Research Catalog

Title

Black music, Black poetry : blues and jazz's impact on African American versification / edited by Gordon E. Thompson, City College of New York, USA.

Publication

Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, [2014]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Thompson, Gordon E.

Description

xvi, 205 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

Black Music, Black Poetry offers readers a fuller appreciation of the diversity of approaches to reading black American poetry. It does so by linking a diverse body of poetry to musical genres that range from the spirituals to contemporary jazz. The poetry of familiar figures such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and less well-known poets like Harryette Mullen or the lyricist to Pharaoh Sanders, Amos Leon Thomas, is scrutinized in relation to a musical tradition contemporaneous with the lifetime of each poet. Black music is considered the strongest representation of black American communal consciousness; and black poetry, by drawing upon such a musical legacy, lays claim to a powerful and enduring black aesthetic. The contributors to this volume take on issues of black cultural authenticity, of musical imitation, and of poetic performance as displayed in the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Amiri Baraka, Michael Harper, Nathaniel Mackey, Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Amos Leon Thomas. Taken together, these essays offer a rich examination of the breath of black poetry and the ties it has to the rhythms and forms of black music and the influence of black music on black poetic practice.

Alternative Title

Blues and jazz's impact on African American versification

Subjects

• American poetry > African American authors
• African Americans > Intellectual life
• African Americans > Intellectual life > 20th century
• Blues (Music) in literature
• American poetry > African influences
• English language > Rhythm
• Music and literature > History > 20th century
• 1900 - 1999
• Jazz in literature
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Social gospel in literature
• American poetry > African American authors > History and criticism > 20th century
• Poetics > History > 20th century

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-192) and index.

Contents

Authenticity in Black music and poetry -- Original rags: African-American secular music and the cultural legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry / Ray Sapirstein -- Paul Laurence Dunbar and the spirituals / Lauri Ramey -- "Greatest is the song": blues as poetic communication in early Langston Hughes and Sterling A. Brown / John Edgar Tidwell -- "A real, solid, sane, racial something": Langston Hughes's blues poetry / David Chinitz -- Part 2. Jazz: its spiritual lyricism -- The funk aesthetic in African-American poetry / Tony Bolden -- "Go in the wilderness": the missionary impulse of Michael Harper's poetry / Joseph Brown -- Part 3. Lyricism and the sonic aesthetic -- Amiri Baraka: phenomenologist of jazz spirit / Christopher Winks -- Nathaniel Mackey's "Song of the andoumboulou": making different music / Scarlett Higgins -- Hearing a new musical instrument: Harryette Mullen's critical lyricism / Lisa Mansell -- Part 4. Transformational lyricism -- "Taking it out!": Jayne Cortez's collaborations with the firespitters / Renee M. Kingan -- Pops, pygmies, and pentecostal fire: Sanders and Thomas's "The creator has a master plan" / Michael Coyle.

Call Number

Sc E 16-418

ISBN

• 9781409428367
• 1409428362
• 9781472430595 (canceled/invalid)
• 9781472430601 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2013035920

OCLC

861755009

Title

Black music, Black poetry : blues and jazz's impact on African American versification / edited by Gordon E. Thompson, City College of New York, USA.

Publisher

Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, [2014]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-192) and index.

Chronological Term

1900 - 1999

Added Author

Thompson, Gordon E., editor.

Research Call Number

Sc E 16-418

JNE 14-161