Nikki Giovanni's latest work is a wonderful anthology of poems by the very best African-American writers including Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks and many others. Juxtaposed with the poems, Giovanni has added her own highly personal responses, sometimes including cultural context, sometimes just saying why the poem speaks to her. The poems are consistently excellent, and Giovanni's comments are always perceptive and often wise. A must-have.


From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up?A remarkable collection of poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, stitched together with commentary by Giovanni. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Ntozake Shange, and Gwendolyn Brooks are among the powerful voices included. W.E.B. DuBois, not primarily known as a poet, is shown here to be one of accomplishment. After each poem, Giovanni points out, in a readable, almost conversational style, the poet's significance and relationship to the movement. The choice of poems is sometimes idiosyncratic, and the reminiscences are quite personal and sometimes quirky. But Giovanni is always on the mark, even when she pursues a tangent, and always comes back to the role of the Harlem Renaissance in influencing African American artists. As the book progresses, the poetry becomes more difficult, and those who seek to use it as a textbook should be prepared to help students understand some of the selections. There are some serious, provocative, and violent themes, but this title is an important resource for those interested in poetry and in understanding the African American experience.?Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 9^-12. Poet Giovanni celebrates the great flowering of African American poetry when writers such as Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, and Countee Cullen spoke for the people with powerful simplicity. The poetry sings for all of us with sadness, anger, humor, and grace. Giovanni's informal commentary after each poem shares her love for the words and connects the poets to each other and to her own experience, and also to history, biography, and literature. From the start she shows that "the written word is by nature political," that these writers were fighting a war with words, and her examples have a personal immediacy. However, the last third of the anthology, concerned with contemporary writers, seems added on: most of these pieces are difficult (few teens will get Ishmael Reed's mockery of the Western classics) and posturing (Giovanni applauds LeRoi Jones' use of obscenity on stage); the last poem, by Ntozake Shange, about being born a girl, includes some horrific detail about clitorectomy. Giovanni's own rap poem is a delightful loving tribute to Langston Hughes, and she connects a melancholy lyric by Sonia Sanchez to Paul Laurence Dunbar: it's that "rainbow ride" tradition, political and personal, that still speaks most directly to kids today. Hazel Rochman


From Kirkus Reviews
An annotated collection of poems from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, presented by a master teacher and a terrific storyteller. Exhorting, cajoling, willing readers to listen and to hear, Giovanni (Put a Genie in a Jar, p. 447, etc.) starts each chapter with a poem or poems from an African-American writer such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Margaret Walker, or Ishmael Reed, covering 23 poets in all. She discusses, briefly, the lives of these writers, the context of African-American history, and the structure and sense of the poems in short chapters. The book is a conversation--readers can almost hear Giovanni talking-- as she anticipates questions, clarifies obscurities, and utterly beguiles with her passion and personal feelings for the writers. Much of the poetry is painful to read: Ntozake Shange on female genital mutilation; Gwendolyn Brooks on the murder of Emmett Till. There is an underlying joy, however, in tune with the music of the language. This is a fine collection whatever the need: for poetry shelves, black history collections, social consciousnessraising sessions, cultural literacy courses--or for anyone who likes the sight of words that shimmy shimmy shimmy on the page. (Poetry. 11+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
A remarkable collection of poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, stitched together with commentary from Giovanni.... An important resource for those interested in poetry and in understanding the African American experience.



Card catalog description
Includes poems by such authors as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Amiri Baraka, with commentary and a discussion of the development of African American arts known as the Harlem Renaissance.

ANNOTATION

Includes poems by such authors as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Amiri Baraka, with commentary and a discussion of the development of African American arts known as the Harlem Renaissance.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A remarkable collection of poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, stitched together with commentary from Giovanni.... An important resource for those interested in poetry and in understanding the African American experience.

FROM THE CRITICS

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-A remarkable collection of poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, stitched together with commentary by Giovanni. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Ntozake Shange, and Gwendolyn Brooks are among the powerful voices included. W.E.B. DuBois, not primarily known as a poet, is shown here to be one of accomplishment. After each poem, Giovanni points out, in a readable, almost conversational style, the poet's significance and relationship to the movement. The choice of poems is sometimes idiosyncratic, and the reminiscences are quite personal and sometimes quirky. But Giovanni is always on the mark, even when she pursues a tangent, and always comes back to the role of the Harlem Renaissance in influencing African American artists. As the book progresses, the poetry becomes more difficult, and those who seek to use it as a textbook should be prepared to help students understand some of the selections. There are some serious, provocative, and violent themes, but this title is an important resource for those interested in poetry and in understanding the African American experience.-Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA

BookList - Hazel Rochman

Poet Giovanni celebrates the great flowering of African American poetry when writers such as Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, and Countee Cullen spoke for the people with powerful simplicity. The poetry sings for all of us with sadness, anger, humor, and grace. Giovanni's informal commentary after each poem shares her love for the words and connects the poets to each other and to her own experience, and also to history, biography, and literature. From the start she shows that "the written word is by nature political," that these writers were fighting a war with words, and her examples have a personal immediacy. However, the last third of the anthology, concerned with contemporary writers, seems added on: most of these pieces are difficult (few teens will get Ishmael Reed's mockery of the Western classics) and posturing (Giovanni applauds LeRoi Jones' use of obscenity on stage); the last poem, by Ntozake Shange, about being born a girl, includes some horrific detail about clitorectomy. Giovanni's own rap poem is a delightful loving tribute to Langston Hughes, and she connects a melancholy lyric by Sonia Sanchez to Paul Laurence Dunbar: it's that "rainbow ride" tradition, political and personal, that still speaks most directly to kids today.

Kirkus Reviews

An annotated collection of poems from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, presented by a master teacher and a terrific storyteller. Exhorting, cajoling, willing readers to listen and to hear, Giovanni (Put a Genie in a Jar, p. 447, etc.) starts each chapter with a poem or poems from an African-American writer such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Margaret Walker, or Ishmael Reed, covering 23 poets in all. She discusses, briefly, the lives of these writers, the context of African-American history, and the structure and sense of the poems in short chapters. The book is a conversation—readers can almost hear Giovanni talking—as she anticipates questions, clarifies obscurities, and utterly beguiles with her passion and personal feelings for the writers.

Much of the poetry is painful to read: Ntozake Shange on female genital mutilation; Gwendolyn Brooks on the murder of Emmett Till. There is an underlying joy, however, in tune with the music of the language. This is a fine collection whatever the need: for poetry shelves, black history collections, social consciousnessraising sessions, cultural literacy courses—or for anyone who likes the sight of words that shimmy shimmy shimmy on the page.