2001: To Repel Ghosts: Five Shades in B Minor by Kevin Young
2002: Bellocq's Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey
2003: Committed to Breathing by Tony Medina
2004: Somebody Blew Up America and Other Poems by Amiri Baraka
2004: M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A by A. Van Jordan
2005: Leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess
2006: Blue-Tail Fly by Francis Vievee
2007: For the Confederate Dead by Kevin Young
2008: Please by Jericho Brown
2008: Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith
2010: Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
2011: the new black by Evie Shockley
2013: The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka

Of course, that's just a small sampling. There are many more. Whatever the case, over the last ten years, when I was thinking of lists of volumes of poetry, Leadbelly was often in the mix.   

Related:
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 4: Those multiple voices
• A crown of blog entries for Leadbelly: project overview 
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 2: The poetry volume as gateway