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Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues (American Literature)
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About Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues
Product Description A new collection of poems from the American author, poet, and playwright Ishmael Reed. The poems in this new collection from Ishmael Reed were written between 2007 and 2020. They range from poems based on events that occurred around Reed's house to cataclysmic space events. Some of the poems were commissioned. ”Moving Richmond” was part of a public art installation created by Mildred Howard. The poem, in huge letters forged into weathering steel billboards greets passengers who enter the new Bay Area mass transit hub in Richmond, California. Other poems were commissioned by musicians. ”Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” was performed by Gregory Porter. “Red Summer, 2015” appeared in print first and then was set to music by David Murray. Reed writes, "The longest poem in the book, “Jazz Martyrs,” was begun when Reed learned about the number of black Jazz greats who didn’t live past the age of forty. "I have been fortunate to live beyond the age of 80," says Reed. "I’ve found out who my best friends are. The ones who got me there." Review "His own groundbreaking literary output over six decades, in multiple languages and every form―essays, fiction, poetry, film, even editorial cartoons―has infected a generation of artists. His work as an institution builder, anthologist, and publisher has spread the work of hundreds of writers from outside the literary mainstream―students, black folks, immigrants, working-class writers, avant-garde experimentalists, and every member of his immediate family." - Chris Jackson, Paris Review "In his writing, Reed is a great improviser, a master of collage with an amazing ability to syncretize seemingly disparate and divergent materials into coherent 'edutainments'―forms of surprise, revelation, and frequent hilarity." - Robert Elliot Fox About the Author Ishmael Reed is the award-winning author of over twenty-five books including Mumbo Jumbo, The Last Days of Louisiana Red, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down and Juice!. He is also a publisher, television producer, songwriter, radio and television commentator, lecturer, and has long been devoted to exploring an alternative black aesthetic: the trickster tradition, or Neo-Hoodooism as he calls it. Founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for over thirty years, retiring in 2005. In 2003, he received the coveted Otto Award for political theater. His most recent essay collection, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, was published in 2019 by Baraka Books of Montreal. He lives in Oakland, California. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. IF I AM A WELFARE QUEEN If I am a Welfare Queen Where are my jewels and furs The baby kept me up all night No money in the house for milk The people who got me into this Send their kids to school in silk They took the four year old Away from me They said that I’m unfit I work seven hours for Five per hour They say that I lack Grit If I am a Welfare Queen Where are my jewels And furs My oldest tried to help Out They buried him last week He entered the turf of a Rival gang They shot him in the streets The undertaker sent a Bill I have to pay it off Their papers mock me every day They say I have it soft If I am a Welfare Queen Where are my jewels and Furs I travel fifty miles a day They call it work for fare My sister tends the youngest Child To sleep for her is rare I try my best to Make a way But people just don’t care If I am a Welfare Queen Where are my jewels and Furs Untitled #1 Where do bad playing Jazz musicians go when they die? The Ukraine Untitled #2 How are some Jazz musicians like the Roosters in Sardinia? It’s noon and they’re still crowing. Hope Is The Thing With Feathers “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul” It flies against headwinds that say No Entrance to those who want a new start They came to Ellis Island To Angel Island as well To flee from tyrants and death squads who made their
