Poetry anthologies (various poets)

Book SynopsisThe May Fourth Movement launched an era of turmoil and transformation in China, as Western ideas and education encroached on the Confucian traditions at the root of Chinese society. The Republican period (191949) witnessed an outpouring of poetry in a form and style new to China, written in the common people's language, baihua (plain speech). The New Poetry broke with the centuries-old tradition of classical poetry and its intricate forms, and the rise of China's modern poetry reflects the rise of modern China. The Flowering of Modern Chinese Poetry presents English translations of over 250 poems by fifty poets, including a rich selection of poetry by women writers, to provide a nuanced picture of the rapid development of vernacular verse in China from its emergence during the May Fourth Movement, through the years of the Japanese invasion, to the Communist victory in the Civil War in 1949. Michel Hockx introduces the historical and literary contexts of the various schools of vernaculaTrade Review" The Flowering of Modern Chinese Poetry provides a comprehensive picture of the rise of modern poetry in vernacular Chinese and its first golden age from the 1910s to the 1940s. In both breadth and depth, this is arguably the best collection available in English to date, further enriched by the insightful introductions and informative biographies. An enjoyable read for anyone interested in understanding Chinese modernity through the lens of poetry." Michelle Yeh, University of California, Davis " What makes The Flowering of Modern Chinese Poetry indispensable and unprecedented is its coverage: fifty of the most important Chinese poets of the first half of the twentieth century, several of them women. Neatly grouped into five separate divisions, the anthology allows both the novice and the expert to enjoy the founding moments of modern Chinese poetry in their full splendor as no previous book has done." Christopher Lupke, University of Alberta

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Book SynopsisGreat literature is more often praised for compelling depictions of conflict and tragedy than for moving portrayals of harmony and well-being. This collection of verse brings together poems of felicity, capturing what it means to be well in the fullest sense.

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Book SynopsisIt fills the persistent need to document women's poetic expression during the long eighteenth century and to rewrite the literary history of the period, a history from which women have largely been excluded.Trade ReviewThis book promises to be popular as both textbook and reference. Choice 2010

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Book SynopsisSelections from Canadian Poets set an important precedent when it was published in 1864. It was the first anthology of native Canadian poetry and was compiled, as Edward Hartlet Dewart explained, in order to 'rescue from oblivion some of the floating pieces of Canadian authorship worthy of preservation in a more permanent form ...' This anthology, like any other, reflects the tastes of the anthologist and the tenor of the times. Pre-confederation poets had deeply felt ties with other countries from which developed a shared concern for what Douglas Lochhead terms in his introduction the 'now' and the 'place,' often described in terms of the 'past' and the 'other place,' which embraced a still larger loyalty – religious, political, philosophical, and above all nationalistic. Dewart was widely commended by critics of his attention for its endeavour to come to grips with the influences of other literatures (mainly English) and for its realization that so-called 'colonialism' was

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Book SynopsisIn this indispensable volume, John Burt, Robert Penn Warren's literary executor, has assembled every poem Warren ever published (with the exception of Brother to Dragons), including the many poems he published in The Fugitive and other magazines, as well as those that appeared in his small press works and broadsides.

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Book SynopsisA bilingual anthology of poetry written by fifteen Venezuelan poets who are currently residing in Chile. Edited and translated by David Brunson, the volume encompasses the work of young poets coming from many different circumstances. Some have already published several books, while others have just begun their careers as writers.

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Book SynopsisPresents a collection of poems, rap lyrics, short stories, essays, interviews, and artwork about Chicago, the city that came to be known as Chiraq (Chicago + Iraq), and the people who live in its vibrant and occasionally violent neighbourhoods. This literary mixtape unpacks the meanings of Chiraq as both a vexed term and a space of possibility.

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Book SynopsisSince its founding at Northwestern University in 1964, TriQuarterly has remained one of the widely admired and important literary magazines in the country. This title features Lee Upton on purity, Donna Seaman on Lousie Nevelson and David Kirby on rock lyrics and magic spells; and, fiction by Stephen O'Connor, Justin Quarry, and Murzban Shroff.

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Book SynopsisHelps to select a poem you love, then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends. Whether you're a fan of Sylvia Plath or Emily Dickinson, Frank O'Hara or Walt Whitman, this title includes poems for various people.

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Book SynopsisA beautiful, compact, gift edition of some of the world’s greatest poems about loss and death, to ease the heart of the bereaved

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Book SynopsisThis handsome gift edition will appeal to anyone who is a dog lover, or a poet, or a poetry lover: in short, just about anyoneTable of Contents Linda Pastan, “The New Dog” William Carlos Williams, “Stormy” Lucille Clifton, “dog’s god” Hayden Carruth, “The Primavera” Alicia Ostriker, “The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz” Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Dog” Ioanna Carlsen, “Over and Over Tune” James Schuyler, “Oriane” John Brehm, “If Feeling Isn’t in It” Stevie Smith, “O Pug!” Mary Oliver, “Every Dog’s Story” Cathryn Essinger, “My Dog Practices Geometry” Siegfried Sassoon, “Man and Dog” John Updike, “Dog’s Death” Pablo Neruda, “A Dog Has Died” Robinson Jeffers, “The House-Dog’s Grave” Cecil Day-Lewis, “Sheepdog Trials in Hyde Park” Amy Lowell, “Roads” Dorothy Parker, “Verse for a Certain Dog” Dylan Thomas, “The Song of the Mischievous Dog” William Cowper, “On a Spaniel . . . & Beau’s Response” James Laughlin, “The Hunting Dog” Bernadette Mayer, “Introduction to Killing” Clarice Lispector, “A Dialogue” Gavin Ewart, “Pi-Dog and Wish-Cat” Louis MacNeice, “Dogs in the Park” Henry Dumas, “Hunt” Homero Aridjis, “Precolumbian” Robert Lax, “are you a visitor?” Denise Levertov, “Kindness” Paul Zimmer, “Dog Music” Muriel Spark, “Mungo Bays the Moon” Vincent Starrett, “Oracle of the Dog” Jose´ Emilio Pacheco, “A Dog’s Life” Diogenes, “Fragment 30” Kazuko Shiraishi, “Dog and Man” Sakutaro Hagiwara, “Unknown Dog” Elizabeth Bishop, “Pink Dog” Robert Lax, “Dog Act” Michael Ondaatje, “A Dog in San Francisco” George Oppen, “The Dog” Paul Muldoon, “Beagles” W. G. Sebald, from “Unrecounted” Denise Levertov, “Grey August” Emily Dickinson, “I Started Early – Took My Dog” May Swenson, “Scroppo’s Dog” Eugenio Montale, “In my early years” Joy Harjo, “Nine Below” Lars Gustafsson, “The Dog” Kate Northrop, “Unfinished Landscape with a Dog” Delmore Schwartz, “ Dogs Are Shakespearean, Children Are Strangers” Denise Levertov, “The Dog of Art”

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Book SynopsisI would urge anyone who thinks that Statius only wrote gruesome epic and Claudian only dull panegyric to read this slim and sprightly volume.Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTrade Review"With unerring instinct Slavitt has juxtaposed two witty and ironic post-Ovidian tales of coming of age, Statius's unfinished Deeds of Achilles and Claudian's Rape of Proserpina. Those were the mythical days when teenagers were charming and rape consensual (for Deidamia) or at least (for Proserpina) the path to queenly power. Epic was never the same after Ovid, whether in Statius's sentimental comedy of love and war or in Claudian's darker divine intrigue sacrificing a mother's love to avert an infernal coup d'etat. Slavitt's versatile idiom makes vivid the personalities of Statius's drama and updates Claudian's self-conscious poetics in versions that are both free and true to the poets' art." * Elaine Fantham, Princeton University *"Slavitt does a real service by putting into English verse for the first time this century two poems of great grace and charm. . . . Konstan's afterword itself is a gem. . . . I would urge anyone who thinks that Statius only wrote gruesome epic and Claudian only dull panegyric to read this slim and sprightly volume." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"David Slavitt appears to be fluent not only in Latin but also in hexameters. His translation seems to flow effortlessly from his pen. His speech and vocabulary are contemporary and easy to read. . . . This slim volume is further enhanced by the brilliant essay by David Konstan that is appended to it. The essay is reminiscent of the introductions written by R. C. Jebb in his editions of the plays of Sophocles-a combination of a scholarly discussion of the underlying myth in the text interspersed with perceptive literary criticism." * American Book Review *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A]n idiosyncratic and fun collection of short essays on modern and contemporary poems....If you like poems, and like reading smart people writing about poems in bite-sized essays, then The Difference Is Spreading is the kind of book you might like to leave on your nightstand and dip into here and there. It is, as Gertrude Stein might tell us, both 'a spectacle and nothing strange' to encounter all of these wonderful poems through the eyes of our contemporary poets." * Los Angeles Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisThe American prose poem has a rich history marked by important contributions from major writers. Michel Delville's book is the first full-length work to provide a critical and historical survey of the American prose poem from the early years of the 20th century to the 1990s.Trade ReviewExcellent . . . the only critical book on prose poetry that not only provides a historical background for the prose poem in English, but also focuses on contemporary American prose poets." —Peter Johnson, Providence College

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Book SynopsisWhat Comes Down To Us features twenty-five of Kentucky's most accomplished contemporary poets. Worley's introduction places contemporary Kentucky poetry in the context of the state's rich literary tradition, and the poet biographies include their reflections and, often, their poetic approach and technique.

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Book SynopsisThis act inspired a group of gifted artists, the Affrilachian Poets, to begin working together and using their writing to defy persistent stereotypes of Appalachia as a racially and culturally homogenized region. After years of growth, honors, and accomplishments, the group is acknowledging its silver anniversary with Black Bone.Trade ReviewBlack Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets is a beautiful collection of both old and new work."" - USA Today""The Affrilachian Poets continue to be a groundbreaking literary force.... In celebration of their decades-long collaboration, the group has published its first anthology, Black Bone."" - Detroit Free Press

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Book SynopsisThis anthology demonstrates how a succession of canons of American poetry have evolved, with certain poets silenced until the present day, while others who emerged and then faded are ready to be retrieved. This volume covers poetry from its beginnings up to 1900.Trade Review"It belongs on the shelf of every library and of every individual who understand that the voices of the poets set the moral tone of the US." * Choice *"By embracing the guiding principle of 'traditions and revolutions,' the editors of this marvelous anthology have produced a rich, exciting text that surprises, engages, and challenges readers like no other such book has done. Its thoughtful inclusiveness, lucid introductions, and helpful notes make it supremely teachable. This work establishes a new benchmark for poetry anthologies." -- Emory Elliott * editor, The Columbia Literary History of the United States *Table of Contents*DOES NOT INCLUDE POEM TITLES*PrefaceAcknowledgementsPART ONE: PRE-COLUMBIAN PERIOD TO 1800 IntroductionNATIVE-AMERICAN SONGS, RITUAL POETRY, AND LYRIC POETRY (Pre 1492-1800)GASPAR PÉREZ DE VILLAGRÁ (1555-1620)ANNE BRADSTREET (ca. 1612-1672)MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH (1631-1705)EDWARD TAYLOR (ca. 1631-1705)LUCY TERRY (ca. 1730-1821)PHILIP FRENEAU (1752-1832)PHILLIS WHEATLEY (ca. 1753-1784)JOEL BARLOW (1754-1812)SONGS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND NEW NATIONPART TWO: EARLY TO MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY IntroductionAFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVE SONGS (1800-1863)NATIVE-AMERICAN SONGS, RITUAL POETRY, AND LYRIC POETRY (1800-1900)LYDIA HOWARD HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY (1791-1865)WILLIAN CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878)GEORGE MOSES HORTON (ca. 1797-1883)JANE JOHNSTON SCHOOLCRAFT [BAME-WA-WA-GE-ZHIK-A-QUAY, WOMAN OF THE STARS RUSHING THROUGH THE SKY] (1800-1841)SARAH HELEN WHITMAN (1803-1878)RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH (1806-1893)HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892) EDGAR ALLEN P0E (1809-1849)OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894)ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865)MARGARET FULLER (1810-1850)FRANCES SARGENT LOCKE OSGOOD (1811-1850)ADA [SARAH LOUISA FORTEN] (ca. 1814-1898)HENRY DAVID THROEAU (1817-1862)JULIA WARD HOWE (1819-1910)HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)ALICE CARY (1820-1871)FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN (1821-1873)PHOEBE CARY (1824-1871)FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER (1825-1911)MARIA WHITE LOWELL (1827-1853)ROSE TERRY COOKE (1827-1892)JOHN ROLLIN RIDGE (1827-1867)HENRY TIMROD (1828-1867)HAWAI'IAN PLANTATION WORK SONGS (1825-1930)JINSHAN GE/SONGS OF GOLD MOUNTAIN (1838-1920)POPULAR EUROPEAN-AMERICAN SONGSPART THREE: LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY IntroductionCORRIDOS (1860s-1930s)ZARAGOZA CLUBS (1860s)DEWITT CLINTON DUNCAN [TOO-QUA-STEE] (1829-1909)HELEN HUNT JACKSON (1830-1885)EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)ADAH ISSACS MENKEN (ca. 1835-1868)sARAH M. B. PIATT (1836-1919)LYDIA KAMAKAEHA [QUEEN LILI'UOKALANI] (1838-1917)INA COOLBRITH (1841-1928)SIDNEY LANIER (1842-1881)EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887)SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849-1909)ALBERY ALLSON WHITMAN (1851-1901)EDWIN MARKHAM (1852-1940)JOSÉ MARTÍ (1853-1895)ERNEST FRANCISCO FENOLLOSA (1853-1908)LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY (1861-1920)MARY MCNEIL FENOLLOSA (1865-1954)OWL WOMAN [JUANA MANWELL] (1867-1957)SADAKICHI HARTMANN (1867-1944)EDGAR LEE MASTERS (1868-1950)W.E.B. DU BOIS (1868-1963)WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY (1869-1910)EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935)STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900)JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (1871-1938)PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906)About the EditorsIndex

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Book SynopsisMichigan's Upper Peninsula is distinct from the rest of the state in geography, climate, and culture, including a unique and thriving creative writing community. In The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works, Ron Riekki presents poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from memorable, varied voices that are writing from and about Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

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Book SynopsisWhat I Say is an anthology of formally experimental and innovative poetry by black writers in America from 1977 to the present that allows readers to map the independent routes by which various poets reached their particular modes of aesthetic experimentation. What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America is the second book in a landmark two-volume anthology that explodes narrow definitions of African American poetry by examining experimental poems often excluded from previous scholarship. The first volume, Every Goodbye Ain't Gone, covers the period from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s. In What I Say, editors Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey have assembled a comprehensive and dynamic collection that brings this pivotal work up to the present day. The elder poets in this collection, such as Nathaniel Mackey, C. S. Giscombe, Will Alexander, and Ron Allen, came of age during and were powerfully influenced by the Black Arts Movement, and What I Say grounds the c

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Book SynopsisExplores liturgical practice as formative for how three Victorian women poets imagined the world and their place in it and, consequently, for how they developed their creative and critical religious poetics. This new study rethinks several assumptions in the field: that Victorian women's faith commitments tended to limit creativity; that the contours of church experiences matter little for understanding religious poetry; and that gender is more significant than liturgy in shaping women's religious poetry.Exploring the import of bodily experience for spiritual, emotional, and cognitive forms of knowing, Karen Dieleman explains and clarifies the deep orientations of different strands of nineteenth-century Christianity, such as Congregationalism's high regard for verbal proclamation, Anglicanism's and Anglo-Catholicism's valuation of manifestation, and revivalist Roman Catholicism's recuperation of an affective aesthetic. Looking specifically at Elizabeth Barrett BroTrade Review“In our critical moment often obsessed with secularity, Dieleman’s breathtakingly original scholarship reminds us how lived religion and liturgy profoundly shaped the creative work of some of our most celebrated women writers. This groundbreaking book made me rethink everything I thought I knew about religion, poetry, and women in nineteenth-century England." -- Cynthia Scheinberg, author of Women’s Poetry and Religion in Victorian England: Jewish Identity and Christian Culture“Though applying a theoretical framework drawn from contemporary theology, Dieleman unquestionably displays her Victorianist credentials by combining her own fresh archival research with often incisive close readings.” * Review 19 *“Dieleman is particularly insightful when she describes the types of worship practiced in various ecclesial settings (Dissenting, Anglican, and roman Catholic).…[Her] sympathetic and wide reading of different worship settings in the nineteenth century opens up many useful lines of thought.” * Victorian Studies *“In a major new study of poetics and liturgical practises, Karen Dieleman makes an important intervention in approaches to women’s religious poetry. Rather than, she argues, the conventional assumption that faith limits poetry, women’s direct bodily experience of church worship shaped the form of their poems, and what she terms a ‘religious imaginary’ is often more important than gender in the development of religious poetics.…Religious Imaginaries is a rich, compelling, and innovative approach to women poets, and the inclusion of Procter with the usual pairing of Rossetti and Barrett Browning is a welcome attempt in adding this important woman and usually overlooked woman poet to the center of attention.” * Victorian Poetry’s “Guide to the Year's Work on Women Poets” *“Time has blurred distinctions between the remarkably many branches of nineteenth-century British Christianity, and although many careful studies of Christina Rossetti’s religious writings have paid homage to her intentions and sensibilities, fewer writers have taken the trouble to analyze their personal and institutional antecedents. Dieleman’s lucid arguments help clarify why Rossetti framed her idiosyncratic spiritual experiences as she did.” * Victorian Poetry’s “Guide to the Year's Work on the Pre-Raphaelites” *“Religious Imaginaries is an astute, learned, and original interdisciplinary study of the interconnections between the poetic practices of three women poets and the ‘religious imaginaries formed by and in response to liturgical practices’ (p. 2). …Dieleman combines expertise in church history, liturgy, biblical discourse and EBB scholarship with a syncretic theoretical framework.” * Victorian Poetry’s “Guide to the Year's Work on Elizabeth Barrett Browning” *“An excellent study. Dieleman resists the secularization narrative and explores the distinctive liturgical practices of different denominations and their influence on Victorian women poets. She wishes to reinstate the ‘affirmative and generative possibilities’ of church experience for women poets, particularly for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Adelaide Procter. Their poetic voices were shaped by their religious imaginings rather than simply by a set of doctrines, and Dieleman approaches her task by bringing together ‘the sensory and the affective, or the body, mind, and emotions.’” * The Year's Work in English Studies *

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Book SynopsisBefore Black Lives Matter and Hamilton, there were abolitionist poets. In Lyrical Liberators, Monica Pelaez draws on unprecedented archival research to recover, collect, and annotate works by critically acclaimed writers, commercially successful scribes, and minority voices including those of African Americans and women.Trade Review“A stirring anthology…This collection’s merit—the stunning and still-raw power of voices once lost or neglected speaking on the topics of fugitives, death, motherhood, equality, freedom, and war—and its usefulness in a broad range of disciplines make it indispensable. Summing up: Essential.” * CHOICE *“The abolitionist movement made powerful appeals to the hearts and minds of auditors and readers in their efforts to convert them to the cause of emancipation. But as the poems in this splendid anthology prove, the medium of poetry was most effective in creating an emotional empathy with the slaves and their yearnings for freedom.”“This book teaches us that the ‘soft’ antislavery verse was as powerful and as ‘hard’ as any essay or editorial and maybe more effective. Pelaez has pulled off a real hat trick. Her book is a significant contribution to the scholarship on antislavery, slavery, the civil war, and race relations. It is a great set of primary sources that are virtually impossible to obtain. And finally, it is ideal for classroom adoption.”

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Book SynopsisBefore Black Lives Matter and Hamilton, there were abolitionist poets. In Lyrical Liberators, Monica Pelaez draws on unprecedented archival research to recover, collect, and annotate works by critically acclaimed writers, commercially successful scribes, and minority voices including those of African Americans and women.Trade Review“A stirring anthology…This collection’s merit—the stunning and still-raw power of voices once lost or neglected speaking on the topics of fugitives, death, motherhood, equality, freedom, and war—and its usefulness in a broad range of disciplines make it indispensable. Summing up: Essential.” * CHOICE *“The abolitionist movement made powerful appeals to the hearts and minds of auditors and readers in their efforts to convert them to the cause of emancipation. But as the poems in this splendid anthology prove, the medium of poetry was most effective in creating an emotional empathy with the slaves and their yearnings for freedom.”“This book teaches us that the ‘soft’ antislavery verse was as powerful and as ‘hard’ as any essay or editorial and maybe more effective. Pelaez has pulled off a real hat trick. Her book is a significant contribution to the scholarship on antislavery, slavery, the civil war, and race relations. It is a great set of primary sources that are virtually impossible to obtain. And finally, it is ideal for classroom adoption.”

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Book SynopsisWords of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to Americas turbulent Civil Rights era.Trade Review“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” - Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” - Karlan Sick, School Library Journal“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” - Dennis Moore, Electronic Urban Report“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” - R. K. Mookerjee, Choice"America's ongoing civil rights movement reflects the triumphs and travails of struggles for citizenship, equality, and social justice. Jeffrey Lamar Coleman's insightful and illuminating work redirects our gaze toward the power of poetry in transforming the nation's postwar civil rights landscape. An essential book for students and scholars of the civil rights struggle."—Peniel E. Joseph, author of Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” -- R. K. Mookerjee * Choice *“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” -- Grace Cavalieri * Washington Independent Review of Books *“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” -- Dennis Moore * Electronic Urban Report *“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” -- Karlan Sick * School Library Journal *Table of ContentsPreface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction. Journey toward Freedom 1 "Had she been worth the blood?"The Lynching of Emmett Till, 1955 15 Remembrance / Rhoda Gaye Ascher 17 The Better Sort of People / John Beecher 17 A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon / Gwendolyn Brooks 19 The Last Quatrain on the Ballad of Emmett Till / Gwendolyn Brooks 23 On the State of the Union / Aimé Césaire 24 Temperate Belt: Reflections on the Mother of Emmett Till / Durwood Collins Jr. 26 Emmett Till / James A. Emanuel 27 Elegy for Emmett Till / Nicolás Guillén 28 Mississippi—1955 (To the Memory of Emmett Till) / Langston Hughes 31 Money, Mississippi / Eve Merriam 32 Salute / Oliver Pitcher 33 "Godfearing citizens / with Bibles, taunts, and stones"The Little Rock Crisis, 1957–1958 35 The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock / Gwendolyn Brooks 37 Little Rock / Nicolás Guillén 39 School Integration Riot / Robert Hayden 40 My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land / Lance Jeffers 41 "The FBI knows who lynched you"The Murder of Mack Charles Parker, 1959 43 Poplarville II / Keith E. Baird 45 Mack C. Parker / Phillip Abbott Luce 45 For Mack C. Parker / Pauli Murray 48 Collect for Poplarville / Pauli Murray 49 "Fearless before the waiting throng"The Life and Death of Medgar Evers 51 Medgar Evers (for Charles Evers) / Gwendolyn Brooks 53 American (In Memory of Medgar Evers) / R. D. Coleman 53 For Medgar Evers / David Ignatow 54 Blues for Medgar Evers / Aaron Kramer 55 Micah (In Memory of Medgar Evers of Mississippi) / Margaret Walker 56 "Under the leaves of hymnals, the plaster and stone"The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, 15 September 1963 57 Escort for a President / John Beecher 60 American History / Michael S. Harper 61 Here Where Coltrane Is / Michael S. Harper 62 Birmingham Sunday / Langston Hughes 63 Suffer the Children / Audre Lorde 64 Birmingham 1963 / Raymond Patterson 64 Ballad of Birmingham / Dudley Randall 65 Ballad for Four Children and a President / Edith Segal 67 September 1963 / Jean Valentine 68 "What we have seen / Has become history, tragedy"The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 22 November 1963 71 Belief / A. R. Ammons 75 Elegy for J. F. K. / W. H. Auden 76 The Assassination of John F. Kennedy / Gwendolyn Brooks 80 On Not Writing an Elegy / Robert Frost 81 At the Brooklyn Docks, November 23, 1963 / Dorothy Gilbert 81 Verba in Memoriam / Barbara Guest 82 Until Death Do Us Part / Anselm Hollo 85 A Night Picture of Pownal, for J. F. K. / Barbara Howes 86 Before the Sabbath / David Ignatow 88 Jacqueline / Will Inman 89 Down in Dallas / X. J. Kennedy 89 In Arlington Cemetery / Stanley Koehler 90 Four Days in November / Marjorie Mir 92 Sonnet for John-John / Marvin Solomon 92 Not That Hurried for Grief, for John F. Kennedy / Lorenzo Thomas 93 November 22, 1963 / Lewis Turco 94 The Gulf / Derek Walcott 95 "Deep in the Mississippi thicket / I hear the mourning dove"The Search for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, 1964 99 A Commemorative Ode / John Beecher 102 Mississippi, 1964 / Marjorie Mir 105 The Book of Job and a Draft of a Poem to Praise the Paths of the Living / George Oppen 106 The Demonstration / Gregory Orr 112 Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman / Raymond Patterson 113 Speech for LeRoi / Armand Schwerner 113 When Black People Are / A. B. Spellman 115 For Andy Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney / Margaret Walker 117 "We are not beasts and do not / intend to be beaten"Riots, Rebellions, and Uprisings 121 Riot: 60's / Maya Angelou 125 Attica—U.S.A. / Keith E. Baird 126 finish / Charles Bukowski 127 Heroes / Karl Carter 129 Revolutionary Letter #3 / Daine de Prima 130 A Mother Speaks: The Algiers Motel Incident, Detroit / Michael S. Harper 132 Keep on Pushing / David Henderson 132 Poem against the State (of Things): 1975 / June Jordan 138 On the Birth of My Son, Malcolm Coltrane / Julius Lester 145 The Gulf / Denise Levertov 146 Coming Home, Detroit, 1968 / Philip Levine 148 If We Cannot Live as People / Charles Lynch 149 Kuntu / Larry Neal 150 Watts / Ojenke (Alvin Saxon) 152 In Orangeburg My Brothers Did / A. B. Spellman 153 "Prophets were ambushed as they spoke"The Assassination of Malcolm X, 21 February 1965 155 A Poem for Black Hearts / Amiri Baraka 158 For Malcolm: After Mecca / Gerald W. Barrax 159 Malcolm X (for Dudley Randall) / Gwendolyn Brooks 159 Judas / Karl Carter 160 malcolm / Lucille Clifton 161 El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz / Robert Hayden 161 Portrait of Malcolm X (for Charles Baxter), Etheridge Knight 163 Malcolm X—An Autobiography / Larry Neal 164 At That Moment / Raymond Patterson 166 If Blood Is Black Then Spirit Neglects My Unborn Son / Conrad Kent Rivers 167 malcolm / Sonia Sanchez 168 For Malcolm Who Walks in the Eyes of Our Children / Quincy Troupe 169 For Malcolm X / Margaret Walker 171 That Old Time Religion / Marvin X 171 "In the panic of hooves, bull whips, and gas"Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March, 1965 173 Ode to Jimmy Lee / Jim "Arkansas" Benston 176 The Road to Selma / June Brindel 178 Selma, Alabama, 3/6/65 / Louis Daniel Brodsky 180 The Sun of the Future / Thich Nhat Hanh 181 Race Relations / Carolyn Kizer 183 Alabama Centennial / Naomi Long Madgett 185 On a Highway East of Selma, Alabama / Gregory Orr 186 Crumpled Notes (found in a raincoat) on Selma / Maria Varela 188 "Set afire by the cry of / BLACK POWER"The Birth and Legacy of the Black Panther Party 193 The Black Mass Needs but One Crucifixion / Kathleen Cleaver 197 apology (to the panthers) / Lucille Clifton 199 Revolutionary Letter #20 / Diane di Prima 200 For Angela / Zack Gilbert 201 May King's Prophecy / Allen Ginsberg 202 Black Power (For all the Beautiful Black Panthers East) / Nikki Giovanni 204 Newsletter from My Mother: 8:30 a.m., December 8, 1969 / Michael S. Harper 205 [let the fault be with the man] / Ericka Huggins 206 The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why / Denise Levertov 207 One-Sided Shoot-out / Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) 208 Revolution

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Book SynopsisWords of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to Americas turbulent Civil Rights era.Trade Review“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” - Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” - Karlan Sick, School Library Journal“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” - Dennis Moore, Electronic Urban Report“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” - R. K. Mookerjee, Choice"America's ongoing civil rights movement reflects the triumphs and travails of struggles for citizenship, equality, and social justice. Jeffrey Lamar Coleman's insightful and illuminating work redirects our gaze toward the power of poetry in transforming the nation's postwar civil rights landscape. An essential book for students and scholars of the civil rights struggle."—Peniel E. Joseph, author of Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” -- R. K. Mookerjee * Choice *“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” -- Grace Cavalieri * Washington Independent Review of Books *“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” -- Dennis Moore * Electronic Urban Report *“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” -- Karlan Sick * School Library Journal *Table of ContentsPreface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction. Journey toward Freedom 1 "Had she been worth the blood?"The Lynching of Emmett Till, 1955 15 Remembrance / Rhoda Gaye Ascher 17 The Better Sort of People / John Beecher 17 A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon / Gwendolyn Brooks 19 The Last Quatrain on the Ballad of Emmett Till / Gwendolyn Brooks 23 On the State of the Union / Aimé Césaire 24 Temperate Belt: Reflections on the Mother of Emmett Till / Durwood Collins Jr. 26 Emmett Till / James A. Emanuel 27 Elegy for Emmett Till / Nicolás Guillén 28 Mississippi—1955 (To the Memory of Emmett Till) / Langston Hughes 31 Money, Mississippi / Eve Merriam 32 Salute / Oliver Pitcher 33 "Godfearing citizens / with Bibles, taunts, and stones"The Little Rock Crisis, 1957–1958 35 The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock / Gwendolyn Brooks 37 Little Rock / Nicolás Guillén 39 School Integration Riot / Robert Hayden 40 My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land / Lance Jeffers 41 "The FBI knows who lynched you"The Murder of Mack Charles Parker, 1959 43 Poplarville II / Keith E. Baird 45 Mack C. Parker / Phillip Abbott Luce 45 For Mack C. Parker / Pauli Murray 48 Collect for Poplarville / Pauli Murray 49 "Fearless before the waiting throng"The Life and Death of Medgar Evers 51 Medgar Evers (for Charles Evers) / Gwendolyn Brooks 53 American (In Memory of Medgar Evers) / R. D. Coleman 53 For Medgar Evers / David Ignatow 54 Blues for Medgar Evers / Aaron Kramer 55 Micah (In Memory of Medgar Evers of Mississippi) / Margaret Walker 56 "Under the leaves of hymnals, the plaster and stone"The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, 15 September 1963 57 Escort for a President / John Beecher 60 American History / Michael S. Harper 61 Here Where Coltrane Is / Michael S. Harper 62 Birmingham Sunday / Langston Hughes 63 Suffer the Children / Audre Lorde 64 Birmingham 1963 / Raymond Patterson 64 Ballad of Birmingham / Dudley Randall 65 Ballad for Four Children and a President / Edith Segal 67 September 1963 / Jean Valentine 68 "What we have seen / Has become history, tragedy"The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 22 November 1963 71 Belief / A. R. Ammons 75 Elegy for J. F. K. / W. H. Auden 76 The Assassination of John F. Kennedy / Gwendolyn Brooks 80 On Not Writing an Elegy / Robert Frost 81 At the Brooklyn Docks, November 23, 1963 / Dorothy Gilbert 81 Verba in Memoriam / Barbara Guest 82 Until Death Do Us Part / Anselm Hollo 85 A Night Picture of Pownal, for J. F. K. / Barbara Howes 86 Before the Sabbath / David Ignatow 88 Jacqueline / Will Inman 89 Down in Dallas / X. J. Kennedy 89 In Arlington Cemetery / Stanley Koehler 90 Four Days in November / Marjorie Mir 92 Sonnet for John-John / Marvin Solomon 92 Not That Hurried for Grief, for John F. Kennedy / Lorenzo Thomas 93 November 22, 1963 / Lewis Turco 94 The Gulf / Derek Walcott 95 "Deep in the Mississippi thicket / I hear the mourning dove"The Search for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, 1964 99 A Commemorative Ode / John Beecher 102 Mississippi, 1964 / Marjorie Mir 105 The Book of Job and a Draft of a Poem to Praise the Paths of the Living / George Oppen 106 The Demonstration / Gregory Orr 112 Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman / Raymond Patterson 113 Speech for LeRoi / Armand Schwerner 113 When Black People Are / A. B. Spellman 115 For Andy Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney / Margaret Walker 117 "We are not beasts and do not / intend to be beaten"Riots, Rebellions, and Uprisings 121 Riot: 60's / Maya Angelou 125 Attica—U.S.A. / Keith E. Baird 126 finish / Charles Bukowski 127 Heroes / Karl Carter 129 Revolutionary Letter #3 / Daine de Prima 130 A Mother Speaks: The Algiers Motel Incident, Detroit / Michael S. Harper 132 Keep on Pushing / David Henderson 132 Poem against the State (of Things): 1975 / June Jordan 138 On the Birth of My Son, Malcolm Coltrane / Julius Lester 145 The Gulf / Denise Levertov 146 Coming Home, Detroit, 1968 / Philip Levine 148 If We Cannot Live as People / Charles Lynch 149 Kuntu / Larry Neal 150 Watts / Ojenke (Alvin Saxon) 152 In Orangeburg My Brothers Did / A. B. Spellman 153 "Prophets were ambushed as they spoke"The Assassination of Malcolm X, 21 February 1965 155 A Poem for Black Hearts / Amiri Baraka 158 For Malcolm: After Mecca / Gerald W. Barrax 159 Malcolm X (for Dudley Randall) / Gwendolyn Brooks 159 Judas / Karl Carter 160 malcolm / Lucille Clifton 161 El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz / Robert Hayden 161 Portrait of Malcolm X (for Charles Baxter), Etheridge Knight 163 Malcolm X—An Autobiography / Larry Neal 164 At That Moment / Raymond Patterson 166 If Blood Is Black Then Spirit Neglects My Unborn Son / Conrad Kent Rivers 167 malcolm / Sonia Sanchez 168 For Malcolm Who Walks in the Eyes of Our Children / Quincy Troupe 169 For Malcolm X / Margaret Walker 171 That Old Time Religion / Marvin X 171 "In the panic of hooves, bull whips, and gas"Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March, 1965 173 Ode to Jimmy Lee / Jim "Arkansas" Benston 176 The Road to Selma / June Brindel 178 Selma, Alabama, 3/6/65 / Louis Daniel Brodsky 180 The Sun of the Future / Thich Nhat Hanh 181 Race Relations / Carolyn Kizer 183 Alabama Centennial / Naomi Long Madgett 185 On a Highway East of Selma, Alabama / Gregory Orr 186 Crumpled Notes (found in a raincoat) on Selma / Maria Varela 188 "Set afire by the cry of / BLACK POWER"The Birth and Legacy of the Black Panther Party 193 The Black Mass Needs but One Crucifixion / Kathleen Cleaver 197 apology (to the panthers) / Lucille Clifton 199 Revolutionary Letter #20 / Diane di Prima 200 For Angela / Zack Gilbert 201 May King's Prophecy / Allen Ginsberg 202 Black Power (For all the Beautiful Black Panthers East) / Nikki Giovanni 204 Newsletter from My Mother: 8:30 a.m., December 8, 1969 / Michael S. Harper 205 [let the fault be with the man] / Ericka Huggins 206 The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why / Denise Levertov 207 One-Sided Shoot-out / Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) 208 Revolution

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Book SynopsisDavid Grubbs explores the ephemeral nature of improvised music in Now that the audience is assembled, a prose poem that in its depiction of a fictional musical performance challenges common understandings of how and where music is composed, performed, and experienced.Trade Review"Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on—and through—rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That the book is able to make you pause and think about all these things while being itself rhythmically (and musically) interesting is no small feat. On top of that, it also manages to be very funny. And like all best comedy, now that the audience is assembled is ultimately a matter of ... timing." -- Robert Barry * The Wire *“Now that the audience is assembled, a new book-length poem by musician David Grubbs, reminds us that listening can feel stranger than dreaming." -- Chris Richards * Washington Post *"A formally adventurous prose poem. . . . I've only read the 140-page book once, and I know I missed many of its nuances, but its audacity and provocation nonetheless moved me." -- Peter Margasak * Chicago Reader *"Imaginative.... A work that combines the directness of an actual improvisation with the well-chosen language afforded by after-the-fact reflection." -- Daniel Barbiero * Avant Music News *"Now That the Audience is Assembled is an interesting and compelling exploration of the boundaries between literature and improvised music, of waiting for the work to age, and between various and different media presentations of its content. . . . Grubbs presents a noisy vision of an improvised musical performance through a different form of writing. Come early, stay all night, get on the stage with the performer, participate or you won't feel a thing." -- John F. Barber * Leonardo Reviews *"Now That the Audience is Assembled shows the possibilities of an imagined and unfolding musical event. This book also offers an excellent example of how specifically musical performance, and generally all performance, might be made to perform and sound on the page through the use of a poetic and descriptive form of writing. Engaging this prose poem invites the reader to be part of Grubbs’s assembled audience of witnesses. And the experiments of music, sound, and writing are offered for you to add to and transform through your own desires, expectations, and presence." -- Chris McRae * Text and Performance Quarterly *"This long form poem is as much a reflection on the contemporary music audience and their responses to an unnamed musician’s experimentation as it is a commentary on the act of spontaneous creation.Grubbs’s writing style – ephemeral and esoteric, with patches of lucidity and remarkable wit – is highly engaging and entertaining, offering a thoughtful experiment in music writing that invites the reader in to participate themselves, performing as one of the assembled audience." -- Toby Young * Twentieth-Century Music *"The slim volume is a masterful metaconceptual play on conceptual art and a pleasure to read. But it is more than just a suggestion for a reader’s own private, internal performance. Grubbs’s writing does triple duty as a poem, a book, and a score for live performance—like almost all of Cage’s writings. . . . The best thing about this book, for me, is that it demonstrates that great scholarship can be great art and that scholarly inquiry on the nature of experimentalism can itself be experimental." -- Sara Haefeli * American Music *Table of ContentsNow that the audience is assembled 1 Afterword 135 Acknowledgments 139

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Book SynopsisDavid Grubbs explores the ephemeral nature of improvised music in Now that the audience is assembled, a prose poem that in its depiction of a fictional musical performance challenges common understandings of how and where music is composed, performed, and experienced.Trade Review"Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on—and through—rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That the book is able to make you pause and think about all these things while being itself rhythmically (and musically) interesting is no small feat. On top of that, it also manages to be very funny. And like all best comedy, now that the audience is assembled is ultimately a matter of ... timing." -- Robert Barry * The Wire *“Now that the audience is assembled, a new book-length poem by musician David Grubbs, reminds us that listening can feel stranger than dreaming." -- Chris Richards * Washington Post *"A formally adventurous prose poem. . . . I've only read the 140-page book once, and I know I missed many of its nuances, but its audacity and provocation nonetheless moved me." -- Peter Margasak * Chicago Reader *"Imaginative.... A work that combines the directness of an actual improvisation with the well-chosen language afforded by after-the-fact reflection." -- Daniel Barbiero * Avant Music News *"Now That the Audience is Assembled is an interesting and compelling exploration of the boundaries between literature and improvised music, of waiting for the work to age, and between various and different media presentations of its content. . . . Grubbs presents a noisy vision of an improvised musical performance through a different form of writing. Come early, stay all night, get on the stage with the performer, participate or you won't feel a thing." -- John F. Barber * Leonardo Reviews *"Now That the Audience is Assembled shows the possibilities of an imagined and unfolding musical event. This book also offers an excellent example of how specifically musical performance, and generally all performance, might be made to perform and sound on the page through the use of a poetic and descriptive form of writing. Engaging this prose poem invites the reader to be part of Grubbs’s assembled audience of witnesses. And the experiments of music, sound, and writing are offered for you to add to and transform through your own desires, expectations, and presence." -- Chris McRae * Text and Performance Quarterly *"This long form poem is as much a reflection on the contemporary music audience and their responses to an unnamed musician’s experimentation as it is a commentary on the act of spontaneous creation.Grubbs’s writing style – ephemeral and esoteric, with patches of lucidity and remarkable wit – is highly engaging and entertaining, offering a thoughtful experiment in music writing that invites the reader in to participate themselves, performing as one of the assembled audience." -- Toby Young * Twentieth-Century Music *"The slim volume is a masterful metaconceptual play on conceptual art and a pleasure to read. But it is more than just a suggestion for a reader’s own private, internal performance. Grubbs’s writing does triple duty as a poem, a book, and a score for live performance—like almost all of Cage’s writings. . . . The best thing about this book, for me, is that it demonstrates that great scholarship can be great art and that scholarly inquiry on the nature of experimentalism can itself be experimental." -- Sara Haefeli * American Music *Table of ContentsNow that the audience is assembled 1 Afterword 135 Acknowledgments 139

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Book SynopsisHighlights an intergenerational selection of eighteen emerging, mid-career, and established CHamoru authors, including an extended feature on master storyteller Peter R. Onedera. This rich collection includes diverse genres, including poetry, chant, fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisJEWels is the first of its kind: the living tradition of Jewish stories and jokes transformed into poems, recording and reflecting Jewish experience from ancient times through the present day, with running commentary and questions for discussion.Trade Review"From wry quotes by Gol­da Meier to bawdy 'Abe and Becky' jokes told by seniors and life-rein­forc­ing philo­soph­i­cal humor in the midst of pain, JEW­els delights with sur­prise. There will be some­thing new here for everyone."—Jewish Book Council"These poems made me laugh, cry or nod with acknowledgment to the wisdom offered. . . . Zeitlin notes that he hopes to give readers a chance to experience a wide range of Jewish perspectives on the world. In that, he has definitely succeeded."—Reporter"Perfect addition to any poetry collections as well as collections with Jewish story and or joke anthologies."—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews“Steve Zeitlin is a national treasure who celebrates the voices of everyday life. Wise, funny, and poignant, his book JEWels brings Judaism to life in short bursts of words that explode off the page and infuse our hearts with light and truth.”—Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps“I could not put this book down. JEWels is brilliant, intelligent, well researched, and has heart. It’s an immersive experience in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, but the parts are what matter, each jewel standing on its own.”—Amy Shuman, professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University and author of Other People’s Stories“JEWels is a unique, humorous, and sensitive link in the chain of Jewish storytelling, humor, and commentary.”—Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, coeditor of The Big Book of Jewish HumorTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Ancient Living Tradition of Jewish Jokes and Stories The Parrot Traditional joke retold by Zev Shanken The Face of a Human Being Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a story by Rabbi Edward Schecter, based on an old midrash Holocaust Jokes Contemporary joke retold by Zev Shanken Excerpt from “We Tell” By Cherie Karo-Schwartz 1. JEWels . . . in Stories Now the Story Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Stories Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a story by Edgar Hilsenrath Tales Lined out from an inscription in Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire The Lubavitcher Rebbe on Stories By Esther Cohen Burning the Scrolls Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter A Table with People By Marc Kaminsky 2. JEWels . . . on a Journey Paradise Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter The Guru Contemporary joke retold by Steve Zeitlin Mameloshen By Steve Zeitlin Bubba Truth Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale retold by Jane Yolen Traveler’s Prayer By Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg 3. JEWels . . . from the Old Country The Sabbath Fish Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from Cherie Karo Schwartz’s version of Jewish folklore from Eastern Europe and Yemen and earlier version from the Babylonian Talmud The Magic Ship Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from Howard Schwartz’s telling of a folktale in the Israel Folktale Archives Tales of the Razbash By Zev Shanken The Rabbis’ Convocation Traditional tale retold by Robert J. Bernstein The Sweeper Traditional joke The Shammes: A Response Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from Rabbi Edward Schecter’s retelling of “The Sweeper” Once Upon a Time in the Old Country Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale retold by Rabbi David Holtz The Hunchback Traditional tale retold by Zev Shanken and Steve Zeitlin A Cold Ass Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from an interview with Sylvia Cole An Offspring’s Answer Adapted by Peninnah Schram and Steve Zeitlin from The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln The Cart Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a summer camp story told by Rabbi David Holtz Blessing the New Moon in Wintertime Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from the poem by Rachel Ray Lehrer Faust The Rabbi and the Balagola Traditional folktale retold by Steve Zeitlin Elijah Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale told by Amy Shuman, based on a telling by Dov Noy Parable of the Horse Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a retelling by Jack Tepper Who Said the Jews Killed Jesus? Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from an oral history by Baruch Lumet The Hasid Traditional joke A Nineteenth-Century Hasid Contemplates the Modern World Lined out from a story about the teachings of Abraham Yaakov of Sagadora, as recounted by Martin Buber Philosophy with Noodles Traditional joke retold by Peninnah Schram The Rooster Prince Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Publishing Lined out from a traditional tale by Rebbe Menachem-Mendel of Kotzk, as retold by Elie Wiesel The Teller of Tales Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter and Marc Kaminsky The Temples Rise Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale retold by storyteller Roslyn Bresnick-Perry Conversations over a Glass Tea Traditional tale retold by Peninnah Schram Fresh Rolls and Butter By Zev Shanken, inspired by the short story “Bontshe Shvayg” by I. L. Peretz How We Lived: A Tribute to Mayer Kirshenblatt Adapted by Steve Zeitlin and Marc Kaminsky from They Called Me Mayer July by storyteller and painter Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 4. JEWels . . . in Jokes Passementerie Traditional tale adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a telling by Jack Tepper Telling Jokes in the Shtetl Traditional joke My Mother Liked Telling Jokes By Esther Cohen Taxi Traditional joke Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Traditional joke Schwartz Traditional joke Abe and Becky Traditional joke adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a retelling by Herb Shore The Theater Traditional joke adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a retelling by Herb Shore The Perfect Girl Traditional joke Two Old Jews at a Urinal Traditional joke Time Stamp Traditional joke The Plotkin Diamond Traditional joke Rich Man Traditional joke Golda Traditional joke retold as a clever comeback by Golda Meir The Commandments Traditional joke adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a telling by Rubin Levine Perfect Traditional joke retold by Peninnah Schram Toyota Traditional joke Worry Traditional tale The Summum Bonum Traditional joke adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a retelling by Abe Lass Zoom By Marc Wallace Self-Critique By Sparrow Jewish Mother Telegram Traditional joke retold by Zev Shanken A Freudian Analysis Attributed to, among others, Julia Sweeney, who wrote a book with this title Jewish Mothers Traditional joke Twenty Years Traditional joke Seven Differences between a Joke and a Poem By Zev Shanken Optimism/Pessimism Traditional joke 5. JEWels . . . from Torah The Tsimtsum By Rabbi Edward Schecter Rabbi Simon Said Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a midrash in the name of Rabbi Simon Jacobson Hillel and Shammai Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter What I Would Tell Adam and Eve By Francine Witte The Original Adam and Eve Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a story in Howard Schwartz’s Tree of Souls The Birth of Memory By Steve Zeitlin Enough! Contemporary tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter The Razbash Describes God’s Test By Zev Shanken The Prophet Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter Moses and the Superhero By Jack Santino Rabbi Hayim Vital Dreams of Moses Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale in Howard Schwartz’s Tree of Souls Miriam’s Wandering Well Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale Lamb’s Blood By Steve Zeitlin A Rabbinical Love Poem By Zev Shanken Twelve Rabbis Went to a Party By Annie Lanzillotto The Lamed Vavniks By Arthur Strimling 6. JEWels . . . Shaped by the Holocaust Tickling the Corpse By Steve Zeitlin Holocaust Jokes Contemporary joke retold by Zev Shanken It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank By Linda Pastan Riding with the Moon Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a true story by Roslyn Bresnick-Perry Last Supper in the Krakow Ghetto Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from oral testimonies by survivors of the Krakow ghetto uprising Hovering above the Pit Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale retold by Yaffa Eliach In the Janowska Street Ghetto Adapted by Marc Kaminsky from a story retold by Yaffa Eliach The Twig Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from Renée Fodor Schwarz’s memoir Renée In Memory of Those Who Died in Vain in the Holocaust Excerpted from a poem by Renée Fodor Schwarz Forgotten Acts of Courage Adapted by Steve Zeitlin and Marc Kaminsky from Alex Borstein’s Emmy acceptance speech Rachel By Linda Pastan Death Train Lined out from André Schwartz-Bart’s The Last of the Just Kaddish in the Boxcar of Death By Aaron Zeitlin, translated by Morris M. Faierstein Face in the Mirror Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a true story by Boris Blum, retold by Toby Blum-Dobkin 7. JEWels . . . in Glimpses of Jewish American Lives Rummage By Marc Kaminsky Yiddishe Mama during World War II Lined out from the essay “The Healing Power of Jokes” by Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman Plucking the Chicken Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional joke retold by Abe Lass Getting Dressed By Steve Zeitlin No More Birthdays By Hal Sirowitz A Short History of Judaic Thought in the Twentieth Century By Linda Pastan At a Bungalow in the Rockaways Traditional joke Tradition! Traditional joke Jewish and Goyish Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a routine by Lenny Bruce The Great Trick Is to Know Who You Are Lined out from Jackie Mason’s Broadway show The World According to Me Skin Check By Esther Cohen It Reminds Me of Those Old Jokes Traditional joke The Rabbi By Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Reflection By Zev Shanken True Story By Carol Klenfner To Kvell or Not to Kvell Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional joke retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter The Free-Yarmulke Bin By Steve Zeitlin The Kiss By Mark Solomon The Driver Said By Robert Hershon Clara By Steve Zeitlin Alicia By Steve Zeitlin Sally Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a true story told by Anita Nager Moishe Said Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a story by Jack Kugelmass Abraham Joshua Heschel Goes to Selma By Steve Zeitlin, quoting Abraham Joshua Heschel 8. JEWels . . . in Jewish Foods The Bagel By David Ignatow The Fish By Lila Zeiger Happiness Lined out from a recollection by Moishe Sacks A Jewish Blessing Sung When Placing the Bread in the Oven Anonymous The Atheist By Steve Zeitlin The Jews and Chinese Food Traditional joke The Jewish Waiter Traditional joke The Strudel Traditional joke Aging Parents By Marc Wallace The Schtup Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale by Lisa Lipkin Fresh Fish Sold Here Traditional joke retold by Cherie Karo Schwartz How to Make Blintzes Traditional joke retold by Cherie Karo Schwartz 2nd Avenue Kosher By Dennis J. Bernstein and Warren Lehrer From “The Whole Soul” By Philip Levine 9. JEWels . . . in Conversations with God The Messiah #1 Lined out from Michael Gold’s Jews without Money The Messiah #2 Traditional joke Closer By Aaron Zeitlin, translated by Morris M. Faierstein Wrestling with God By Bob Mankoff Somebody Up There Likes Me Traditional joke retold by Bob Mankoff It’s All Relative Traditional joke retold by Peninnah Schram Tevye the Milkman Said Lined out from the story “Tevye Strikes It Rich” by Sholem Aleichem My Aunt’s Ninetieth Birthday Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a quip by Ann Katz The Tailor’s Prayer Traditional tale A Pair of Pants Traditional tale The Do-Over By Steve Zeitlin, inspired by a conversation with Richard Rabinowitz The dna in My Coffee—A True Story Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from the story “God and dna over Coffee” by Lisa Lipkin Deconstructing Heaven Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a tale retold by Rabbi Avraham Weiss Levi Yitzhak Burns the Evidence Traditional tale Six Lines By Aaron Zeitlin, translated by Robert Friend To the Rescue Traditional joke Lifeline Traditional tale 10. JEWels . . . on the Meaning of Life The Meaning of Meaning By Bob Holman Who Knows? Adapted by Flash Rosenberg from one of her father’s favorite jokes Hineni By Flash Rosenberg The Angel of Death Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from an essentially true story in Howard Schwartz’s Tree of Souls The Land Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale If Not Higher! Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from the short story “If Not Higher!” by I. L. Peretz Time All at Once Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a story by Caroline Harris Soul Sight Adapted by Marc Kaminsky and Steve Zeitlin from Howard Schwartz’s Tree of Souls The Burning Twig Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale retold by Robert J. Bernstein Oy Lined out from a spontaneous observation by Eli Levine The Philosopher Traditional joke Life Traditional joke The Razbash on Old Age By Zev Shanken Doctor, Doctor Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional joke retold by Doris Kirshenblatt Yizkor By Zev Shanken The Razbash on Forgiveness By Zev Shanken The Womb Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter Moishe’s Wisdom Lined out from Moishe Sacks’s comments in The Grand Generation documentary (1993) The Angel of Forgetfulness Lined out from Dara Horn’s novel The World to Come The Laughing Man Lined out from Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire, based on writings attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Wiesel’s Response Lined out from Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire The Fiftieth Gate Lined out from a passage by Rabbi Boruch of Medzhybizh, as recounted by Martin Buber Whitewater Rapids Adapted by Marc Kaminsky and Steve Zeitlin from the story “Whitewater” by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi The Ring Adapted by Marc Kaminsky and Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale The Beautiful Question Traditional tale retold by Steve Zeitlin Lost in the Woods Traditional tale retold by Peninnah Schram Shmuel Discovers a Purpose in Life Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter Coda Traditional tale retold by Rabbi Edward Schecter Concerto Adapted by Steve Zeitlin from a traditional tale retold by Rabbi Eli Rubenstein 11. Final Thoughts Questions for Discussion Source Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Commentator Biographies Index

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