Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry

Item

Title

Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry

This edition

"Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry" . Ed. Charles Henry Rowell. New York: Norton, 2013. liii+617 pp.

Table of contents

Preface
Writing Self, Writing Community: An Introduction

Part 1 PRECURSORS
Modernists, 1940s to 1960s
● Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) / The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith
● Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) / Riot
● Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) / Boy Breaking Glass
● Robert Hayden (1913-1980) / For a Young Artist
● Robert Hayden (1913-1980) / Elegies for Paradise Valley
● Robert Hayden (1913-1980) / A letter from Phillis Wheatley
● Melvin B. Tolson (1898-1966) Chi [from “Harlem Gallery”]

The 1960s and Beyond
THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT
● Amiri Baraka (1934- ) / Black Art
● Amiri Baraka (1934- ) / In Memory of Radio
● Amiri Baraka (1934- ) / An Agony. As Now.
● Amiri Baraka (1934- ) / A Poem for Black Hearts
● Amiri Baraka (1934- ) / AM/TRAK
● Mari Evans (1923- ) / I Am a Black Woman
● Nikki Giovanni (1943- ) / Nikki-Rosa
● Nikki Giovanni (1943- ) / Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)
● Bobb Hamilton (1928-1998) / Poem to a Nigger Cop
● David Henderson (1942- ) / Downtown-Boy Uptown
● Calvin C. Hernton (1932-2001) / The Distant Drum
● Haki Madhubuti (1942- ) / But He Was Cool, or : he even stopped for green lights
● Larry Neal (1937-1981) / Malcolm X — An Autobiography
● Carolyn Rodgers (1940-2010) / how i got ovah
● Carolyn Rodgers (1940-2010) / Breakthrough
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / Homecoming
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / Malcolm
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / blk/rhetoric
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / A Poem for My Father
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / Poem No. 3
● Sonia Sanchez (1934- ) / Towhomitmayconcern
● A.B. Spellman (1935- ) / I Looked & Saw History Caught
● Edward S. Spriggs (1934- ) / For Brother Malcolm

The 1960s and Beyond
OUTSIDE THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT
● Gerald Barrax (1933- ) / Eagle. Tiger. Whale.
● Gerald Barrax (1933- ) / King : April 4, 1968
● Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) / lazarus
● Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) / leda 1,2,3
● Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) / far memory
● Jayne Cortez (1936- ) / Solo Finger Solo
●Jayne Cortez (1936- ) / In the Morning
● Michael S. Harper (1938- ) / The Yellow Dishes
● Michael S. Harper (1938- ) / Yaddo, Mrs. Ames & Black Men
● Michael S. Harper (1938- ) / Coliseum Pool, 1960 (Dream)
● Michael S. Harper (1938- ) / Don't Explain : A Ballad Played by Dexter Gordon
● June Jordan (1936-2002) / What Would I Do White?
● June Jordan (1936-2002) / Current events
● June Jordan (1936-2002) / Adrienne's Poem : On the Dialectics of the Diatonic Scale ● Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) / Excerpt [from “Jail Poems”]
● Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) / Battle Report
● Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) / I Have Folded My Sorrows
● Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) / Walking Parker Home
● Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) / African dream
● Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) / The Violent Space (or when your sister sleeps around for money)
● Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) / The Idea of Ancestry
● Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) / Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane
● Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) / Belly Song
● Audre Lorde (1934-1992) / Coal
● Audre Lorde (1934-1992) / To My Daughter the Junkie on a Train
● Audre Lorde (1934-1992) / Fishing the White Water
● Clarence Major (1936- ) / On Watching a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly
● Clarence Major (1936- ) / The Great Horned Owl
● Clarence Major (1936- ) / Clay Bison in a Cave
● Clarence Major (1936- ) / Territorial Claims
● Colleen J. McElroy (1935- ) / Paris Subway Tango
● Colleen J. McElroy (1935- ) / Crossing the Rubicon at Seventy
● Ishmael Reed (1938- ) / I Am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra
● Ishmael Reed (1938- ) / The Pope Replies to the Ayatollah Khomeini
● Ed Roberson (1939- ) / Sit In What City We're In
● Ed Roberson (1939- ) / Eclogue
● Ntozake Shange (1948- ) / my father is a retired magician
● Ntozake Shange (1948- ) / nappy edges (a cross country sojourn)
● Primus St. John (1939- ) / The Cigar Maker
● Primus St. John (1939- ) / Trap a Congo
● Primus St. John (1939- ) / Catch and Release
● Lorenzo Thomas (1944-2005) / Onion Bucket
● Lorenzo Thomas (1944-2005) / Downtown Boom
● Alice Walker (1944- ) / Revolutionary Petunias
● Alice Walker (1944- ) / On Stripping Bark from Myself
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Mrs. Josiah Harris / August 25, 1867 [from “Letters from a New England Negro”]
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Miss Ann Spencer / August 30, 1867 [from “Letters from a New England Negro”]
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Miss Ann Spencer / October 22, 1867 [from “Letters from a New England Negro”]
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Miss Ann Spencer / November 24, 1867 [from “Letters from a New England Negro”]
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Miss Ann Spencer / February 15, 1868 [from “Letters from a New England Negro”]
● Al Young (1939- ) / The Song Turning Back Into Itself 3
● Al Young (1939- ) / Ravel: Bolero
● Al Young (1939- ) / A Dance for Ma Rainey

Part 2 HEIRS
First Wave, Post-1960s
● Ai (1947-2010) / Hoover, Edgar J.
● Ai (1947-2010) / Conversation
● Ai (1947-2010) / The Curious Journey of Ulysses Paradeece After a Hurricane
● Cyrus Cassells (1957- ) / Sally Hemings to Thomas Jefferson
● Cyrus Cassells (1957- ) / Wild Indigo, Because
● Cyrus Cassells (1957- ) / The White Iris Beautifies Me
● Wanda Coleman (1946- ) / Ars Poetica
● Wanda Coleman (1946- ) / Bedtime Story
● Wanda Coleman (1946- ) / American Sonnet (17)
● Wanda Coleman (1946- ) / American sonnet (54)
● Toi Derricotte (1941- ) / Holy Cross Hospital
● Toi Derricotte (1941- ) / The Weakness
● Toi Derricotte (1941- ) / Invisible dreams
● Toi Derricotte (1941- ) / The Minks
● Melvine Dixon (1950-1992) / Climbing Montmartre
● Melvine Dixon (1950-1992) / Paring Potatoes
● Melvine Dixon (1950-1992) / Turning Forty in the 90's
● Melvine Dixon (1950-1992) / Heartbeats
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / Nestor's Bathtub
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / History
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / The Fish in the Stone
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / Daystar
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / Heroes
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / American Smooth
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove
● Rita Dove (1952- ) / The Bridgetower
● Cornelius Eady (1954- ) / Photo of Miles Davis at Lennies-on-the-Turnpike, 1968
● Cornelius Eady (1954- ) / Crows in a Strong Wind
● Christopher Gilbert (1949-2007) / She
● Christopher Gilbert (1949-2007) / Absentee Landlord
● Christopher Gilbert (1949-2007) / Touching
● C.S. Giscombe (1950- ) / The Northernmost Road
● C.S. Giscombe (1950- ) / The 1200N Road, Going East
● Jewelle Gomez (1948- ) / My Chakabuku Mama (a comic tale)
● Jewelle Gomez (1948- ) / El Beso
● Angela Jackson (1951- ) / The Love of Travellers (Doris, Sandra and Sheryl)
● Angela Jackson (1951- ) / Two Trains
● Angela Jackson (1951- ) / Ida Rewrites
● Gayl Jones (1949- ) / Deep Song
● Gayl Jones (1949- ) / Foxes
● Gayl Jones (1949- ) / Composition with Guitar and Apples
● Patricia Spears Jones (1951- ) / Wearing My Red Silk Chinese Jacket
● Patricia Spears Jones (1951- ) / Thanksgiving
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / Venus's-flytraps
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / My Father's Love Letters
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / "You and I Are Disappearing"
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / Facing It
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / Blue Light Lounge Sutra for the Performance Poets at Harold Park Hotel
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / Lingo
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / [The; jawbone of an ass. A shank]
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / The Devil Comes on Horseback
● Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) / Requiem
● Nathaniel Mackey (1947- ) / Song of the Andoumboulou : 16
● Nathaniel Mackey (1947- ) / Glenn on Monk's Mountain
● Nathaniel Mackey (1947- ) / Sound and Severance
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / The Day Before Kindergarten : Taluca, Alabama, 1959
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / Timex Remembered
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / One for All Newborns
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / Mulberry Breath as Proof of the Wave in Form of Question
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / The Culture of Near Miss
● Thylias Moss (1954- ) / Me and Bubble Went to Memphis
● Harryette Mullen (1953- ) / Unspoken
● Harryette Mullen (1953- ) / All She Wrote
● Harryette Mullen (1953- ) / Black Nikes
● Harryette Mullen (1953- ) / [if your complexion is a mess]
● Harryette Mullen (1953- ) / [Of a girl, in white]
● Marilyn Nelson (1946- ) / Mama's Promise
● Marilyn Nelson (1946- ) / Daughter's, 1900

Second Wave, Post-1960s
● Elizabeth Alexander (1962- ) / The Venus Hottentot (1825)
● Elizabeth Alexander (1962- ) / Boston Year
● Elizabeth Alexander (1962- ) / The Blue Whale
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / Sticks
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / View-Master
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / Bright Moments
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / All Their Stanzas Look Alike
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / Mr. Dynamite Splits
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / First Grade, All Over Again
● Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963- ) / Godzilla's Avocado
● Forrest Hammer (1956- ) / Lesson
● Forrest Hammer (1956- ) / In the Middle
● Forrest Hammer (1956- ) / #4 [from “Goldsboro Narratives”]
● Forrest Hammer (1956- ) / #7 [from “Goldsboro Narratives”]
● Forrest Hammer (1956- ) / #28 [from “Goldsboro Narratives”]
● Kendra Hamilton (1958- ) / The Science of Wearing a Dress
● Kendra Hamilton (1958- ) / Belle's Promenade : Nassau Street, Princeton
● Myronn Hardy (1972- ) / Undertones
● Myronn Hardy (1972- ) / On a Bench : My Life
● Myronn Hardy (1972- ) / The Headless Saints
● Myronn Hardy (1972- ) / Making Stars with Jacob Lawrence
● Terrance Hayes (1971- ) / What I Am
● Terrance Hayes (1971- ) / At Pegasus
● Terrance Hayes (1971- ) / Derrick Poem (The Lost World)
● Terrance Hayes (1971- ) / Touch
● Terrance Hayes (1971- ) / Wind in a Box
● Major Jackson (1968- ) / Don Pullen at the Zanzibar Blue Jazz Café
● Major Jackson (1968- ) / Some Kind of Crazy
● Major Jackson (1968- ) / viii. Block party [from “Urban renewal”]
● Major Jackson (1968- ) / xvi. [from “Urban renewal”]
● Major Jackson (1968- ) / xxi. [from “Urban renewal”]
● Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (1967- ) / The Gospel of Barbecue
● Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (1967- ) / Fast Skirt Blues
● Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (1967- ) / Hagar to Sarai
● Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (1967- ) / The Wife of Lot Before the Fire
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / Regina Brown Hears Voices, Kills Son Week Before Christmas, December 18, 1996
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / from
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / The Flash Reverses Time
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / Black Light
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / Excerpt [from “Thought Clouds”]
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / Mixed Couple, 1908 [from “Thought Clouds”]
● A. Van Jordan (1965- ) / Discovering the camera [from “Thought Clouds”]
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / Blue
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / X
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / Leda, After the Swan
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / As from a Quiver of Arrows
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / Fretwork
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / Speak Low
● Carl Phillips (1959- ) / Civilization
● Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) / Orpheus Plays the Bronx
● Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) / How People Disappear
● Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) / Skin Trade
● Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) / Icarus on Fire Island
● Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) / Homeric Interim
● Patricia Smith (1955- ) / Prologue — And Then She Owns You
● Patricia Smith (1955- ) / She See What It Sees
● Patricia Smith (1955- ) / Up on the Roof
● Patricia Smith (1955- ) / Don't Drink the Water
● Sharan Strange (1959- ) / Childhood
● Sharan Strange (1959- ) / Froggy's Class
● Sharan Strange (1959- ) / Last Supper
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Flounder
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Limen
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Bellocq's Ophelia
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Letter Home
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Elegy for the Native Guards
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Pastoral
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Incident
● Natasha Trethewey (1966- ) / Myth
● Kevin Young (1970- ) / Letters from the North Star
● Kevin Young (1970- ) / Eddie Priest's Barbershop & Notary
● Kevin Young (1970- ) / The Game
● Kevin Young (1970- ) / For the Confederate Dead
● Kevin Young (1970- ) / Crowning

Third Wave, Post-1960s
● Jericho Brown (1976- ) / Track 1 : Lush Life
● Jericho Brown (1976- ) / Prayer of the Backhanded
● Jericho Brown (1976- ) / Track 4 : Reflections
● Jericho Brown (1976- ) / Track 5 : Summertime
● Michael Sibble Collins (1959- ) / Six Sketches : When a Soul Breaks
● Michael Sibble Collins (1959- ) / Poetry
● Michael Sibble Collins (1959- ) / Bryan, Texas Procession
● Kyle Dargan (1980- ) / Search for Robert Hayden
● Kyle Dargan (1980- ) / Microphone Fiend
● Kyle Dargan (1980- ) / Palinode, Once Removed
● Kyle Dargan (1980- ) / Man of the Family
● Camille T. Dungy (1972- ) / What to Eat, and What to Drink, and What to Leave for Poison
● Camille T. Dungy (1972- ) / Cleaning
● Camille T. Dungy (1972- ) / To Put Things Right
● Vievee Francis (1963- ) / Amarillo
● Vievee Francis (1963- ) / Horse in the Dark
● Vievee Francis (1963- ) / Smoke Under the Bale
● Vievee Francis (1963- ) / Still Life with Summer Sausage, a Blade, and No Blood
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [the tyranny of pig boys]
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [The fathers worked their hands to meat]
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [Edges in the rhododendron]
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [Their greatgreatgranddaddies]
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [ Daughters of four generations]
● Alena Hairston (1974- ) / [Because we love wrong]
● Janice N. Harrington (1956- ) / The Warning Comes Down
● Janice N. Harrington (1956- ) Falling
● Janice N. Harrington (1956- ) Fire
● Tyehimba Jess (1965- ) / blind lemon taught me
● Tyehimba Jess (1965- ) / leadbelly sings to his #1 crew
● Tyehimba Jess (1965- ) / martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935
● Tyehimba Jess (1965- ) / mistress stella speaks
● Ruth Ellen Kocher (1965- ) / Meditation on Breathing
● Ruth Ellen Kocher (1965- ) / The Window Cleaner Writes to the Astronaut’s Husband
● Ruth Ellen Kocher (1965- ) / gigan 63
● Dawn Lundy Martin (1968- ) / Negrotizing in Five or How to Write a Black Poem
● Dawn Lundy Martin (1968- ) / The Undress
● Dawn Lundy Martin (1968- ) / The Symbolic Nature of Chaos
● Dawn Lundy Martin (1968- ) / Excerpt [from “Discipline”]
● Constance Merritt (1966- ) / Lying
● Constance Merritt (1966- ) / The Mute Swan
● Constance Merritt (1966- ) / Woman of Color
● Constance Merritt (1966- ) / Self-Portrait: Lilith, Eve
● Fred Moten (1962- ) / gayl jones
● Fred Moten (1962- ) / johnny cash/rosetta tharp
● Fred Moten (1962- ) / μετοικε
● Fred Moten (1962- ) / elizabeth cotten/nahum chandler
● Fred Moten (1962- ) / frank ramsay/nancy wilson
● John Murillo (1971- ) / Sherman Ave. Love Poem
● John Murillo (1971- ) / Enter the Dragon
● John Murillo (1971- ) / Practicing Fade-Aways
● Gregory Pardlo (1968- ) / Double Dutch
● Gregory Pardlo (1968- ) / Copyright
● Gregory Pardlo (1968- ) / Shades of Green: Envy in the American Cultural Imaginary
● Gregory Pardlo (1968- ) / Four Improvisations on Ursa Corregidora
● Gregory Pardlo (1968- ) / Written by Himself
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / el corazón—toward an ars poetica
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / Excerpt [from “ascension”]
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / Day 33 [from “ascension”]
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / Day 36 [from “ascension”]
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / Day 41 [from “ascension”]
● giovanni singleton (1969- ) / Day 48 [from “ascension”]
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / Drought
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / Self-Portrait As the Letter Y
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / Theft
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / When Zappa Crashes My Family Reunion
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / The Nobodies
● Tracy K. Smith (1972- ) / Duende
● Amber Flora Thomas (1972- ) / Chore
● Amber Flora Thomas (1972- ) / Dress
● Amber Flora Thomas (1972- ) / Swarm
● Amber Flora Thomas (1972- ) / The Killed Rabbit
● Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (1971- ) / Garden
● Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (1971- ) / Lost
● Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (1971- ) / Bop : the North Star
● Crystal Williams (1970- ) / This Parable, This Body
● Crystal Williams (1970- ) / Extinction
● Crystal Williams (1970- ) / Enlightenment
● Ronaldo Wilson (1970- ) / Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, and the Brown Boy's Mother
● Ronaldo Wilson (1970- ) / Serena Williams, Whiteness, and the Act of Writing
● Ronaldo Wilson (1970- ) / On the C Train the Black Object Ponders Amuzati's Family Eaten in the Congo

Biographical Notes
Permission Credits
Acknowledgements
Index

Reviews and notices of anthology

• Baraka, Amiri. "A Post-Racial Anthology?" "Poetry" 1 May 2013. Available online .
Baraka champions the outlook of the Black Arts Movement and denounces the apolitical "aesthetic" emphasis of Rowell's anthology.
• Blakely, Diann. "Shenandoah" 62.2 (Winter 2013). Web.
• Seaman, Donna. "Booklist" 1 Feb. 2013: 14.
• "Publishers Weekly" 24 Dec. 2012: 32.
• Davis, Jordan. "Unsparing Truths." Review of "The Collected Poetry of Lucille Clifton" and of "Angles of Ascent." "The Nation" 8-15 July 2013: 27-31.
• Jones, Tayari. "Turn Up the Volume." "O, The Oprah Magazine" 14.3 (March 2013): 112.

Item Number

A0438

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