A Familiar Group of Poets

I'm co-teaching two African American literature courses for first-year collegiate Black men, with approximately 75 guys in each class. It's a lot.

As a side activity this semester, I'll spend some time with works I've returned to quite a bit over the last decade by a familiar group of poets: Amiri Baraka, Cornelius Eady, William J. Harris, Tyehimba Jess, Adrian Matejka, Kevin Young, and Reginald Harris. We'll cover many other poets, of course, but I'll develop some recurring activities around this smaller group.

I'll explore depictions of bad men in works by Eady, Jess, Matejka, and Young. I'll also get a chance to develop some activities related to Reginald Harris's poem "The Lost Boys," which I've been blogging about for more than ten years. I'll discuss the interplay between poems and sketches in William J. Harris's work. And I'll talk about Baraka being Baraka, including his poem "Dope," which I've been teaching for more than 20 years.

Related:

• A Notebook on Amiri Baraka 

• A Notebook on Corneilus Eady

• A Notebook on William J. Harris

• A Notebook on Adrian Matejka 

• A Notebook on Reginald Harris 

• A Notebook on Kevin Young