INNOVATIVE POETRY
It is noteworthy
that
Nielsen, Aldon Lynn and Lauri Ramey, eds. What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black
Writers in America.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2015.
and
Coval, Kevin, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall,eds.
The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry
in the Age of Hip-Hop. Chicago:
Haymarket, 2015.
should be published just before a long, hot summer swings
in.
It is noteworthy
that
The cover art for one anthology comes from Untitled…Negro Mythos Series by Hebru Brantley;
the cover art for the other, from Anna Everett’s early 1970s mural on a “wall
of Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York.”
It is noteworthy
that
These anthologies may relegate
Rowell, Charles Henry, ed. Angle of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry.
New York: W. W. Norton, 2013.
to a status of discrepant engagement that is yearning for
…….oh, well, read Amiri Baraka’s review “A Post-Racial Anthology?” at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/245846
It is noteworthy
that
These anthologies send us on a mission of tackling
difficult w(hole)s, namely, making comparisons with
Powell, Kevin and Ras Baraka,eds. In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers. New York:
Harlem River Press, 1992.
and
Medina, Tony, Samiya A. Bashir, and Quraysh Ali Lansana,
eds. Role Call: A Generational Anthology
of Social and Political Black
Literature and Art. Chicago: Third World Press, 2002.
It is noteworthy
that
Douglas Kearney has work on pages 86-92 of What I Say and pages 117-126 of The BreakBeat Poets; if you want to read
the innovative poetry of Kalamu ya Salaam, Asili Ya Nadhiri, or Lenard D.
Moore, turn to
Jahannes, Ja A., ed. Black
Gold: An Anthology of Black Poetry. Savannah: Turner Mayfield Publishing,
2014.
It is noteworthy
that
All of these anthologies want me to answer a singular
(c.i.a.n.s.a.) question: WHAT CRITERIA MUST A POEM SATISFY TO BE CALLED
INNOVATIVE?
It is noteworthy
that
I shall eventually provide an answer.
Jerry W. Ward, Jr.
June 10, 2015
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