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
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.
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