Words of protest, words of freedom Poetry of the American civil rights movement and era : an anthology

Whereas a number of discussions and anthologies of poetry treat poetry that protests or comments on war--for example, James Anderson's The Poetry of War (CH, Mar'09, 46-3680) is thematic; George Herbert Clarke's Treasury of War Poetry (first published in 1917) comprises work about the Great War--Coleman (St. Mary's College) has collected verse in a manner that could be a model for future anthologies. Divided by events (from the US civil rights era) to which the work responds, the collection chronicles assassinations, bombings, and acts of protest. Here, poetry is harnessed not for its literary or aesthetic value, but for its peculiar power of testimony. Coleman admits as much in the introduction, noting that the poems in the book do not function as poetry per se. He places little-known poets alongside figures like Philip Levine, Robert Bly, Audre Lorde, and Diane di Prima. Its documentary focus notwithstanding, the collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. R. K. Mookerjee Eugene Lang College, The New School for the Liberal Arts

Diverse poets responded to the horror and hope of the civil rights movement, writing in anger and grief, protesting violence, and longing for freedom and justice. Poet and associate professor of English Coleman organizes this ardently researched, uniquely focused anthology around 13 watershed events between 1955 and 1975, beginning with the lynching of Emmett Till and including the Little Rock school crisis, the deadly Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, along with the Selma-to-Montgomery voting-rights march and the birth of the Black Panther Party. These are wrenching and demanding subjects, and poets struggle for the transcendence of artistic expression, of grace and distillation, honed and channeled emotion, candor and courage, reason and wisdom. How to translate incoherent pain and outrage into poetry of protest and solace? The distinguished roster of those who accomplished this feat include Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Hayden, Haki R Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez. A striking, resonant, and invaluable gathering.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist