Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues

Ishmael Reed (Author) Ishmael Reed (Author)

Description

The poems in this collection were written between 2007 and 2020. When asked to describe the poems here, Ishmael Reed wrote:

' The poems are based on events that occurred around the 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. 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. The longest poem in the book, "Jazz Martyrs," was begun when I 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. I've found out who my best friends are. The ones who got me there.'

Product Details

Price

$15.95 $14.83

Publisher

Dalkey Archive Press

Publish Date

November 03, 2020

Pages

196

Dimensions

5.5 X 8.5 X 0.7 inches | 0.65 pounds

Language

English

Type

Paperback

EAN/UPC

9781628973587

BISAC Categories:

American - African American

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About the Author

Ishmael Reed is the author of over twenty-five books including Mumbo Jumbo, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, Conjugating Hindi, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico and most recently Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues and The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda. 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. A regular contributor to CounterPunch and founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley for over thirty years, retiring in 2005. Reed is the only person to be nominated for the National Book Award in two categories in the same year.

Ishmael Reed (b. 1938) is an acclaimed multifaceted writer whose work often engages with overlooked aspects of the American experience. He has published ten novels, including Flight to Canada and Mumbo Jumbo, as well as plays and collections of essays and poetry. He was nominated for a National Book Award in both poetry and prose in 1972. Conjure (1972), a volume of poetry, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and his New and Collected Poems: 1964-2006 (2007) received a Gold Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California. Reed has also received a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Blues Song Writer of the Year award from the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame, a Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the National Institute for Arts and Letters, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Reed taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for thirty-five years and currently lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

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