Keener Soundz

Response to John Keene's PLAYLAN

National Security Letters: C.L.R. James, Melville, and the State

An examination of the work on Melville done by C.L.R> James with his political group, and the legal case surrounding James's immigration status

Robert Penn Warren's WHO SPEAKS FOR THE NEGRO

A retrospective view of Warren's views on race and civil right

BLACK CHANT: LANGUAGES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN POSTMODERNISM - corrected pagination

An examination of avant garde Black writings and their critical receptio

Black Experiment: The Coltrane Exception

While anthologies of African American poetry published in the late 1960s and early 1970s cast a wide net in their selection, including many of the most innovative black poets of the era, recent anthologies have tended to omit more experimental poets, seriously distorting the historical record of recent literature. Two recent anthologies illustrate this phenomenon and provide an opportunity to examine the resistance to innovative poetry among contem- porary anthologists. Using an analogy to the public reception of the music of John Coltrane, this essay analyzes the ideological biases that account for these omissions.Mientras que las antologías de poesía afroamericana publicadas a finales de los años sesenta y principios de los setenta del siglo XX incluyeron una amplia selección de modos poéticos, entre ellos los más innovadores de la época, las últimas antologías publicadas tienden a omitir a los poetas más experimentales, distorsionando gravemente el testimonio histórico de la literatura contemporánea. Dos antologías recientes ilustran este fenómeno y suponen una oportunidad para examinar la resistencia a la poesía innovadora entre los editores actuales. Utilizando la analogía con la recepción pública de la música de John Coltrane, este ensayo analiza los prejuicios ideológicos que explican estas omisiones

MANTIC SEMANTIC

a poetry chapboo

A BRAND NEW BEGGAR

a collection of poetr

Kid Creole and His Beau-Coconauts: Lloyd Addison's Astro-Black Infinities

This essay takes the example of Lloyd Addison’s Beau-Cocoa as a case study in African American small press activism. Lloyd Addison, one of whose poems gave the name to the Umbra group of poets, began Beau-Cocoa with collaborator Justus Taylor in the late 1960s, and the journal continued through format and personnel changes through 1973. While the journal continued to include writings by others, by far the bulk of the work, encompassing poems, plays, and political and critical writings were contributed by Addison himself, who frequently created concrete and visual works for the publication. Across the several numbers of Beau-Cocoa, Addison published 600 pages, including over 130 of his poems. Sometimes signing himself “the Beau-Coconaut,” Addison used this journal to create a community of readers at the farthest reaches of his black, theoretical poeticsEste ensayo se centra en la revista de Lloyd Addison, Beau-Cocoa, como un caso práctico del activismo de las pequeñas editoriales afroamericanas. Lloyd Addison, uno de cuyos poemas dio nombre al grupo de poetas Umbra, comenzó Beau-Cocoa con el colaborador Justus Taylor a finales de los años sesenta del siglo XX y la revista continuó tras diversos cambios de formato y plantilla hasta 1973. Al tiempo que la revista incluía colaboraciones externas, el gran grueso de lo publicado, abarcando poemas, teatro y obras críticas y políticas, era del propio Addison, quien a menudo escribía poesía concreta y visual para dicha publicación. Él fue el autor de unas 600 páginas, incluyendo más de 130 poemas, en los diversos números de Beau-Cocoa. A veces y bajo la firma de “the Beau-Coconaut”, Addison utilizó la revista para formar una comunidad de lectores más allá de su poética negra y teórica

Face to Face with the Blues

meditations on race and poetry, centered on the work of poet Ed Roberso