Celebrating the creativity of the African American poet, this volume contains over 200 pieces by some of the best poets of the last decade. These span the entire range of African American experience in tanka and sonnets, in the oral tradition, and in lyrics that echo of jazz, hip hop and rap.

"From eminences like Amiri Baraka and Toi Derricotte to experimental historian Gale Jackson and Dark Room collective member Natasha Trethewey, this collection outlines the depth and breadth of black poets working in the I990s."—Publishers Weekly

"Gilyard aims for diversity across generations and styles, from the jazz-inflected, freeform high intensity of Amiri Baraka to the crisp economy of Kalamu ya Salaam. The emphasis is on political aspects of African American life."—The Washington Post

Description

An outline to the African American poetic conversation of the 1990s, Spirit and Flame is the first intergenerational volume of African American poetry with an expressly contemporary focus since the numerous and influential black poetry anthologies of the 1960s and 1970s. A collection of numerous forms (jazz stylings to haiku) and topics (middle passage to 0. J.), this present gathering of fifty-three significant poets, among them Amiri Baraka, Rita Dove, Nikky Finney, Ruth Forman, Haki Madhubuti, Tony Medina, E. Ethelbert Miller, Sonia Sanchez, Quincy Troupe, and Patricia Smith, illustrates both the vibrancy of the African American experience and the talented and current poetic response that is part and parcel of it.

About the Author

Keith Gilyard is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African-American Studies and Senior Faculty Mentor in the Office of Educational Equity at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of several books including True to the Language Game: African American Discourse, Cultural Politics, and Pedagogy.

6 x 9, 328 pages

January 1997