Full of powerful poetry discussing complex issues, this book is definitely for the older YA and adult crowd. Dealing with serious issues such as racism, rape, poverty, sex, slavery, and more, this book portrays a multifaceted look at the African American experience. Particularly impactful are Dudley Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham," which is about a mother's decision to send her child to church rather than to march for civil rights only to lose her child anyway, and Richard Wright's "Between the World and Me," which is about a black man being tarred, feathered, and burned alive. Not all of the poetry is as heavy. For instance, Langston Hughes's "Theme for English B" discusses American identity as a mixture of races, and Kwame Alexander's "Dancing Naked on the Floor" discusses the power of poetry itself. Overall, this book is definitely worth the read. It would do well against primary sources from history and literature. It would also do well with a study of jazz or the blues.

Nikki Giovanni collects 100+ poems by African-American writers famous and obscure. Some of the impact of the poems can be attributed to her skillful juxtaposition, relating or contrasting one poem with the next. There are poets you've heard of and some you might not know, but every poem is well worth reading.

The "cheats" happen in interludes throughout the book--a brief collection of poems about jazz, for example, which push the total number of poems to well over 100.

Comes with a CD of some of the poems being read aloud, including an absolutely jaw-dropping group rendition of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool." ( )

Picked up this book at bookstore and opened it randomly. The first poem I found was the following:

No images

She does not know
Her beauty,
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river,
She would know.

But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dish water gives back no images.


10 seconds later, I came out of the bookstore with the book in my hand. Oh yes, I did pay for it! Anyway, many poems unfortunately are not as beautifully strong and elegant as this one, but I can say I liked a fair number of them. Some more used a lot of words to say very little. A few more others, well, with all due respect they seem to be written by people in need of a good mental hospital to take care of them. But overall, this is a good collection that provided some emotional color while I'm pushing my way through the tongue-stuck-to-your-teeth dry "Bearing the Cross", an almost day by day, pedantic biography of MLK.
( )

Picked up this book at bookstore and opened it randomly. The first poem I found was the following:

No images

She does not know
Her beauty,
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river,
She would know.

But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dish water gives back no images.


10 seconds later, I came out of the bookstore with the book in my hand. Oh yes, I did pay for it! Anyway, many poems unfortunately are not as beautifully strong and elegant as this one, but I can say I liked a fair number of them. Some more used a lot of words to say very little. A few more others, well, with all due respect they seem to be written by people in need of a good mental hospital to take care of them. But overall, this is a good collection that provided some emotional color while I'm pushing my way through the tongue-stuck-to-your-teeth dry "Bearing the Cross", an almost day by day, pedantic biography of MLK.
( )

Poet Nikki Giovanni is the editor of this anthology of The 100 Best African American Poems. However, there is an asterisk and small type indicating “but I cheated” and that’s because the book actually contains 221 poems. The compilation covers the gamut from classic to contemporary poems and include works by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kevin Young, Mari Evans, Haki R. Madhubuti , Kwame Alexander, Tupac Shakar, among others. Also included with the book, is a companion audio CD that contains 36 of the poems being read by their authors (Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Alexander, and Sonia Sanchez) and other notables such as actresses Ruby Dee and Novella Nelson. The collection is nominated for a NAACP Image Award.

There are two poems by Tupac Shakur in the book and a couple of interviewers have concentrated on this fact. Last week, I listened to an NPR interview with Giovanni and learned she has a “Thug Life” tattoo on her left arm because she was distressed at the death of Tupac and wanted to find a way to express it. She feels that Tupac is important culturally to black America and she wanted to find some solidarity with his generation. While I don’t disagree that there are rappers/musicians who are poets (Mos Def, Jill Scott, Ursula Rucker, The Last Poets, Saul Williams, etc.) including Tupac, I personally don’t get the celebration of the “Thug Life” with a tattoo. Just saying.

One quarter of the poems are by contemporary poets including the current National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes. While some of my personal favorites are missing (i.e., Gil Scott-Heron, Askia Toure, Ishmael Reed, Sekou Sundiata, Ai, and Melvin Tolson), I have discovered several new poets, including Camille T. Dungy and Major Jackson. The best thing about this collection of poetry is being able to hear several of the poems being read. I’ve always felt poetry was best experienced when read aloud to truly understand the rhythm and cadence inherent in the lines. I particularly enjoyed the majestic reading of James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation” by Terry L. Papillon, the poignancy in discussing abortion in Ruby Dee’s reading of “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks, the sassiness of “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton read by Ennis McCrery, and the jazzy delivery of “Nikki, If You Were A Song…” by Kwame Alexander read by Novella Nelson. I think this is an excellent introduction to a wide range of poetry from African Americans. ( )