Overview: With the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended...

"A collection of poems profiles the Chicago author who gave voice to the urban African American experience in the twentieth century." --

Poems based on paintings by Laura Caghan, Patricia Ollison Jerrols, Arturo Lindsay, Howardena Pindell, Anita Steckel, Houston Conwill, Linda Graetz, Ntozake Shange, Donna Henes, Candace Hill-Montgomery, Martin Puryear, Wopo Holup, Patrice Viles, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Jules T. Allen.

"How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton celebrates both familiar and lesser-known works by one of America's most beloved poets, including 10 newly discovered poems that have never been collected. These poems celebrating black womanhood and resilience shimmer with intellect, insight, humor, and joy, all in Clifton's characteristic style -- a voice that the late Toni Morrison described as 'seductive with the simplicity of an atom, which...

A major and sometimes controversial figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen fused a mastery of the formal lyric with a passionate engagement with themes social, religious, racial, and personal in such books as Color, Copper Sun, and The Black Christ. Certain of his poems-- "Heritage," "Yet Do I Marvel" -- are widely celebrated, but much of Cullen's work remains to be discovered. This volume restores to print a body of work of singular intensity...

"A fresh perspective of young men of color depicting thirteen views of everyday life: young boys dressed in their Sunday best, running to catch a bus, and growing up to be teachers, and much more. Each of Tony Medina's tanka is matched with a different artist including recent Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Award recipients." --

Containing these poems which the author most wants to preserve, this volume summarizes the career to date of the man who has been called "the father of modern black poetry." It confirms Amiri Baraka as one of the major figures of contemporary American poetry.