In this Book
- What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
- Series: Modern and Contemporary Poetics
summary
What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America is the second book in a landmark two-volume anthology that explodes narrow definitions of African American poetry by examining experimental poems often excluded from previous scholarship. The first volume, Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone, covers the period from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s. In What I Say, editors Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey have assembled a comprehensive and dynamic collection that brings this pivotal work up to the present day.
The elder poets in this collection, such as Nathaniel Mackey, C. S. Giscombe, Will Alexander, and Ron Allen, came of age during and were powerfully influenced by the Black Arts Movement, and What I Say grounds the collection in its black modernist roots. In tracing the fascinating and unexpected paths of experimentation these poets explored, however, Nielsen and Ramey reveal the tight delineations of African American poetry that omitted noncanonical forms. This invigorating panoply of work, when restored, brings into focus the creatively elastic frontiers and multifaceted expressions of contemporary black poetry.
Several of the poets discussed in What I Say forged relationships with members of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry movement and participated in the broader community of innovative poetry that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continues to exert a powerful influence today.
Each volume can stand on its own, and reading them in tandem will provide a clear vision of how innovative African American poetries have evolved across the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. What I Say is infinitely teachable, compelling, and rewarding. It will appeal to a broad readership of poets, poetics teachers, poetics scholars, students of African American literature in nonnarrative forms, Afro-futurism, and what lies between the modern and the contemporary in global and localized writing practices.
The elder poets in this collection, such as Nathaniel Mackey, C. S. Giscombe, Will Alexander, and Ron Allen, came of age during and were powerfully influenced by the Black Arts Movement, and What I Say grounds the collection in its black modernist roots. In tracing the fascinating and unexpected paths of experimentation these poets explored, however, Nielsen and Ramey reveal the tight delineations of African American poetry that omitted noncanonical forms. This invigorating panoply of work, when restored, brings into focus the creatively elastic frontiers and multifaceted expressions of contemporary black poetry.
Several of the poets discussed in What I Say forged relationships with members of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry movement and participated in the broader community of innovative poetry that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continues to exert a powerful influence today.
Each volume can stand on its own, and reading them in tandem will provide a clear vision of how innovative African American poetries have evolved across the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. What I Say is infinitely teachable, compelling, and rewarding. It will appeal to a broad readership of poets, poetics teachers, poetics scholars, students of African American literature in nonnarrative forms, Afro-futurism, and what lies between the modern and the contemporary in global and localized writing practices.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. xvii-xx
- Introduction
- pp. 1-7
- Will Alexander
- Apprenticeship
- pp. 8-11
- Ron Allen
- (Untitled)
- p. 17
- boss napalm
- p. 19
- Pimp Chain Radiator
- p. 20
- T. J. ANDERSON III
- Tisa Bryant
- from Tzimmes
- pp. 24-26
- Pia Deas
- from Cargo
- pp. 27-31
- C. S. Giscombe
- Where I Lost It
- p. 32
- from At Large
- p. 37
- from Five Dreams
- p. 39
- Mnemonic Geography
- p. 40
- Afro-Prairie
- p. 41
- Three Dreams
- pp. 42-44
- Renee Gladman
- from Not Right Now
- pp. 45-46
- from No Through Street
- pp. 47-48
- from Radicals Plan
- pp. 52-53
- Duriel E. Harris
- Lazarus Minor
- p. 54
- Harmony Holiday
- Gone by Then
- p. 60
- Spectacular Brooding
- p. 61
- Erica Hunt
- The Voice of No
- p. 66
- Starting with A
- p. 68
- Object Authority
- pp. 69-70
- Kim D. Hunter
- crazy for your tongues
- pp. 71-72
- jo mama at de crossroads
- pp. 73-74
- we don’t need hell
- pp. 76-78
- Geoffrey Jacques
- Well You Needn’t
- p. 80
- One Year Later
- p. 83
- Douglas Kearney
- Atomic Buckdance
- pp. 86-89
- The Chitlin Circuit
- p. 92
- John Keene
- Ionisation
- p. 93
- Nathaniel Mackey
- Dogon Eclipse
- pp. 98-99
- Black Snake Visitation
- pp. 100-102
- Ghede Poem
- pp. 103-107
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 6
- pp. 108-110
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 4
- pp. 111-112
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 12
- pp. 113-114
- Irritable Mystic
- pp. 115-117
- Alphabet of Ahtt
- pp. 118-121
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 23
- pp. 122-125
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 24
- pp. 126-129
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 31
- pp. 130-131
- Lag Anthem
- pp. 132-134
- Song of the Andoumboulou: 40
- pp. 135-138
- Dread Lakes Aperture
- pp. 139-141
- Dawn Lundy Martin
- A Bleeding: An Autobiographical Tale
- pp. 142-143
- Telling Tales
- pp. 144-145
- Mark Mcmorris
- Seven Days
- pp. 148-149
- from Of Baths and Systems
- pp. 150-153
- Inscriptions on the Whale Flank
- pp. 154-157
- Dialegomai (Suite)
- pp. 158-161
- Reef: Shadow of Green
- pp. 164-167
- Tracie Morris
- Apology to Pangea
- p. 170
- Fred Moten
- Bessie Smith
- p. 171
- Henry Dumas
- p. 172
- Murray Jackson
- p. 173
- William Parker
- pp. 174-175
- Modern Language Day
- p. 176
- We Live After a River
- p. 177
- Harryette Mullen
- from Trimmings
- p. 179
- from Trimmings
- p. 180
- from Trimmings
- p. 181
- from S*PeRM**K*T
- p. 182
- from S*PeRM**K*T
- p. 183
- from S*PeRM**K*T
- p. 184
- from S*PeRM**K*T
- p. 185
- from Muse and Drudge
- pp. 186-191
- Denigration
- p. 192
- Free Radicals
- p. 193
- The Lunar Lutheran
- p. 194
- Mendi Lewis Obadike
- Determined Invisibility
- p. 197
- What I Had to Have
- p. 198
- G. E. Patterson
- Hesitation Step
- p. 201
- As If That Alone
- p. 202
- Julie Ezelle Patton
- When the Saints Go
- p. 204
- Revelation
- p. 205
- Notes for Some (Nominally) Awake
- pp. 206-231
- Claudia Rankine
- from Hunger to the Table
- p. 233
- from Hunger to the Table
- p. 234
- from Toward Biography
- p. 235
- Interpretive Commentary
- p. 237
- from Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- pp. 238-242
- Deborah Richards
- Evie Shockley
- atlantis made easy
- p. 258
- henry bibb considers love and livery
- pp. 259-260
- a thousand words
- p. 262
- a course in canvas
- p. 265
- not in the causal chain
- p. 266
- Giovanni Singleton
- from melanin suite
- pp. 267-271
- AMERICAN LETTERS
- pp. 272-280
- Tyrone Williams
- Constellation
- pp. 287-288
- “Dispell’d”
- pp. 290-291
- Study of a Negro Head
- p. 293
- If Mime Then Music. . .
- p. 294
- Cold Calls
- p. 295
- from Bar Code
- p. 312
- from Bar Code
- p. 313
- Ronaldo V. Wilson
- 51. Lucy, Her River and Sky
- pp. 315-316
- The Black Object’s Elasticity
- pp. 317-318
- Notes on Contributors
- pp. 319-324
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817388003
Related ISBN(s)
9780817358006
MARC Record
OCLC
908447944
Pages
344
Launched on MUSE
2015-05-06
Language
English
Open Access
No