African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young, is a sweeping anthology that doesn't simply present the poetry but presents a history of the poetry. His introduction does a great job of both presenting the chronology as well as explaining both what is excluded and included. As with any anthology decisions have to be made and Young makes a strong case for why he made the ones he made.

No doubt everyone comes to any anthology with some ideas about what they expect. Those expectations are rarely the goals set by the editor so there is going to be some disconnect. Such is the case for me with this collection, but after reading why the selections were made and, most important, reading any new works I might not show more have known, I came away quite satisfied.

This anthology is weighted toward the more recent, as in the past sixty years or so. I found this helpful since many of the older works are anthologized far more often. Those complaining about being too recent to be included, well, they have their own agendas. I recall studying Eliot, Frost, Sandburg, Cummings, Williams, and others when I was young and many of those works were well under sixty years old. So what other reason could these people have for complaining about this collection including newer work? Hmmmmm. I think I hear dog whistles.

I highly recommend this to readers of poetry who might recognize that their knowledge and appreciation of African American poetry is limited to the few included in most survey courses. Like any anthology you'll like some and not like some. But they all speak to the reader and the newer ones speak to us about the society we are still living in.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

One of the great American art forms, African American poetry encompasses many kinds of verse: formal, experimental, vernacular, lyric, and protest. The anthology opens with moving testaments to the power of poetry as a means of self-assertion, as enslaved people like Phillis Wheatley and George Moses Horton and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper voice their passionate resistance to slavery. Young’s fresh, revelatory presentation of the Harlem Renaissance reexamines the achievements of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen alongside works by lesser-known poets such as Gwendolyn B. Bennett and Mae V. Cowdery. The later flowering of the still influential Black Arts Movement is represented here with breadth and originality, including many show more long out-of-print or hard-to-find poems. show less

Library of America's African Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young, is a mammoth piece of work, essential for anyone interested in the ways poets address the issues of their times. At 1,170 pages, it offers an expansive reading experience. One can, of course, work one's way through it chronologically, not just observing changes is perspective, but also in poetic form. But one can also seek out poems from a specific region or on a specific topic. And it's a great title just for flipping through and reading whatever pieces present themselves. This is the kind of book to keep at one's bedside and savored a bit at a time.

Across a turbulent history, from such vital centers as Harlem, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, Black poets created a rich and multifaceted tradition that has been both a reckoning with American realities and an imaginative response to them. Capturing the power and beauty of this diverse tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry reveals as never before its centrality and its challenge to American poetry and culture. - from the publisher