Introduction. Amiri Baraka, the Umbra Workshop, and the writing of literary history -- "A tale of two cities" : Umbra, internationalism and the death of Lumumba -- "Poems that kill" : Amiri Baraka's magic words -- "Space of a nation" : David Henderson writes the city -- Language, violence and "the collective mind" in Calvin C. Hernton -- "Home is never where you were born" : Calvin Hernton's "Medicine man" -- "Return to English turn" : Tom Dent -- Memory and myth in Lorenzo Thomas' "The bathers".
Summary:
"A vital hub of poetry readings, performance, publications and radical politics in 1960s New York, the Umbra Workshop was a cornerstone of the African American avant-garde. Bringing together new archival research and detailed close readings of poetry, A Black Arts Poetry Machine is a groundbreaking study of this important but neglected group of poets. David Grundy explores the work of such poets as Amiri Baraka, Lorenzo Thomas and Calvin Hernton and how their innovative poetic forms engaged with radical political responses to state violence and urban insurrection. Through this examination, the book highlights the continuing relevance of the work of the Umbra Workshop today and is essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century American poetry"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.