Anthologies of African American Writing

What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America

"What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America." Ed. Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Lauri Ramey, and C. S. Giscombe. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2015. xviii+324 pp.

● Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey / Preface
● Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey / Acknowledgements
● C.S. Giscombe / Introduction: Making Book: Winners, Losers, Poetry, Anthologies and the Color Line

● Will Alexander / Apprenticeship
● Will Alexander / The Neutralized Sore of the Unshackled Bear
● Will Alexander / Concerning Forms which Hold Heidegger in Judgement
● Ron Allen / (Untitled)
● Ron Allen / Merchant of the Open Grid
● Ron Allen / boss napalm
● Ron Allen / Pimp Chain Radiator
● T.J. Anderson III / Better Git It in Yo’ Soul
● T.J. Anderson III / Al-Hadiqa Street Mirage
● T.J. Anderson III / At a Column of Crutches, Basilique de Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre
● Tisa Bryan / From “Tzimmes”
● Pia Deas / From “Cargo”
● C.S. Giscombe / Where I Lost It
● C.S. Giscombe / (very recent past) [from the poem, Look Ahead-Look South]
● C.S. Giscombe / (The 70s-UltraSuede) [from the poem, Look Ahead-Look South]
● C.S. Giscombe / (The distant past-B.W.I.) [from the poem, Look Ahead-Look South]
● C.S. Giscombe / From the poem, Blue Hold, Flood Waters, Little Miami River
● C.S. Giscombe / From “At Large”
● C.S. Giscombe / From the poem, The Northernmost Road
● C.S. Giscombe / From the poem, Five Dreams
● C.S. Giscombe / Mnemonic Geography
● C.S. Giscombe / Afro-Prairie
● C.S. Giscombe / Three Dreams
● Renee Gladman / From “Not Right Now”
● Renee Gladman / From the poem, No Through Street
● Renee Gladman / From the poem, Tour
● Renee Gladman / From the poem, Radicals Plan
● Duriel E. Harris / Lazarus Minor
● Duriel E. Harris / Phaneric Display No. 2: The Meta
● Duriel E. Harris / Phaneric Display No. 3: Slumber Party Cabaret in E Minor
● Duriel E. Harris / Monday
● Harmony Holiday / Gone by Then
● Harmony Holiday / Spectacular Brooding
● Erica Hunt / After All
● Erica Hunt / Verse
● Erica Hunt / Afterword
● Erica Hunt / The Voice of No
● Erica Hunt / Personal
● Erica Hunt / Starting with A
● Erica Hunt / Object Authority
● Kim D. Hunter / crazy for your tongues
● Kim D. Hunter / jo mama at de crossroads
● Kim D. Hunter / didn’t yo mama invent the pay toilet
● Kim D. Hunter / we don’t need hell
● Geoffrey Jacques / Saturday Night Fish Fry
● Geoffrey Jacques / Well You Needn’t
● Geoffrey Jacques / The Wonderful Fantasies of the Colonized
● Geoffrey Jacques / The Culture of the Copy
● Geoffrey Jacques / One Year Later
● Geoffrey Jacques / Night Language listening to Jayne Cortez
● Geoffrey Jacques / Notice
● Douglas Kearney / Atomic Buckdance
● Douglas Kearney / Swimchant for Nigger Mer-folk (An Aquaboogie Set in Lapis)
● Douglas Kearney / The Chitlin Circuit
● John Keene / Ionisation
● John Keene / Color
● John Keene / Self
● John Keene / Survey
● Nathaniel Mackey / Dogon Eclipse
● Nathaniel Mackey / Black Snake Visitation
● Nathaniel Mackey / Ghede Poem
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 6
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 4
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 12
● Nathaniel Mackey / Irritable Mystic
● Nathaniel Mackey / Alphabet of Ahtt
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 23
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 24
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 31
● Nathaniel Mackey / Lag Anthem
● Nathaniel Mackey / Song of the Andoumboulou: 40
● Nathaniel Mackey / Dread Lakes Aperture
● Dawn Lundy Martin / A Bleeding: An Autobiographical Tale
● Dawn Lundy Martin / Telling Tales
● Mark McMorris / Diode
● Mark McMorris / Seven Days
● Mark McMorris / From the poem, Of Baths and Systems
● Mark McMorris / Inscriptions on the Whale Flank
● Mark McMorris / Dialegomai (Suite)
● Mark McMorris / From the poem, Black Pieces III (The Horses of Plato & Achilles)
● Mark McMorris / Reef: Shadow of Green
● Tracie Morris / SuReal
● Tracie Morris / Why I Won’t Wear a Tattoo
● Tracie Morris / Apology to Pangea
● Fred Moten / Bessie Smith
● Fred Moten / Henry Dumas
● Fred Moten / Murray Jackson
● Fred Moten / William Parker
● Fred Moten / Modern Language Day
● Fred Moten / We Live After a River
● Harryette Mullen / Bête Noir
● Harryette Mullen / From “Trimmings”
● Harryette Mullen / From “S• PeRM• • K• T”
● Harryette Mullen / From “Muse and Drudge”
● Harryette Mullen / Denigration
● Harryette Mullen / Free Radicals
● Harryette Mullen / The Lunar Lutheran
● Harryette Mullen / Ted Joans at the Cafe Bizarre
● Harryette Mullen / Zen Acorn
● Mendi Lewis Obadike / Determined Invisibility
● Mendi Lewis Obadike / What I Had to Have
● Mendi Lewis Obadike / Gassed
● Mendi Lewis Obadike / Open
● G.E. Patterson / Hesitation Step
● G.E. Patterson / As If That Alone
● Julie Ezelle Patton / When the Saints Go
● Julie Ezelle Patton / Revelation
● Julie Ezelle Patton / Notes for Some (Nominally) Awake
● Claudia Rankine / From the poem, Residual in the Hour
● Claudia Rankine / From the poem, Hunger to the Table
● Claudia Rankine / From the poem, Toward Biography
● Claudia Rankine / Liv’s View of Landscape I
● Claudia Rankine / Interpretive Commentary
● Claudia Rankine / From “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”
● Deborah Richards / Parable
● Evie Shockley / art of dakar (or, tourist trap)
● Evie Shockley / atlantis made easy
● Evie Shockley / henry bibb considers love and livery
● Evie Shockley / you must walk this lonesome
● Evie Shockley / a thousand words
● Evie Shockley / poem for when his arms open so wide you fall through
● Evie Shockley / aftermath
● Evie Shockley / a course in canvas
● Evie Shockley / not in the causal chain
● Giovanni Singleton / From the poem, melanin suite
● Giovanni Singleton / AMERICAN LETTERS
● Giovanni Singleton / From the poem, Atias: The Green Book
● Giovanni Singleton / mesostic for Ree Dragonette
● Giovanni Singleton / mesostic for the Sun Ra Arkestra
● Giovanni Singleton / mesostic: Golden Sardine (after Bob Kaufman)
● Giovanni Singleton / the odds
● Tyrone Williams / Constellation
● Tyrone Williams / Card
● Tyrone Williams / Dispell’d
● Tyrone Williams / El Negro
● Tyrone Williams / Study of a Negro Head
● Tyrone Williams / If Mime then Music . . .
● Tyrone Williams / Cold Calls
● Tyrone Williams / From the poem, Bar Code
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / On the Train the Black Object Ponders Amuzati’s Family Eaten in the Congo
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / 51. Lucy, Her River and Sky
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / The Black Object’s Elasticity

● Notes on Contributors

● Lam, Joshua. "Beyond the Norton: Anthologizing Innovation in Contemporary Black Poetics." "Journal of Modern Literature" 40.1 (2016): 169-76. JSTOR.

"Every Goodbye Ain't Gone: An Anthology of Innovative Poetry by African Americans." Ed. Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2006.

A0449