Poetry Foundation & POETRY magazine

Mother of Black Studies by Kyla Marshell

“Her books—Saga of a Black Man (1968), A Mirror: A Soul (1969), and the seven-volume, self-published masterwork Rainbow Signs (1973) among them—are out of print, available only through rare book sites at extraordinary prices, if at all. Fabio is referenced in a number of seminal anthologies and texts prior to SOS, including But Some of Us Are Brave (1981) and The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature (2001), but her poems are not included in these texts. By many accounts, her work as a scholar, champion of black poetry, performance poet, and recording artist is an important link between the black art trends of the 1970s and today, yet history has obscured the woman who deserves the credit for these innovations.”

Read Kyla Marshell’s full article at poetryfoundation.org @khellonmars

4 years ago -

schomburgcenter:

In Memoriam: Amiri Baraka
Writer and poet Amiri Baraka’s ideas and art—especially as the primary architect of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s—have had a profound influence on the direction of African-American literature.
Although Baraka started publishing in the early 1960s, he did not achieve fame until the 1964 publication of his play Dutchman, which was later made into a movie. Baraka also wrote a major social-aesthetic study of African-American music Blues People: Negro Music in White America.

Photo Credit: Fransceso Truono

Read Baraka’s poetry.

(Source: schomburgcenter-blog)

7 years ago -

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