In A Creole Experiment, Melanie Otto examines the utopian aspect of Brathwaite’s major “video-style” works while employing the concepts of Heimat (homeland) and “concrete utopia,” which were developed by philosopher Ernst Bloch in The Principle of Hope. She also focuses on Brathwaite’s interrogation and reinterpretation of the conventions of magical realism. Unlike mainstream Latin American magical realism, Brathwaite’s work is radical in both form and content, developing a distinctly creole aesthetic. In addition, Otto notes that Brathwaite’s vision of a “creole cosmos” does not refer to an ideal place. Instead, it reveals the tangibility of an often dismal day-to-day existence.
“At a time when human existence is threatened by the absurdity of power and greed, Toure’ advances a poetry that celebrates and castigates, that kisses, curses and sings, reminding us as Blake, Whitman, Bly, Cardenal and Mackey that our soul emerges from soil; that we are tied to the cosmic umbilical of poetry and song; that even in the midst of foretold dangers, there is still time enough for dreaming and for reason…” -Tony Medina
Ahmadu Fulani: An African Poetry is a poetry volume in English, Yoruba and Hausa, celebrating the memory of the poet’s father and speaking to the lessons the poet learned from his father as a child. The volume addresses issues of national and international significance, human and environmental rights, and speaks against injustice no matter who the oppressed or the oppressors are or where they come from.
This collection of poems explores the voices of Almajiri, the street beggar-poet, among the Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba in Nigeria. It addresses contemporary local and global issues and expresses the challenges within Nigeria’s socio-economic world, its resources, and culture. Urgent economic and development issues other Africans in the Diaspora face are also explored.
AncestralLogic and CaribbeanBlues opens with IntroBlues, a short and provocative essay in which the poet himself defines for us the peculiar achievement of his collection: a lyrical definition of "the forever journey into SoulTime." Several of the poems locate African peoples in the context of world history, assess their past and current condition of struggle, and explore their prospects for survival in an increasingly precarious world.
“The integrity, sensibility, courage, and delicate balance with which Ladu Jada Gubek draws the rich history and culture [of Africa] together is moving. He brings a refreshing new voice to African and African Diaspora literature and knowledge in this emergent “post-‘postcolonial’” genre…. In this instance, it draws from Ladu’s knowledge and insights of the Sudan, of being blind, of exile (in the United States), of being Southern Sudanese, male, black, and from a Christian culture.
Beautiful. And Ugly Too, the critically-acclaimed, second poetry collection from award-winning author M.K. Asante, Jr., reveals through its delicate rhythm, the plurality of being alive. The poems, sketched from influences and drawn from experiences around the world, are colorful comments on the human condition.
"Struggle has delivered a new and independent country to the world, Eritrea, and struggle has delivered a new and independent poet, Ararat Iyob. Blankets of Sand: Poetry of War and Exile is direct yet lyrical testimony to the social and political experience of a wide range of individual women, children and men in Eritrea and its diaspora, including the poet herself." --Charles Cantalupo, Editor, The World of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Texts and Contexts (both AWP 1995)
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