x I CONTENTS

Rhythm and Blues nSmokey Robinson et al.: The Tracks of My Tears • 30Marvin Gave et al.: Dancing in the Street • 31Otis Redding: Respect • 32Marvin Gaye: What’s Coin' On? • 33Stevie Wonder: Living for the City • 33Curtis Mayfield: We’re a Winner • 34

Hip-Hop 35Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised • 38

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: The Message • 40Public Enemy: Don’t Believe the Hype • 43Queen Latifah: The Evil That Men Do • 45Eric B. & Rakim: I Ain’t No Joke • 47Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.): Things Done Changed • 48Nas: N.Y. State of Mind • 49

Jay-Z: Song Cry • 51Jean Grae: Don’t Rush Me • 53

Sermons and Prayers 56

God 58

James Weldon Johnson: Listen Lord, a Prayer 59C. L. Franklin: The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest 61Howard Thurman: O God, I Need Thee 67

G. I. Townscl: The Way Out Is to Pray Out • 68Martin Luther King Jr. 69

I Have a Dream • 69

I’ve Been to the Mountaintop • 72Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet • 79Bert Williams: Elder Eatmore’s Sermon on Generosity • 90

Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, 1940-1960

INTRODUCTION 93

MelvinB.

Tolson (i898?-i966) 107

Dark Symphony 109

The Birth of John Henry 112Satchmo 113

Dorothy West ( 1907 - 1998 )

The Living Is Easy 115

Part One 115

Chapter 1 [Cleo] 115

114

CONTENTS I xi

Richard Wright ( 1908 - 1960 )

Blueprint for Negro Writing 125The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, ;in Autobiographical Sketch 132From Black Boy 141

Chapter XIII (Booklist] 141Chapter XVI [Chicago] 147

Chester B. Himes ( 1909 - 1984 )Cotton Gonna Kill Me Yet 157

156

Ann Petrv ( 1911 - 1997 )The Street 168

Chapter I [The Apartment] 168

167

Alice Childress (i 9 i 2 ?-i 994 )Trouble in Mind 182

180

Robert Hayden ( 1913 - 1980 ) 225

The Diver 227

Homage to the Empress of the Blues 229Middle Passage 229Those Winter Sundays 234O Daedalus, Fly Away Home 234Runagate Runagate 235Frederick Douglass 237A Ballad of Remembrance 237

Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday 239Soledad 239

EI-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz 240A Letter from Phillis Wheatley 242

Ralph Ellison ( 1914 - 1994 ) 243Richard Wright’s Blues 247Invisible Man 258

Prologue 258Chapter 1 [Battle Royal] 264Epilogue 274

Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke 279The World and the Jug 287Remembering Richard Wright 307

Margaret Walker ( 1915 - 1998 ) 318

For My People 319Poppa Chicken 320For Malcolm X 322

Prophets for a New Day 322

xm I CONTENTS

Gwendolyn Brooks(1917-2000)

324kitchenette building 326the mother 326

a song in the front yard 327Sadie and Maud 327the vacant lot 328

the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon 328The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith 329The Rites for Cousin Vit 332The Children of the Poor 333The Lovers of the Poor 335We Real Cool 337

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock 337Malcolm X 339Riot 339

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a MississippiMother Burns Bacon 340

Maud Martha 344

James Baldwin(1924-1987)

390Everybody’s Protest Novel 394Notes of a Native Son 400

Sonny’s Blues 413Princes and Powers 435

Going to Meet the Man 453

BobKaufman (1925-1986) 465

Jail Poems 466

Lorraine Hansberry(1930-1965)

470A Raisin in the Sun 473

The Black Arts Era, 1960-1975

INTRODUCTION 533

Mari Evans (b. 1923) 562Vive Noir! 562

Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)(1925-1965)

565The Autobiography of Malcolm X 566

Chapter One. Nightmare 566Chapter Four. Laura 569From Chapter Six. Detroit Red 571Chapter Eleven. Saved 573From Chapter Nineteen. 1965 581

CONTENTS I xiii

John Alfred Williams (b. 1925 )The Man Who Cried I Am 588

3 [Picture of the Writer] 588

Martin Luther King Jr. ( 1929 - 1968 )

Letter from Birmingham Jail 594

Raymond Patterson ( 1929 - 2001 )

Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman 608

Etheridge Knight ( 1931 - 1991 )

The Idea of Ancestry 614

Hard Bock Beturns to Prison from the Hospital for theCriminal Insane 615

llu, the Talking Drum 616

Adrienne Kennedy (b. 1931 )

Funnyhouse of a Negro 620

Calvin Hernton ( 1932 - 2001 )

Jitterbugging in the Streets 632

Audre Lorde ( 1934 - 1992 )

New York City 1970 639Coal 641

Power 642

Poetry Is Not a Luxury 643

125th Street and Abomey 646

Walking Our Boundaries 647

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name 648

Epilogue 648Inheritance—His 649

Henry Dumas ( 1934 — 1968 )Black Star Line 654

Will the Circle Be Unbroken? 655

The Zebra Goes Wild Where the Sidewalk Ends 659

Amiri Baraka ( 1934 - 2014 )

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note 665

Notes for a Speech 666A Poem for Willie Best 667

Black Dada Nihilismus 671

Dutchman 674

The Revolutionary Theatre 688Prologue to The Slave 691A Poem for Black Hearts 693

Ka ’Ba 693

588

592

607

612

617

631

637

652

660

x i v I CONTENTS

Slave Ship 694Black Art 703It's Nation Time 704Wallers 706

Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934)homecoming 711poem at thirty 711Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict 712

blk/rhetoric 713

Sister Son/ji 714

a/coltrane/poem 719TCB 722

A poem for my brother 723

Ed Bullins (b. 1935)Clara's Ole Man 726

Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)Soul on Ice 740

Convalescence 740

A. B. Spellman (b. 1935)

Did John’s Music Kill Him? 750

June Jordan (1936-2002)In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. 753Gettin Down to Get Over 754

From The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones: Poem # One 762Poem about Police Violence 764Poem for South African Women 765

Poem about My Rights 766

Jayne Cortez (1936-2012)

How Long Has Trane Been Gone 771

Larry Neal (1937-1981)Harlem Gallery: From the Inside 776Don’t Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat 777Malcolm X—An Autobiography 781From The Black Arts Movement 784Some Reflections on the Black Aesthetic 787

Uncle Rufus Raps on the Squared Circle 791

Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

The Ghost in Birmingham 801

I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra 804Beware: Do Not Read This Poem 806

708

725

739

749

751

769

773

798

CONTENTS I xv

Nco-I I 00 D 00 Manifesto 808

Mumbo Jumbo 814Chapter I 814From Chapter II 818Epilogue 818

Michael S. Harper (b. 1938 )

Dear John, Dear Coltrane 831Trays: A Portfolio 833History as Apple Tree 834Psyehophotos of Hampton 836

Toni Cade Bambara ( 1939 - 1995 )

Gorilla, My Love 842From The Salt Eaters 847

Carolyn M. Rodgers ( 1940 - 2010 )

For Sistuhs Wearin' Straight Hair 852The Last M.F. 852Poem for Some Black Women 853U Name This One 855

1 Have Been Hungry 855

Haki R. Madhubuti (b. 1942 )Introduction [to Think Black] 860Two Poems 861

Gwendolyn Brooks 862Don’t Gry, Scream 863Move Un-noticed to Be Noticed: A Nationhood Poem 866Killing Memory 869

David Henderson (b. 1942 )

Keep on Pushing 874

Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943 )For Saundra 880Beautiful Black Men 881Nikki-Rosa 882

Revolutionary Music 882All 1 Gotta Do 884

Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why) 885

James Alan McPherson (b. 1943 )Problems of Art 887

Amus Mor (b. 1949?)Poem to the Hip Generation 900

829

841

850

858

873

879

887

899

x v i I CONTENTS

JamesT.

Stewart (?-i996)The Development of the Black Revolutionary Artist 906

The Contemporary PeriodINTRODUCTION 913

Albert Murray (1916-2013)Train Whistle Guitar 931

[History Lessons] 931

Maya Angelou (b. 1928)Still I Rise 946

My Arkansas 947I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 948

Chapter 15 [Mrs. Flowers] 948Chapter 16 [“Mam’'] 953

Paule Marshall (b. 1929)Reena 959

To Da-Duh, in Memoriam 971

The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen 978

Toni Morrison (b. 1931)Sula 989Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation 1067

The Site of Memory 1071Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in

American Uiterature 1078

Ernest J. Gaines (b. 1933)The Sky Is Gray 1103

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)[in the inner city] 1125good times 1126Malcolm 1127

homage to my hips 1127what the mirror said 1127

[the light that came to lucille clifton] 1128blessing the boats 1128study the masters 1128

905

929

944

957

985

1101

1122

CONTENTS I x v M

John Edgar Wideman (b. 1941)Brothers and Keepers 1132

[Robby’s Version] 1132Damballah 1139

Samuel R. Delany (b. 1942)From Atlantis: Model 1924 1146

Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999)The Peacock Poems: 1 1163I Want Aretha to Set This to Music 1165Tell Martha Not to Moan 1167

Alice Walker (b. 1944)Women 1179Outcast 1179

"Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning" 1180In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens 1180

Everyday Use 1188Advancing Luna— and Ida B. Wells 1194

August Wilson (1945-2005)Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 1208

Octavia Butler (1947-2006)Bloodchild 1253

Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947)February in Sydney 1267Facing It 1268Sunday Afternoons 1268Banking Potatoes 1269Birds on a Powerline 1270

Nathaniel Mackey (b. 1947)Falso Brilhante 1272

Song of the Andoumboulou: 8 1273Djbot Baghostus's Run 1274

26.IX.81 1274

Charles Johnson (b. 1948)The Education of Mingo 1281

Ntozake Shange (b. 1948)From for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the

rainbow is enuf 1292

Nappy Edges 1293Bocas: A Daughter’s Geography 1295

1129

1145

1163

1176

1205

1251

1266

1271

1279

1290

X V ii i CONTENTS

Gayl Jones (b. 1949 )

From Corregidora 1298

1297

Jamaica Kincaid (b. 1949 )Annie John 1305

Chapter Two. The Circling Hand 1305

1304

Gloria Naylor (b. 1950 )The Women of Brewster Place 1315

The Two 1315

1314

Edward P. Jones (b. 1951 ) 1341

The Girl Who Raised Pigeons 1342

Rita Dove (b. 1952 ) 1356

David Walker (1785—1830) 1359

Parsley 1360Receiving the Stigmata 1362Thomas and Beulah 1362

The Event 1362Motherhood 1363

Daystar 1364The Oriental Ballerina 1364Pastoral 1366American Smooth 1366

The Return of Lieutenant James Reese Europe 1367Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove 1368

Walter Mosley (b. 1952 ) 1369

Equal Opportunity 1371

Harryette Mullen (b. 1953 ) i.38i

Muse & Drudge 1382[Sapphire’s lyre styles] 1382[country clothes hung on her all and sundry] 1383[odds meeting on a bus] 1383[why these blues come from us[ 1384[go on sister sing your song] 1384[tomboy girl with cowboy boots] 1385[sauce squandering sassy cook] 1385[marry at a hotel, annul’em] 1386[precious cargo up crooked alleys] 1387[with all that rope they gave us] 1387[the royal yellow sovereign] 1388[tom-tom can’t catch] 1388[massa had a yeller] 1389[cough drops prick thick] 1389

CONTENTS

|ain’t cut drylongso) 1390

[soulless divaism) 1390

[moon, whoever knew you| 1391

Essex Hemphill (1957-1995)Conditions 1392

XXI 1392

XXII 1394

XXIV 1394

Caryl Phillips (b. 1958)

Crossing the River 1396II. West 1396

Barack Obama (b. 1961)A More Perfect Union 1411

Elizabeth Alexander (b. 1962)The Venus Hottentot 1420

When 1423

Ars Poetica #100: I Believe 1423

Suzan-Lori Parks (b. 1963)

Topdog/Underdog 1426

Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966)

Liturgy 1470Witness 1471

Tower 1472

Watcher 1472

Believer 1473

Prodigal 1473

Edwidge Danticat (b. 1969)

Breath, Eyes, Memory 1476

Chapter 1 1476

Chapter 35 1483

Colson Whitehead (b. 1969)

John Henry Days 1491

[1] 1491

[2] 1494

[3] 1499

Kevin Young (b. 1970)

Langston Hughes 1508

Jook 1509

Anthem 1509

Exodus 1510

1391

1395

1409

1419

1424

1468

1475

1490

1507

XX I CONTENTS

Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972 )Sci-Fi 1511

My God, It’s Full of Stars 1512

TIMELINE 1517

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1527

GENERAL READINGS 1527

THE VERNACULAR TRADITION 1535

REALISM, NATURALISM, MODERNISM 1536

THE BLACK ARTS ERA 1540

THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD 1551

PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1563

INDEX 1569