360 Degrees: A Revolution of Black Poets

Item

Title

360 Degrees: A Revolution of Black Poets

This edition

"360 Degrees: A Revolution of Black Poets". Ed. Kalamu ya Salaam and Kwame Alexander. Arlington, VA: BlackWords, 1998.

Table of contents

Kwame Alexander / Foreword: Evolution of a New Era in Black Words

Anthology editor(s)' discourse

Kalamu ya Salaam. "360 Degrees--A Revolution in Poetry." "Obsidian II" 13.1-2 (Fall-Winter 1998-99): 103-22.
"360° was a two day gathering of poets in baltimore, maryland on September 11 & 12, 1998. Events were held on Friday at the Baltimore Museum of Art and on Saturday at the University of Maryland - College Park. The executive producer of 360° was Kwame Alexander, founder and CEO of the Alexander Publishing Group. Kaļamu ya Salaam served as a consulting producer and as the lead editor on an anthology of forty Black poets which was published inconjunction with 360° the event. What follows are my email daily reports on 360°. everything is written in lowercase because that was the fastest way to type, there is very little punctuation because that was the fastest way to type. I have gone back to clear up major typos, and to fill in a few spots of unclarity, but in general this is the report much as it was reported on the internet. Feel free to circulate this via email, snailmail, fax, word-of-mouth are [sic] however you communicate with your peeps (as in "people"). Indeed, not only feel free, please, please, please pass it on, and on, and on. Let the whole world know that 360° rolled and Black poetry continues to roll on."

Reviews and notices of anthology

• Bass, Holly. "Black Arts to Beats." "Washington City Paper" 11 Sept. 1998:
"There was a joke going around at the Furious Flower conference of black poets that took place in Atlanta a few years ago: If somebody dropped a bomb on the hotel, they’d erase black literature as we know it today. Not to give any crazed bibliophilic terrorists any wild ideas, but 360 A Revolution of Black Poets is another historic conference. It brings together 36 literary heavyweights from the past four decades for critical discussions, performances, films, and an open mike. Young heads like Saul Williams (featured in the Sundance filmfest winner Slam) share the stage with seasoned word warriors like Quincy Troupe, Amiri Baraka, and Sonia Sanchez. Writers of every black aesthetic will represent from Black Arts to Beats, political to performance, jazz to blues to hiphop and back. The first part of the two-day event takes place Friday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the second begins today with free panels and interviews at 10 a.m., culminating in a festival night (followed by a midnight open mike) at 8 p.m. at the University of Maryland at College Park’s Inn & Conference Center Main Auditorium, University Blvd. & Adelphi Road., College Park. $8-12. (301) 314-8587. (Holly Bass)"
• AALBC.com. Review of "360 Degrees: A Revolution of Black Poets." "YouTube" 6 March 2023. 5 min 28 sec.

Commentary on anthology

• Ward, Jerry W. "Poetry." "Washington Post" 1 Aug. 1999:
Describes this volume as "a collection that forms a bridge between poets of the Black Arts Movement and those of the hip-hop aesthetic."

Item Number

A0472

Item sets