"Man you're turning these blogs into an art form." -- Tony BoldenNear the end of Leadbelly (2005), Tyehimba Jess includes a crown of sonnets. The individual sonnets are linked, like a crown, as the closing line of one sonnet is presented, in some form or another, as the opening line of the subsequent sonnet.
As a tribute to ten years of reading Jess's volume, I decided to produce a crown of blog entries on his work. Aspects of the last line of one entry appear as the opening line of the subsequent entry. A version of the final line of the last entry in Part 7 is represented in the first line of Part 1, thus completing the cycle.
In addition to celebrating Leadbelly, this project was an effort to further experiment with blogging as a mode for engaging African American poetry.
Related:
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 1: Amiri Baraka and Tyehimba Jess
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 2: The poetry volume as gateway
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 3: In the mix
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 4: Those multiple voices
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 5: Eady, Jess, and Matejka
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 6: Jess, Shockley, and Lewis
• 10 years reading Leadbelly, Pt. 7: discoveries with students
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