African American Authors: Poetry

Precursors. Modernists, 1940s to 1960s ; The 1960s and beyond : the black arts movement ; The 1960s and beyond : outside the black arts movement -- Heirs. First wave, post-1960s ; Second wave, post-1960s ; Third wave, post-1960s

To make a poet Black -- What is Africa to me? -- The rocking loom of history -- Like walking out of shadow -- If we must die -- This man shall be remembered -- A rock against the wind -- Is she our sister? -- Don't it make you want to cry? -- Whose children are these? -- They are all of me -- Oh, singing tree! -- Oh, my soul is in the whirlwind! -- Dear lovely death -- I dream a world.

His talent was unbounded, a raw force that commanded attention and respect. His death was tragic -- a violent homage to the power of his voice. His legacy is indomitable -- remaining vibrant and alive. Here now, newly discovered, are Tupac's most honest and intimate thoughts conveyed through the pure art of poetry -- a mirror into his enigmatic life and its many contradictions. Written in his own hand at the age of nineteen, they embrace his spirit, his energy ... and his ultimate message of hope.

"Colliding with and confronting the Tempest and postcolonial identity, the poems in Safiya Sinclair's Cannibal explore Jamaican childhood and history, race relations in America, womanhood, otherness, and exile. She evokes a home no longer accessible and a body at times uninhabitable, often mirrored by a hybrid Eve/Caliban figure. Blooming with intense lyricism and fertile imagery, these full-blooded poems are elegant, mythic, and intricately woven. Here the female body is a dark landscape; the female body is cannibal. Sinclair shocks and delights her readers with her willingness to disorient and provoke, creating a multitextured collage of beautiful and explosive poems"-- Provided by publisher.
"Framed by "The Tempest" and calling on historical, cultural, and biological sources, "Cannibal" is a provocative poetic exploration of the female body, identity, and race"-- Provided by publisher