Keenan Norris is a novelist, scholar, and educator. He received the 2012 James D. Houston Award for his novel Brother and the Dancer (2013).
Norris and contributors (academics, authors, poets, editors,
musicians, and a lawyer) broaden the definition of urban literature
while drawing a distinction between African American and hip-hop
literature and emphasizing the differences between classic African
American literature and street literature. This title offers a
course in the genre in 16 signed essays with references and
bibliographies; six poems by Tristan Acker, Debra Busman, Sterling
Warner, Arisa White, and Juan Delgado; and interviews with authors
Lynel Gardner, David Bradley, and Ethan Iverson. The poems are each
one to two pages long, the essays four to 18 pages, and the
interviews two to 16. A few black-and-white photos appear in Ana
Lúcia Souza and Jacqueline Lima Santos’s essay on Brazilian
hip-hop. A cumulative bibliography and detailed index round out the
presentation. VERDICT Since it is a relatively new literary genre,
little expository material has been published on urban or street
literature, making this affordable title of interest to literature
students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
*Library Journal*
Norris provides an introductory survey of the new, fast growing
genre of street lit—also referred to as urban fiction, hip-hop lit,
and gangsta lit. It is made up of edgy stories focusing on personal
relationships and survival of the fittest. In this volume Norris
provides readers with articles, essays, interviews, and poems that
capture the spirit of this edgy literature. Making its appearance
in the 1950, the genre draws readers who tend to be young, African
American, and female. Urban fiction is characterized by stories of
life on the streets and in the projects using brutal descriptions
of drugs, violence, sex, abuse, and prison. The work begins with an
introduction that explores the roots of this literature and
provides insight into how it captures today’s culture in much the
same way that hip-hop music does for the music industry. The author
provides critical discussions of works by Goines, Japer, and
Whitehead, and gives interviews with such literary icons as David
Bradley, Gerald Early, and Lynel Gardner. Norris helps scholars,
avid readers, and librarians understand the significance of this
sometimes controversial but up-and-coming form of literature.
*American Reference Books Annual*
The foreword alone, by Omar Tyree, makes this book a must for fans
both 'true to the game' (as streetlit vernacular would state) of
the genre and 'new to the game' alike. Street Lit: Representing the
Urban Landscape serves as a history lesson of the genre in its
various forms, tracing the trajectory of slave narratives from the
Donald Goines and Iceburg Slim era to the days of Flyy Girl (1993)
and The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) to today’s vociferous offerings
from the powerhouse urban-literature publishers Triple Crown and
Urban Books.The book is made up of essays deftly divided into three
sections that invite discussion and reflection: 'Street Literature
in America, Past and Present'; 'Early Street Lit, 1950s–1970s'; and
'Contemporary Street Lit, 1990s and 2000s.' These essays take a
hard, honest look at the way street lit is marketed, packaged,
promoted, and perceived by its intended audience and by those on
the outside looking in on a slice of modern street life. The book
includes an index as well as an extensive bibliography of articles
and accessible book lists of notable works that best represent this
popular genre. Although the content is aimed at an academic library
audience, this would make a good choice for public library literary
criticism shelves, and librarians interested in developing
street-lit collections will want to add this title to their
professional reading lists.
*Booklist*
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