A selection of work by African American poets that spans six decades (1970s-2020s). This playlist was created in 2023.
St. John, Primus. Love is not a Consolation; It Is a Light. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon, 1982.
Differs slightly from published version.
Gay, Ross. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.
Giovanni, Nikki. ego tripping and other poems for young people. Ill. George Ford. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1973.
Harper, Michael S. Song: I Want a Witness. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972.
Differs from published version.
Derricotte, Toi. The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Uncollected. (A different poem bearing this title appears in Eisen-Martin's 2021 collection Blood on the Fog.)
Differs slightly from published version.
Smith, Patricia. Big Towns, Big Talk. Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 1992.
Dove, Rita. American Smooth: Poems. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
Kelly, Donika. Bestiary. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016.
From the sequence "come on, get it!" Differs from published version.
Moten, Fred. The Feel Trio. Tucson: Letter Machine Editions, 2014.
Includes a recorded musical version of the poem performed by Allen Toussaint with Clare Bathé.
led by Mahogany L. Browne
