Poemhood, our black revival : history, folklore & the Black experience: a young adult poetry anthology / edited by Amber McBride, Taylor Byas & Erica Martin.

Title :

Poemhood, our black revival : history, folklore & the Black experience: a young adult poetry anthology

Format:

Books

Summary:

Featuring contributions from an award-winning, bestselling group of Black voices, past and present, this powerful poetry anthology elicits vital conversations about race, belonging, history and faith to highlight Black joy and pain.

Language:

English

ISBN - ISSN:

9780063225282

006322528X

Physical Description:

xiv, 143 pages ; 22 cm

Contents:

Intro: Young Afrikans / Gwendolyn Brooks -- V. 1: LIVIN'. Power / Audre Lorde -- The South / Erica Martin -- Colors / Fatima Stephens -- Textures / Kandace Fuller -- 10:32 p.m. / Courtne Comrie -- Views for Damani / Tony Keith Jr. -- Greasy Butt Kids / Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin -- Laughers / Langston Hughes -- Like a Wildfire / Ashley Woodfolk -- Won't You Celebrate with Me / Lucille Clifton -- Douen / Lauren K. Alleyne -- V. 2: GAWD. Genesis / Etheridge Knight -- Exodus / Jamar J. Perry -- Soup-her-stitions / Jenine Jones -- Runaway / Ryan Douglass -- The Lynching / Claude McKay -- A Hymn to the Evening / Phillis Wheatley -- Five in One / Ama Asantewa Diaka -- Other World: A Veneration / Faylita Hicks -- 20/20 / Simone Liggins -- Hottentot Girl Summer / Ibi Zoboi -- V. 3: HAUNTING WATER. Wrath of Scaled Gods / Mahogany L. Browne -- Portrait of a Daughter / Donald Vincent (aka Mr. Hip) -- This is not a Small Voice / Sonia Sanchez -- Loophole of Retreat / Joy Priest -- The Southern Mermaid / Amber McBride -- Untitled / James Baldwin -- The Little Black Boy Fins Some Shade / Tariq Thompson -- Follow the Drinking Gourd / American Folk Song (author unknown) -- Middle Passage: Day One / Kwame Alexander -- New Curriculum on Water / Taylor Byas -- V. 4: Magickal. Mumble the Magic Words / Jabari Asim -- A Fable / Etheridge Knight -- Anansi's Bop / Rodrick Minor -- Enough Room / Taylor Byas -- (un)chained / Erica Martin -- Ink & Thunderstorms / Amber McBride -- Why the Mosquito Buzzes in Your Ear / Danez Smith -- Grandmother Goddess / L. Renée -- Black Mythology / Jonny Teklit -- We Write / Nikki Giovanni.

Subject:

Poetry -- Black authors -- Juvenile literature.

African Americans -- Juvenile poetry.

Black people -- Juvenile poetry.

American poetry -- Collections.

Poetry -- Black authors.

African Americans -- Poetry.

Black people -- Poetry.

Poetry.

First Title value, for Searching:

Poemhood, our black revival : history, folklore & the Black experience: a young adult poetry anthology / edited by Amber McBride, Taylor Byas & Erica Martin.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Audience	Home Location	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Central	Teen/Young Adult	Open Stacks Fiction	Open Stacks Teen Book	808.819896 P744	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"A rich, thoughtful anthology exploring centuries of Black poetry." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This deep and complex assemblage of Black poetry culminates in a joyful, painful, and emotionally rich experience." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An eclectic mix of Black experiences fills this unmatched anthology that features both modern poets, such as Nikki Giovanni and Ibi Zoboi, and 'the brilliant Black poets who are now ancestors'... A fresh canon for poetry studies."--ALA Booklist (starred review)

Starring thirty-seven poets, with contributions from acclaimed authors, including Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, and Nikki Giovanni, this breathtaking Black YA poetry anthology edited by National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin celebrates Black poetry, folklore, and culture.

Come, claim your wings.

Lift your life above the earth,

return to the land of your father's birth.

What exactly is it to be Black in America?

Well, for some, it's learning how to morph the hatred placed by others into love for oneself; for others, it's unearthing the strength it takes to continue to hold one's swagger when multitudinous factors work to make Black lives crumble. For some, it's gathering around the kitchen table as Grandma tells the story of Anansi the spider, while for others it's grinning from ear to ear while eating auntie's spectacular 7Up cake.

Black experiences and traditions are complex, striking, and vast--they stretch longer than the Nile and are four times as deep--and carry more than just unimaginable pain--there is also joy.

Featuring an all-star group of thirty-seven powerful poetic voices, including such luminaries as Kwame Alexander, James Baldwin, Ibi Zoboi, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, this riveting anthology depicts the diversity of the Black experience by fostering a conversation about race, faith, heritage, and resilience between fresh poets and the literary ancestors that came before them.

Edited by Taylor Byas, Erica Martin, and Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner Amber McBride, Poemhood will simultaneously highlight the duality and nuance at the crux of so many Black experiences with poetry being the psalm constantly playing.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection pick!

Reviews (4)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--An anthology of poems and stories on the Black experience from more than 35 acclaimed poets, including Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, and Nikki Giovanni. Their stories are personal, vivid, meaningful, powerful, tragic, and beautiful. The writers remember reveling in happy times with grandparents gone to glory; breaking the vicious cycle of generational trauma; admiring the heavenly glow of nature; persevering through the systemic hardships of being Black; migrating North during the harrowing era of Jim Crow; celebrating the kink, curl, and coil of so-called "unprofessional" hair; and lauding the colorful talents that birthed the Harlem Renaissance. There are also harder moments, past and present, such as the horror of a Black child gruesomely shot by a police officer while playing outside. This outspoken, unrelenting, open, joyful, and insightful book can be piercing and hard-hitting--stories of injustice, racism, abuse, and boldface smite for Black culture, beauty, and hair sting. But readers' emotions will bob between low and helpless to happy and high, and everything in between, given the writers' skill at painting images with words. Though most of the experiences penned in this anthology are rooted in Black culture, several poems reflect the overall human experience, with themes of grief and generational trauma. VERDICT An excellent collection of poetry that is an insightful read on the Black experience. A great choice for high school libraries and fans of honest and thought-provoking poetry.--Matia Edwards

Publisher's Weekly Review

Byas (I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, for adults), Martin (And We Rise), and McBride (Gone Wolf) gather 37 writers to present an artfully arranged anthology that seeks to encapsulate the depth and diversity of the Black experience through poetry. Included alongside works by contemporary contributors such as Kwame Alexander, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez are poems by James Baldwin (1924--1987), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917--2000), and Audre Lorde (1934--1992), among others. "By placing poems written sixty years ago beside poems written today," the editors assert in an introduction, "words are able to reach across time and converse on the page." This time-spanning theme is evident in the curation of the entries, as well as within many of the poems themselves, as when Tony Keith Jr. writes, "My ancestor is a nineteen-year-old Black boy/ who wrote poems and read books and smiled at me/ when saying his mother was beautiful," in "Views for Damani." Brief outros by the volume's editors follow each poem, providing information about the selection, including illuminating historical context and thought-provoking structural analysis. This deep and complex assemblage of Black poetry culminates in a joyful, painful, and emotionally rich experience. Ages 13--up. (Jan.)

Kirkus Review

An intergenerational collection of Black poetry guided by history and folklore. "Blacktime is time for chimeful / poemhood," writes Gwendolyn Brooks in this anthology's tone-setting introductory poem, "Young Afrikans." The following entries are accompanied by track numbers and brief outros offering context, a fitting arrangement for a book that's an "homage to the beauty and musicality of Black poetry." This collection seeks grounding in those who came before; each section--"Livin'," "Gawd," "Haunting Water," and "Magickal"--includes both enduring works by long-gone literary forebears (Phillis Wheatley, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes) as well as those of more modern poets (Nikki Giovanni, Kwame Alexander, Ashley Woodfolk). Highlights include Courtne Comrie's sprightly "10:32 p.m.," about the pleasures of living, while Audre Lorde's "Power" is full of fury over the state-sanctioned death of Clifford Glover, a Black child murdered by a police officer in 1973. The editors were intent on selecting poems that "reflect, inspect, comment, and retell" Black folklore. For example, they include "Follow the Drinking Gourd," a storied folk song used by the enslaved on the Underground Railroad, which juxtaposes nicely with editor Byas' "Enough Room," a lovely piece of lore on how the sun and moon came to live in the sky. This "patchwork quilt of poetry" is cohesive and curated with care, and it belongs in every library and classroom across the country. A rich, thoughtful anthology exploring centuries of Black poetry. (contributor bios) (Poetry anthology. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

An eclectic mix of Black experiences fills this unmatched anthology that features both modern poets, such as Nikki Giovanni and Ibi Zoboi, and "the brilliant Black poets who are now ancestors" (e.g., James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks). Following an introduction explaining the purpose of the collected works--to spotlight Black narratives that have been overlooked by Western society for their form and content--the compilation is divided into four major sections. The first, called "Livin'," looks at a range of life events in the Black community, from the rage, pain, and powerlessness felt when a police officer who murdered a 10-year-old Black boy was acquitted to loving one's Black hair. In the next section, "Gawd," the poems emphasize familial bonds, survival, and religion through such topics as generational trauma, lynching, and reclaiming Black women's bodies. The last sections, "Haunting Water" and "Magickal," turn to history, myth, and magic as they explore African American folklore. For instance, Kwame Alexander's "Middle Passage: Day One" presents the duality of water, which offers life and carried Black bodies to bondage, while L. Renée's "Grandmother Goddess" reflects on the importance of the matriarch in Black culture. Each poem is referenced as a track number, reinforcing the musicality of Black poetry, and concludes with a brief explanatory outro. A fresh canon for poetry studies.