From Library Journal
This anthology presents outspoken and risk-taking voices of over 100 emerging and established African American men and women poets. Their language is explicit; their voices bluesy and dialetical; their poetic forms experimental; their themes dissent and liberation; and their styles visceral. This handbook of poetic activism includes work by performers, writers, filmmakers, poets, songwriters, and a "rainbow of others," including basketball star center Shaquille O'Neal and actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Empathetic poems by Toi Derricotte, Haile Gerima, and M. Eliza Hamilton stand out among many voices. Five chapters cover street violence, families, "the complexity and perplexity of love," bi/multiracial identity, and "various Black cultural expressions such as dance, music, sport." Also included are editor Gilbert's interviews Amiri Baraka, June Jordan, Abiodum Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, and Quincy Troupe. Recommended for urban community arts networks and interracial writing workshops.?Frank Allen, North Hampton Community Coll., Tannersville, Pa.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
African-American poetry is an ever-growing and ever-changing art form... in coffee houses and night clubs... from the blues and be-bop, to rap and hip-hop. Catch the Fire!!! is more than a poetry anthology. It is a cultural event: the indroduction of a new generation of African-American poets by an established generation, and a celebration of contemporary African-American poetry. Through the themes of family, the city, revolution, the body, and the soul, June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Abiodun Oyewole (of the Last Poets), Ntozake Shange, and Sonia Sanchez discuss their own generation of poets and their thoughts about the emerging poets whose poems they are presenting here.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

African-American poetry is an ever-growing and ever-changing art form... in coffee houses and night clubs... from the blues and be-bop, to rap and hip-hop. Catch the Fire!!! is more than a poetry anthology. It is a cultural event: the indroduction of a new generation of African-American poets by an established generation, and a celebration of contemporary African-American poetry. Through the themes of family, the city, revolution, the body, and the soul, June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Abiodun Oyewole (of the Last Poets), Ntozake Shange, and Sonia Sanchez discuss their own generation of poets and their thoughts about the emerging poets whose poems they are presenting here.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal