Saturday, January 14, 2017

Memorable black poetry collection: Arnold Adoff's I Am the Darker Brother



The other day, William J. Harris was mentioning Arnold Adoff's important anthology  The Poetry of Black America: Anthology of the 20th Century (1973). It was a work that was really useful for the research and writing that I did on anthologies of the Black Arts era.

Harris's mention prompted me to think on Adoff's collection I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by Negro Americans (1968). I stumbled across the book many, many  years ago as a child. It was one of the many works that my parents had in their collection of books. (I've written about Adoff's book a few years back).

I Am the Darker Brother was more than the first anthology by Adoff that I came across; it was in fact the first anthology of black poetry I ever encountered. Back then, I had no idea clear conception of an anthology, of Black Arts poetry, and the like.  

Related:
How Arnold Adoff helped nurture an early interest in black poetry (2013)
I am the Darker Brother (anthology) (2012)
30 Anthologies featuring Black Poetry, 1968-1975 
Black Arts era

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