Table of Contents

1. Introduction to a genre; 2. The origins of African American poetry; 3. Emancipation to modernism; 4. The twentieth-century Renaissances; 5. Contemporary African American poetry.

Promotional Information

Offers a critical history of African American poetry from the transatlantic slave trade to present day hip-hop.

About the Author

Lauri Ramey is Xiaoxiang Scholars Program Distinguished Professor at Hunan Normal University. Her previous publications include Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry (2010), The Heritage Series of Black Poetry, 1962–1975 (2008), Black British Writing (with R. Victoria Arana, 2009), and a two-volume anthology set (with Aldon Lynn Nielsen) Every Goodbye Ain't Gone: An Anthology of Innovative Poetry by African Americans (2006) and What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America (2015).

Reviews

'In this compact survey, Ramey (English, Hunan Normal Univ., China) corrals her lifelong learning into a useful history of African American poetry, and she offers compelling reasons for considering works and poets previously disregarded and for reconsidering many who were misunderstood … This book keeps discourse current and research up to date in light of past cultural and racist exigencies … Highly Recommended.' L. L. Johnson, Choice

'… is the essence of African American poetry - the 'tremendously resilient core that preserves its identity even in the face of a lot of political pressure to assimilate,' and allows it to embrace 'an equally strong process of regeneration'.' Andrew Peart, The University of Chicago Magazine

'For students, scholars, and fans of cultural products indebted to African American cultural innovation, this lineage-building work is essential.' Alea Adigweme, Reed Magazine

'… the visualization of connecting threads linking seemingly disparate poets, periods, and forms, crystalizes an understanding of African American poetry that highlights valuable consistencies in the tradition without simplifying the work.' McKinley E. Melton, ALH Online Review

'… successfully expands our understanding of African American poetry, the traditions in which is rooted, and the possibilities it continues to possess.' McKinley E. Melton, ALH Online Review