Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (1961-1995) - Hardcover

Baraka, Imamu Amiri

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9781568860138: Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (1961-1995)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568860137 ISBN 13: 9781568860138

Publisher: Marsilio Pub, 1995

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A collection of some of LeRoi Jones' most famous poems includes Civil Rights Poem, Young Soul, and Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note

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From Publishers Weekly:

The poems selected here span from Baraka's first collection, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961), to the long poem Wise, Why's, Y'z, published earlier this year. The best work here has been culled from his second and third books, The Dead Lecturer (1964) and Black Magic (1969). Despite coming out of distinct phases in Baraka's life (the former when he was a book Beat, by the latter he'd become black nationalist), these works combine the personal and political in highly charged ways. When Baraka writes of "the roaring harmonies of need" or of "stumbling over our souls in the dark, for the sake of unnatural advantage," he succeeds as both an activist and a poet. However, as revolutionary politics increasingly intrude, Baraka seems largely to abandon the craft of poetry for the the broader strokes of diatribe and rant ("dont tell me shit about the tradition of slavemasters/ & henry james... "). However disappointing much of this later work may be, it is readily argued that Baraka's influential work prefigured rap and the current vogue of spoken-word performances and poetry slams. This collection provides a useful overview of his work.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Baraka, formerly LeRoi Jones, is a significant, innovative, controversial, and all too often misunderstood American writer with an international consciousness. In the past, most critics were stingy in their attention to overtly political poets and not up to the sort of fluidity Baraka embodies. But that's all so much dust, especially in light of the lyric boldness of this passionate collection. Initially, Baraka was loosely connected with the Beats but soon moved on to become a major figure in the 1960s black arts movement, a fervent black nationalist, and an outspoken Marxist. While his political awareness evolved, he continued to seek expression for, to quote editor Vangelisti, "the spirit of negritude," and to bring his molten poems to a boil with the force of music. This rich and impressively varied selection begins with "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" (1961) and ends with "Wise, Why's, Y'z" (1995). Baraka can be as ravishingly introspective as he can be caustically political, but he is always questioning, always testing boundaries, always jiggling the locked doors of our hearts and consciences. Donna Seaman

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