Anthologies of African American Writing

Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam

"Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam" . Ed. Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera. Foreword Sonia Sanchez. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001. xxxiii+282 pp.

Foreword
● Tony Medina / Introduction
Invocation
● Margaret Walker / We Have Been Believers
● Dudley Randall / A Poet Is Not a Juke Box
● Zizwe Ngafua / Nommo
● Raymond R. Patterson / No Jive
● Safiya Henderson- Holmes / failure of an invention
● Gwendolyn Brooks / Building
● Louis Reyes Rivera / The Disdirected

Blood I Say, Study Our Story, Sing This Song
● Tony Medina / The Way We Move
● Ted Wilson / ... And the Saga Continues
● Lenard D. Moore / Bad Times
● Cornelius Eady / How to Do
● Cheryl Boyce Taylor / Like a Dog
● Kysha N. Brown / Lonely Women
● Benin Williams / On the Other Side
● Kiini Ibura Salaam / N
● Samiya A. Bashir / Her Scream Has Been Stolen
● Denise Duhamel / Crater Face
● R. Erica Doyle / susu
● Thien-bao Thuc Phi / An Asian Am Anthem
● Wendell Ricketts / Scout
● Jackie Sheeler / This Old Man
● Afaa M. Weaver / Afternoon Train
● Rich Bartee / Beginning at the End: Capital/Capitol Punishment

Open Your Mouth--and Smile
● Sharon Olinka / A Chinese Man in Smyma
● Ken McManus / 450 Years of Selective Memory
● Evie Shockley / the n-word
● Beau Sia / an open letter to the entertainment industry
● James Flint / Metropolitan Metaphysics
● Jemeni / America Eats Its Young
● Kenneth Carrol / laughin at cha
● Jane Alberdeston-Coralín / Rosa's Beauty
● Lucy Partlow / Overworked
● Treasure Williams / Nintendo
● Blair Ewing / Stealth-Pirates of Cyberia
● Bob Holman / The Death of Poetry
● Jamie Shaggy Flores / Last Visit to Chestnut Middle School
● Allison Joseph / Learning to Drive at 32
● Michele Serros / Mr. BOOM BOOM Man
● Oneca Hitchman-Britton / Road to the Presidency
● Benjamin Theolonius Sanders / For What It's Worth

Every Word Must Conjure
● Susana Cabañas / It's Called Kings
● Oktavi Allison / Billy
● Ebony Page / To Become Unconscious
● Tyehimba Jess / Letter to an Unconceived Son
● Reginald Harris / The Usual Suspects
● Andre O. Hoilette / Blooming Death ... Blossoms
● Shara McCallum / What the Oracle Said
● George Edward Tait / The U.S.A. Court of No Appeal
● Suheir Hammad / on the state-sanctioned murder of shaka sankofa
● Andrea Roberts / An Epistle to the Revolutionary Bible
● Lenina Nadal / Warrior Womb
● José Angel Figueroa / Cowboynomics
● Ngoma / Demockery
● Danny Shot / Executive Privilege
● A. Van Jordan / Question
● Brian Gilmore / georgia avenue, washington d.c.
● Patrick Sylvain / A Palace of Mourners
● Marvin X / Palestine
● Sheree Renée Thomas / The Road from Khartoum
● Candice Nicole Love / A Modern Love Poem
● Eliot Katz / In Praise of the Seattle Coalition
● Gary Johnston / Blood Is the Argument

Drums Drown Out the Sorrow
● Carlos Raul Dufflar / Amadou Diallo from Guinea to the Bronx Dead on Arrival
● Malkia M’Buzi Moore / Another Scream
● Mervyn Taylor / A Well-Bred Woman
● James E. Cherry / Amadou
● G. E. Patterson / BLS
● asha bandele / after diana died
● Ahmos Zu-Bolton II / Dudley Randall (1914-2000)
● Adrian Castro / Hoodoo Whisper
● Jacqueline Jones LaMon / Sammy Davis, Jr.
● Patricia Spears Jones / Glad All Over
● Staci Lightburn / Dancing after Sanchez
● Jolivette Anderson / The 13th Letter
● Lamont B. Steptoe / In Black Churches
● Quraysh Ali Lansana / For Gwendolyn Brooks
● folade mondisa speaks / tonal embryology
● Tanya Tyler / Zizwe
● Hayes Davis / All, Bomaye
● Jacqueline Johnson / Phyllis
● Julia Maier / Timbalero
● Américo Casiano, Jr. / Puente
● Nancy Mercado / Somalia
● Melba Joyce Boyd / epitaph for Etheridge Knight
● John Watusi Branch / Farewell Queen Mother Moore
● Comrade Askia M. Touré / Palenque Queen by Habana's Shores

When the Definition of Madness Is Love
● Pedro Pietri / January Hangover
● Imani Trolliver / the hardest part about love
● Marj Hahne / Lies We Tell Ourselves
● Letta Neely / 8 ways of looking at pussy
● Tanai Sanders / Temporary Insanity
● Shonda Buchanan / alone in belize
● esther louise / footprints
● Jeneanne Collins / Big World Look Out
● Nancy D. Tolson / Bullet Hole Man: A Love Poem
● Tara Betts / Dreadlocks
● Arthur Ade Amaker / Roots
● Kadija Sesay / Six Minutes Writing
● RoByn Baron / Diner
● Latasha Natasha Diggs / Fullness
● Carlos Omar Gardinet / Wet Dream
● Marvin K. White / foursomes
● C.D. Grant / Wishing You
● Carl Hancock Rux / Shunning an Imperative
● Kimmika L. H. Williams / January 8, 1996
● Paul Laraque / A Poem for You
● Pedro López-Adorno / Throbs for the Instructress
● Kendra Hamilton / At the Frenchman's
● Jewell M. Handy / Mata Hari Blues or Why I Will Never Be a Spy
● Lisa Pegram / Yellah
● Tufara Waller Muhammad / Extremes Ain't My Thing As Salaam Alaikum
● Jennifer Murphy / 13
● A. Wanjiku H. Reynolds / rock candy
● Everett Hoagland / Love Jam
● Gylan Kain / Cocaine Mad-Scream Article #33 LoveSong

We Whose Fathers Are Hidden
● Tijan M. Sallah / The Elders Are Gods
● Jackie Graves / What the Dead Do
● Empress / creation is a cycle
● Kelly Elaine Navies / Birth
● Kamilah Aisha Moon / Daughter-to-Father Talk
● Krista Franklin / Tattooing the Motherline
● Ta’Lease Niche Cleveland / Our Fathers
● Glenis Redmond / Mama's Magic
● Aarian Pope / Father's Day
● Nichole L. Shields / Momma in Red
● Karen Williams / Wildlife
● Taiyon J. Coleman / Chicago on the Day Brother Increases His Chances of Reaching Age 21
● Patricia A. Holt Abner / Lest We Forget
● David Henderson / The African Burial Ground Called Tribeca
● Abiyah / fatherless townships
● Maria Mazziotti Gillan / Waiting for the Results of a Pregnancy Test
● Laura Boss / Sitting in the Doctor's Office the Next Day
● Tom Mitchelson / Circa

Seed of Resistance
● Ayin Adams / Cooking
● Joe E. Weil / Ben Hur
● Valerie Caesar / in 5th grade
● Teri Ellen Cross / Complected
● Mariposa / Broken Ends Broken Promises
● Luis J. Rodriguez / My Name's Not Rodriguez
● Duriel E. Harris / Water from the Well
● Michael C. Ladd / The Tragic Mulatto Is Neither

Beauty Is Moving Us Forward
● Marco Villalobos / I'm Sayin Though
● Nwenna Kai / beauty rituals 2000
● Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie / Medusa
● Chioma Okereke / Stariette
● Felice Belle / exceptions
● Kevin Powell / What the deal, son?
● Jarvis Q. DeBerry / Plain Ole Brother Blues
● Rha Goddess / Why I Be a Goddess
● Lindamichellebaron / I'm the Man
● Venus Harris / Dare to Be Different
● Deirdre May / Thoughts from a Bar Stool
● Clairesa Clay / A Blue Black Pearl
●Jamila Z. Wade / runnin
● Pamela Plummer / conversations in the struggle
● Gregory Pardlo / Harvest: A Line Drawing
● Michael Datcher / joseph speaks to gericault in the studio
● Edwin Torres / Entrancielo
● Eugene B. Redmond / New York Seizures
● Jesús Papoleto Meléndez / Hey Yo / Yo Soy!
● Kalamu ya Salaam / Flying over America

It Was the Music That Made Us
● Jessica Care Moore / I'm a Hip Hop Cheerleader
● Reg E. Gaines / kill the dj
● Linda Cousins / Ms. Cousins' Rap
● Derrin Maxwell / all up in there
● Atiba Kwabena / Doin'
● Howard Rambsy II / The Trash Talker
● June Jordan / Owed to Eminem
● Thomas Sayers Ellis / A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop
● Nzadi Z. Keita / rapid transit
● Honorée Fanonne Jeffers / hold it steady
● Carmen D. Lucca / Conversation with Duke Ellington and Louis (Pops) Armstrong
● Theodore A. Harris / For Lady and Prez
● Daniel Gray-Kontar / breath
● Lynne d Johnson / The Flow
● Layding Lumumba Kaliba / Bebop Trumpet
● Fredrica Africa Payne / conjugation of the verb: to blow
● Steven Bonafide Rojas / The Creed of a Graffiti Writer
● Brenda Cárdenas and Aidé Rodriguez / Sonido Ink(quieto)
● Chong Xiong / because I am it's a race thing trip
● Danielle Legros Georges / Grasshopper
● Umar Bin Hassam / Grace
● Thomás Riley / The Low End
● Douglas Kearney / rep/resent
● C. Leigh MeInnis / 2G (Another Millennium Poem)
● Nzinga Regtuinah Chavis / enter(f*#@ckin)tained

Children of the Word
● Sandra Maria Esteves / Motherseed
● Liza Jessie Peterson / Wake Up, My Little Pretties
● devorah major / nommo: how we come to speak
● Lissette Norman / spaNglisH
● Willie Perdomo / New Boogaloo
● Anasuya Isaacs / Mi Negrito
● Meena Alexander / News of the World
● Brenda Walcott / Much of Your Poetry Is Beautiful
● Thomas C. Howell IV / Ginsberg
● Regie Cabico / In Bed with James Tate
● Hannah Howard / soulgroovin ditty #7
● Seitu J. Hart / Sundays
● Amina Baraka / To Aretha Franklin from Sparkle
● Raymond R. Patterson / Lumumba Blues
● Sharrif Simmons / All the shoes are shined and the cotton is picked
● Bruce George / In this day and age
● Fred Hampton, Jr. / The Trouble I've Seen
● Wanda Coleman / Having Lost My Son, I Confront the Wreckage
● Jack Wiler / Bensonhurst
● Jeffrey Renard Allen / For Michael Griffith, Murdered Dec. 21, 1986, Howard Beach, NY
● Rohan B Preston / Lift Every Fist and Swing
● Michael Warr / TV Dinner
● Charlie Braxton / Bluesman
● Abiodun Oyewole / We're Not Well Here
● Patricia Smith / Nickel Wine and Deep Kisses
● Kate Rushin / The Coward
● Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon / Strip
● Yona Harvey / Sex
● Tish Benson / enemies
● Ras Baraka / American Poetry
● Haki R. Madhubuti / So Many Books, So Little Time
● John Rodriguez / How to Be a Street Poet
● DJ Renegade / The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash
● Amiri Baraka / X
● Assata Shakur / The Tradition
● Jayne Cortez / There It Is

Contributors
Permissions

• "The spoken word poetry movement, which combines the edginess of hip-hop with the drama of performance art, has added fresh energy to the American & international poetry scenes. Poetry jams, which gained popularity in the early 1990s at small clubs like New York's legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe, are the stages on which the best poets come together to trade verse. Launched by hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, Def Poetry Jam is a project that does for spoken-word what Simmons's Def Comedy Jam did for comedy, taking an exciting, unheralded scene to the mainstream. Def Poetry Jam includes a national tour of slam competitions, spoken-word showcases in major cities, an interactive website, & this book, which features original work from both established & emerging spoken-word artists from throughout the country. Edited by two of the best-regarded poets of the scene, Bum Rush the Page is the definitive collection of today's best spoken-word poetry. Bum Rush the Page is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry. Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam, not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is" (publisher's description; WorldCat).

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