THE BLACK POETS Dudley Randall, Editor '
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The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry
0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry Howard Rambsy II The University of Michigan Press • Ann Arbor First paperback edition 2013 Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2011 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 5432 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rambsy, Howard. The black arts enterprise and the production of African American poetry / Howard Rambsy, II. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-472-11733-8 (cloth : acid-free paper) 1. American poetry—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. Poetry—Publishing—United States—History—20th century. 3. African Americans—Intellectual life—20th century. 4. African Americans in literature. I. Title. PS310.N4R35 2011 811'.509896073—dc22 2010043190 ISBN 978-0-472-03568-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12005-5 (e-book) Cover illustrations: photos of writers (1) Haki Madhubuti and (2) Askia M. Touré, Mari Evans, and Kalamu ya Salaam by Eugene B. Redmond; other images from Shutterstock.com: jazz player by Ian Tragen; African mask by Michael Wesemann; fist by Brad Collett. -
Finding Aid to the Historymakers ® Video Oral History with Naomi Long Madgett
Finding Aid to The HistoryMakers ® Video Oral History with Naomi Long Madgett Overview of the Collection Repository: The HistoryMakers®1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60616 [email protected] www.thehistorymakers.com Creator: Madgett, Naomi Cornelia Long. Title: The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Naomi Long Madgett, Dates: June 27, 2007 and March 5, 2007 Bulk Dates: 2007 Physical 12 Betacame SP videocasettes (5:29:45). Description: Abstract: Poet and english professor Naomi Long Madgett (1923 - ) was first published at age twelve. Madgett was the recipient of many honors including 1993's American Book Award and the George Kent Award in 1995. Madgett was interviewed by The HistoryMakers® on June 27, 2007 and March 5, 2007, in Detriot, Michigan and Detroit, Michigan. This collection is comprised of the original video footage of the interview. Identification: A2007_072 Language: The interview and records are in English. Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers® Poet and English professor emeritus Naomi Cornelia Long Madgett was born on July 5, 1923 in Norfolk, Virginia to the Reverend Clarence Marcellus Long and the former Maude Selena Hilton. Growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, she attended Ashland Grammar School and Bordentown School. At age twelve, Madgett’s poem, My Choice, was published on the youth page of the Orange Daily Courier. In 1937, the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where her schoolmates included Margaret Bush Wilson, E. Sims Campbell and lifelong friend, baritone Robert McFerrin, Sr. Madgett, at age fifteen, established a friendship with Langston Hughes. Just days after graduating with honors from Charles Sumner High School in 1941, Madgett’s first book of poetry, Songs to a Phantom Nightingale was published. -
Identity, Protest, and Outreach in the Arts
476 julius e. thompsonA Companion to African American History Edited by Alton Hornsby, Jr Copyright © 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Chapter Twenty-eight Identity, Protest, and Outreach in the Arts JULIUS E. THOMPSON The Early Twentieth Century, 1900–19 The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed a significant growth in the development of African American literary activities, in the form of increased artistic production of novels, plays, poetry, and short stories, in addition to scholarly efforts in the humanities and social sciences. Scholars such as McHenry also note the important role of black literary societies in promoting black citizenship rights, and encouraging skills development and education among black citizens (McHenry 2002: 19). These positive developments, including the growth of the black press during this era, must be viewed against the harsh realities of the Age of Segregation and its proscriptions on the economic, social, and political life of black Americans. During these years, white southern terror resulted in the deaths of hundreds of American citizens, mostly blacks, in the Deep South and the border states of that region (see Tolnay and Beck, A Festival of Violence, 1995: 30, 37). Thus, as African Americans fought to advance their contributions to literature, music, the fine arts and scholarly endeavors, they had to wage a constant struggle to protect the black community from violence, discrimination, economic oppression, and psychological warfare. In reality, black literary activities, although complex in nature, were also created to offer a group protest against the inhuman conditions facing African Americans. There were 21 significant voices among black men and women thinkers, writers, scholars, and leaders of this period. -
CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY AWH Department
DRAFT – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY AWH Department Course Syllabus AWS 600—Seminar in Africana Women’s Studies: Sonia Sanchez Instructor: Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans Office Hours Wednesdays, 3:00pm-4:00 pm or by appointment Office Location McPheeters-Dennis Hall, Room 200w Office Telephone 404-880-6352 Email [email protected] Resource Page: www.ProfessorEvans.net Course# and Credit Level Course Title Semester Time Section Hours (U/G) CAWS 01 Seminar in Africana Women’s Studies 3 Spring 2015 Thursday G 600 CMW 314 4:30-7:00 pm Brief Description This course is designed to introduce students to the discipline of Africana Women’s Studies by providing an overview of the social, political, intellectual and theoretical approaches utilized in such an academic undertaking. Special focus will be given to AWS via close reading of Professor Sonia Sanchez’s body of work. Sonia Sanchez on Womanism “I wrote poems that were obviously womanist before we even started talking about it.” (p. 73) “I think that one of the things that we, that black women, have to understand is that they’ve been involved in womanist issues all their lives.” (p. 103) “So, what I’m saying is at some point our sensibilities, our sensitivity, our herstory made us approach the whole idea of what it was to be a black woman in a different fashion, in a different sense. And that is why I think Alice talks about being a womanist, as opposed to a feminist.” (p. 104) “I think you—if you say out loud, I am a womanist or I want to go into women’s studies and/or I want to go to a university to learn something and I’m a history major or a political science major, the very fact that you are a black woman coming into those departments will change some of the stuff that goes on in there, by the very fact that you are there.” (p. -
Print Version (Pdf)
Special Collections and University Archives : University Libraries Broadside Press Collection 1965-1984 (Bulk: 1965-1975) 1 box, 110 vols. (3.5 linear ft.) Call no.: MS 571 Collection overview A significant African American poet of the generation of the 1960s, Dudley Randall was an even more significant publisher of emerging African American poets and writers. Publishing works by important writers from Gwendolyn Brooks to Haki Madhubuti, Alice Walker, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez, his Broadside Press in Detroit became an important contributor to the Black Arts Movement. The Broadside Press Collection includes approximately 200 titles published by Randall's press during its first decade of operation, the period of its most profound cultural influence. The printed works are divided into five series, Broadside poets (including chapbooks, books of poetry, and posters), anthologies, children's books, the Broadside Critics Series (works of literary criticism by African American authors), and the Broadsides Series. The collection also includes a selection of items used in promoting Broadside Press publications, including a broken run of the irregularly published Broadside News, press releases, catalogs, and fliers and advertising cards. See similar SCUA collections: African American Antiracism Arts and literature Literature and language Poetry Printed materials Prose writing Social justice Background Dudley Randall was working as a librarian in Detroit in 1963 when he learned of the brutal bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Randall's poetic response was "The Ballad of Birmingham," a work that became widely known after it was set to music by the folk singer Jerry Moore. -
Gwendolyn Brooks
EDITOR'S NOTE Gwendolyn Brooks What shall I give my children? who are poor, Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land, Who are my sweetest lepers, who demand No velvet and no velvety velour... —Annie Allen In Annie Allen as in her other poetry over the last sixty years, Gwendolyn Brooks offers powerful insights into the human experience. In this issue of Humanities we look at the life and work of Brooks, who has been chosen as the 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. She is the twenty-third recipient of the honor, which is the highest Gwendolyn Brooks, 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in award the federal government bestows for distinguished achievement the Humanities. — © 1994 by Jill Krementz in the humanities. Brooks calls Chicago her home. The South Side, where she grew up and still lives, has become her poetic world as well. Vivid characters have come to inhabit it: Satin-Legs Smith in "wonder-suits in yellow Humanities and in wine,/ sarcastic green and zebra-striped cobalt." Gas Cady, "the A bimonthly review published by the man who robbed J. Harrison's grave of mums/ and left the peony bush National Endowment for the Humanities. only because it was too big (said Mama)..." Mary, the gang girl, Chairman: Sheldon Hackney "a rose in a whiskey glass." The sixtyish sisters of the Mecca, Director of Communications Policy: "the twins with the floured faces, who dress in long stiff blackness,/who Gary L. Krull exit stiffly together and enter together/ stiffly,/ muffle their Mahler, finish their tea..." Brooks gives "a view of life," writes Blyden Jackson in Black Poetry in Editor: Mary Lou Beatty Assistant Editors: Constance Burr America, "in which one may see a microscopic portion of the universe Susan Q. -
When Négritude Was in Vogue: Critical Reflections of the First World Festival of Negro Arts and Culture in 1966
When Négritude Was In Vogue: Critical Reflections of the First World Festival of Negro Arts and Culture in 1966 by Anthony J. Ratcliff, Ph.D. [email protected] Assistant Professor, Department of Pan African Studies California State University, Northridge Abstract Six years after assuming the presidency of a newly independent Senegal, Leopold Sédar Senghor, with the support of UNESCO, convened the First World Festival of Negro Arts and Culture in Dakar held from April 1-24, 1966. The Dakar Festival was Senghor’s attempt to highlight the development of his country and “his” philosophy, Négritude. Margaret Danner, a Afro-North American poet from Chicago and attendee of the Festival referred to him as “a modern African artist, as host; / a word sculpturer (sic), strong enough to amass / the vast amount of exaltation needed to tow his followers through / the Senegalese sands, toward their modern rivers and figures of gold.” For Danner and many other Black cultural workers in North America, the prospects of attending an international festival on the African continent intimated that cultural unity among Africans and Afro-descendants was rife with possibility. What is more, for a brief historical juncture, Senghor and his affiliates were able to posit Négritude as a viable philosophical model in which to realize this unity. However, upon critical reflection, a number of the Black cultural workers who initially championed the Dakar Festival came to express consternation at the behind the scenes machinations which severely weakened the “lovely dream” of “Pan-Africa.” 167 The Journal of Pan African Studies, vo.6, no.7, February 2014 Following Senegal’s independence from France in 1960, the poet-statesman Leopold Sédar Senghor became the county’s first African president. -
Introduction “A Group of Groovy Black People”
The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry Howard Rambsy II http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=1798608 The University of Michigan Press, 2011 Introduction “A Group of Groovy Black People” In the June 1965 issue of Liberator, Larry Neal described the arrival of the Black Arts School in Harlem, which opened on April 30 with “an explosive evening of good poetry.” According to Neal, however, the most memorable event of the black arts weekend was the parade held that Saturday morning in Harlem. “Imagine jazz musicians, African dancing, and a group of groovy black people swinging down Lenox Av- enue,” wrote Neal. “It was Garvey all over again. It was informal and spontaneous and should illustrate something of the potential for cre- ative encounter existing in our community.” Just in case readers needed help envisioning the scene, a photograph accompanied the story show- ing two men leading a group down the middle of the street, carrying a large ›ag that read, “The Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School.” The caption for the photo identi‹ed “LeRoi Jones and Hampton Clanton leading the Black Arts parade down 125th Street, New York City.”1 They were on a mission, on the move. As a result, when Neal assessed the activities of these groovy black people a few years later, he de‹ned their efforts as a movement, a Black Arts Movement. The operation of the Black Arts School in Harlem was relatively brief; however, the spirit of activism and explosiveness expressed by those black artists “swinging down Lenox Avenue” typi‹ed the vitality and outlook of African American writers and organizers across the country during the time period. -
Diasporic Returns in the Jet Age: the First World Festival of Negro Arts and the Promise of Air Travel
DIASPORIC RETURNS IN THE JET AGE: THE FIRST WORLD FESTIVAL OF NEGRO ARTS AND THE PROMISE OF AIR TRAVEL Tobias Wofford Art History Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA ..................The First World Festival of Negro Arts (FESMAN) was decidedly a product of African independence, reflecting cultural and political aspirations of an African diaspora emergent world order. It was also decidedly a product of the jet age. While aviation air travel seems commonplace today, the commercial jet airliner was still a novel sign of futurity in 1966. Early stages of commercial jet travel often FESMAN followed colonial routes into Africa, a postwar extension of Europe’s Greaves imperial era. FESMAN offered the opportunity to reimagine air travel for the service of the international community built around independence-era William Africa and the African diaspora. This essay examines the trope of air travel Pan-African as a vital symbol of modernity invoked by FESMAN’s organizers and festivals participants. For example, many American visitors to the festival noted both the speed with which Pan Am jets shuttled them to the once- ................. prohibitively remote continent as well as the shining international architecture of the newly built airport. The trope of air travel is perhaps most beautifully elaborated in American filmmaker William Greaves’ lyrical documentary, The First World Festival of Negro Arts. The film strategically employed the marvel of air travel and its potential as a medium for ....................................................................................................... interventions, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2018.1487799 Tobias Wofford [email protected] © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group ............................interventions – 0:0 2 facilitating the global networks proposed by the festival. -
JOURNEYS to JUSTICE the Compositions & Company: JOURNEYS to JUSTICE
DIGITAL PROGRAM / PORTLAND OPERA PREMIERE: APRIL16, 2021 JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE TO JOURNEYS The compositions & company: JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE Songs for the African Violet Words and music by Jasmine Barnes Soprano Soloist Leah Hawkins * Collaborative Pianist Nicholas Fox PORTLANDOPERA.ORG Cellist Dylan Rieck Two Black Churches Composed by Shawn E. Okpebholo | Text by Dudley Randall, Marcus Amaker Baritone Soloist Michael Parham + Collaborative Pianist Nicholas Fox “Your Daddy’s Son” from Ragtime Music by Stephen Charles Flaherty | Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens Soprano Soloist Lynnesha Crump + Collaborative Pianist Nicholas Fox Bass Clarinetist Louis DeMartino JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE • 1 • JUSTICE TO JOURNEYS The Talk: Instructions for Black Children When They Interact with the Police Words and music by Damien Geter Conductor Lance Inouye * Narrator Ithica Tell Mezzo-Soprano Soloist Jasmine Johnson + Sopranos Kari Burgess, Eva Wolff Mezzo-Sopranos AnDee Compton, Anna Jablonski Tenors Joseph Michael Muir, Bryan Ross Bass-Baritones Gregory Brumfield, Erik Hundtoft Pianist Sequoia The compositions & company continued: JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE Night Trip Music by Carlos Simon | Libretto by Sandra Seaton Conductor Lance Inouye * Conchetta Jasmine Johnson + PORTLANDOPERA.ORG Uncle Mack David Morgans Sanchez + Uncle Wesley Edwin Jhamal Davis + Gas Station Attendant Joseph Michael Muir Police Officer Erik Hundtoft Pianist Sequoia Songs of Love and Justice Music by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork | Text by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Soprano Soloist Lynnesha Crump + Collaborative Pianist Nicholas Fox Curator Damien Geter Director Chip Miller* Scenery & Projection Designer Tyler Buswell* Costume & Hair Designer Dominique Fawn Hill* 2 • JUSTICE TO JOURNEYS Lighting Designer Jennifer Lin* Sound Designer Brian Mohr* Production Stage Manager Jon Wangsgard Principal Accompanists Nicholas Fox, Sequoia Diction & Dialect Coach Kathryn LaBouff * Portland Opera Debut + Member of the Portland Opera Resident Artist Program Scenery, costumes, and props created by Portland Opera. -
Robert F. Williams, Detroit, and the Bandung Era
Transnational Correspondence: Robert F. Williams, Detroit, and the Bandung Era Bill V. Mullen Can you imagine New York without police brutal- ity? Can you imagine Chicago without gangsters and Los Angeles without dirilects [sic] and winos? Can you imagine Birmingham without racial dis- crimination and Jackson, Mississippi without ter- ror? . Can you imagine cops and soldiers without firearms in conspicuous evidence of intimidation? Do you think this is a utopian dream? I can understand your disbelief. I believe that such a place exists on this wicked and cruel earth. —Robert F. Williams, “China: The Good of the Earth,” 19631 [A]ll genuine Bandung revolutionaries must unequivocally support the Revolutionary Afro- American Movement. The Black American radical is a redeemer who must resurrect a colonial peo- ple who suffered centuries of spiritual and psy- chological genocide, and who acknowledges but one history——-. slavery…. The Afro-American revolutionary is the humanistic antithesis of the inhuman West. —Revolutionary Action Movement, Black America, 19652 We learned from Detroit to go to the cities. —General Vo Nguyen Giap to Robert Williams, 19683 The September, 1963, special issue of Shijie Wenxue (World WORKS•AND•DAYS•39/40, Vol. 20, Nos. 1&2, 2002 190 WORKS•AND•DAYS Literature) published in Beijing was dedicated to W. E .B. Du Bois. The lyric poet to China, twice a visitor there, had died in August on the eve of the March on Washington. Working quickly, the editors had compiled an extraordinary gathering of writers and writings in his name. They included Du Bois’s own poem “Ghana Calls,” writ- ten to commemorate his final exile; Sie Ping-hsin’s “To Mourn for the Death of Dr. -
Expressions of African Affinity in Afro-Caribbean and African-American Poetry
DIVISIONS OF A DIFFERENT VEIN: EXPRESSIONS OF AFRICAN AFFINITY IN AFRO-CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN POETRY by PAMELA SWANIGAN B.A., the University of British Columbia, 1995 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of English) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard The University of British Columbia April 2000 Pamela Rae Swanigan In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of \_ The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date ftfTil \l\fiy DE-6 (2/88) Swanigan ii Abstract This thesis examines whether Afro-Caribbean, poets of the English-speaking West Indies and black American poets express differences in their sense of Africa and of being African-descended, and, if so, what the nature of those differences might be. Section I constitutes a brief overview of the slave histories in both regions, so as to suggest some political and sociological bases for the divergent literary expressions of Africa that might emerge. Sections II and III explore a range of written and oral poems, from both regions, that have Africa as a theme or a central reference.