Portland Public Library

S O S, poems 1961-2013, Amiri Baraka ; selected by Paul Vangelisti

eng

index present

poetry

S O S

881666051

Amiri Baraka ; selected by Paul Vangelisti

poems 1961-2013

Fusing the personal and the political in high-voltage verse, Amiri Baraka--"whose long illumination of the black experience in America was called incandescent in some quarters and incendiary in others" (New York Times)--was one of the preeminent literary innovators of the past century. Selected by Paul Vangelisti, this volume comprises the fullest spectrum of Baraka's rousing, revolutionary poems, from his first collection to previously unpublished pieces composed during his final years"Throughout Baraka's career as a prolific writer (also published as LeRoi Jones), he was vehemently outspoken against oppression of African American citizens, and he radically altered the discourse surrounding racial inequality. The environments and social values that inspired his poetics changed during the course of his life, a trajectory that can be traced in this retrospective spanning more than five decades of profoundly evolving subjects and techniques. Praised for its lyricism and introspection, his early poetry emerged from the Beat generation, while his later writing is marked by intensely rebellious fervor and subversive ideology. All along, his primary focus was on how to live and love in the present moment despite the enduring difficulties of human history. Selected and prefaced by Paul Vangelisti, S O S is the essential edition of Baraka's poetic work"--, Publisher's description

Preface to a twenty volume suicide note (1961) -- The dead lecturer (1964) -- Black magic (1969) -- Hard facts (1972) -- Poetry for the advanced (1979) -- Reggae or not! (1981) -- Am/trak (1979) -- In the tradition (1982) -- Heathens (1994) -- Wise, why's, Y's (1995) -- Funk lore (1995) -- Fashion this (1996-2013)

SOS