Week 1: Foundations
Monday:
Syllabus review—no assigned readings
Wednesday:
- June Jordan, “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America”
- June Jordan, “Introduction” in Lauren Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint. Routledge, 1995. ISBN: 9780415911689.
- Terrance Hayes, “At Pegasus”
- Lucille Clifton, “cutting greens”
Week 2: Social Poetics
Monday:
- Mark Nowak, “Introduction” in Social Poetics. Coffeehouse Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781566895675.
- Muriel Rukeyser, The Life of Poetry (Chapter 1)
- John Murillo, “Upon Reading That Eric Dolphy Transcribed Even the Calls of Certain Species of Birds,”
- Taylor Johnson, elections from Inheritance. Alice James Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781948579131.
Wednesday:
- Carl Phillips, “White Dog”
- Nikki Giovanni, “Winter Poem”
- Joshua Myer, “Introduction” in Of Black Study. Pluto Press, 2022. ISBN: 978745344126.
- Allen Grossman and Mark Halliday, “What is Poetry for?” in The Sighted Singer: Two Works on Poetry for Readers and Writers. John Hopkins University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780801842436.
Week 3: The Blueness of Blackness
Monday:
President’s Day—no assigned readings
Wednesday:
- Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha. Chicago: Third World Press, 1993. Chs. 1 and 20. ISBN: 9780883780619.
- Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” First published in The World Tomorrow, May 1928.
- SZA, Ctrl. Posted on YouTube.
Week 4: Black National Anthems
Monday:
- Terrance Hayes, selections from American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. Penguin Books, 2018. ISBN: 9780143133186.
- Wanda Coleman, “American Sonnet 91”
- Imani Perry, “Preface” in May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem. UNC Press Books, 2018. ISBN: 9781469638607.
Wednesday:
- Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”
- Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
- James Baldwin, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” The Black Scholar 27 (1): 5–6 (1997).
- Black National Anthem Playlist:
- Beyoncé, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”
- Whitney Houston, “The Star-Spangled Banner”
- Marvin Gaye, “The Star-Spangled Banner”
- Jimi Hendrix, “The Star-Spangled Banner"
Week 5: The Tradition
Monday:
- Joshua Bennett and Jessie McCarthy, “Introduction” in Minor Notes: Volume I. Penguin Classics, 2023. ISBN: 9780143137269.
- Jericho Brown, selections from The Tradition. Copper Canyon Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781556594861.
- June Jordan, “Ocean Hill Brownsville, I.S. 55 Graduation Speech”
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Sorrow Songs”
Wednesday:
- Gwendolyn Brooks, selections from Blacks. Third World Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780883781050.
- “kitchenette building”
- “we real cool”
- “the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon”
- Truth Is on Its Way (YouTube playlist)
- Jesse McCarthy, “Notes on Trap.” n+ 1 magazine 32 (2018).
Week 6: Cell Songs
Monday:
- Slam
- Angela Y. Davis, “Abolitionist Alternatives.” Chapter 6 in Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781583225813.
- James Baldwin, “An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis”
- Solmaz Sharif, selections from Look. Graywolf Press, 2016. ISBN: 9781555977443*.*
Wednesday:
- Justin Rovillos Monson, “From ‘Weapon or Considering the Evidence against Me’” and “Notes for If I Fade Away”
- Tiyo Attallah Salah El, “A Call for the Abolition of Prisons” from Prisons and Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penalty. ed. Mechthild Nagel and Seth N. Asumah, Africa World Press, 2006. ISBN: 9781592214815.
- Etheridge Knight, “The Idea of Ancestry” and “The Sun Came”
Week 7: Black Nature
Monday:
- Ross Gay, selections from Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780822963318.
- “Becoming a Horse”
- “Sorrow is Not My Name”
- “Feet”
- Atlanta (TV show), Season 2 Episode 8, “The Woods.”
- Sylvia Wynter, “No Humans Involved” in Forum N.H.I. Knowledge for the 21st Century, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Fall 1994), Knowledge on Trial.
- Lucille Clifton, “being property once myself” and “won’t you celebrate with me”
Wednesday:
- Marwa Helal, selections from Invasive Species. Nightboat Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781937658939.
- Camille T. Dungy, “Language”
- Ed Roberson, “we must be careful” in Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, ed. Camille T. Dungy. University of Georgia Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780820334318.
- Tim Seibles, “Fearless”
Week 8: The Sea as History
Monday:
- Moonlight (film), 2016
- Anthony Joseph, “Axe” and “Memory Ghost I” in Sonnets for Albert. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. ISBN: 9781526649942.
- Aracelis Girmay, selections from The Black Maria
- Derrick Bell, “Afrolantica Awakening” in Afrolantica Legacies. Third World Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780883781999.
Wednesday:
- August Wilson, selections from Gem of the Ocean. Theatre Communications Group, 2006. ISBN: 9781559362801.
- Otis Redding, “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Published on YouTube by RHINO, 2012.
- Xan Phillips, “For a Burial Free of Sharks”
- Derek Walcott, “The Sea Is History”
Week 9: Fugitive Music
Monday:
- Blindspotting (film), 2018
- Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (album). Ruffhouse/Columbia Records, 1998.
- Selections from Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-education of the Negro (Preface and Chapter 1)
- Amanda Gunn, “Mystic” and “Araminta”
Wednesday:
- Fred Moten, “the salve trade” and “the plan"
- Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, “The University and the Undercommons: Seven Theses.” Social Text 22, no. 2 (2004): 101-115.
- June Jordan, “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan”
- Harryette Mullen, “Black Nikes”
Week 10: Greenness
Monday:
- Elaine Scarry, “On Beauty and Being Just (PDF).” The Tanner Lectures on Human Value at Yale University, 1998. Pp. 1-39.
- Angelina Weld Grimké, “At April” from Minor Notes: Volume I. Penguin Classics, 2023. ISBN: 9780143137269.
- Angelina Weld Grimké, “Greenness”
- Selections from Tommy Pico, “Nature Poem”
Wednesday:
No class – No assigned readings
Week 11: Spring Break
No classes
Week 12: The End of the World
Monday:
- Beasts of the Southern Wild (film), 2012
- Mona Lisa Saloy, “Disasters, Nature, and Poetry”
- Selections from Ed Roberson, To See the Earth before the End of the World. Wesleyan University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780819569509.
Wednesday:
- Selections from Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars. Graywolf Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781555975845.
- Sun Ra. “man and planet earth” in This Planet Is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra. Kicks Books, 2011. ISBN: 9780965977715.
- Derrick Bell, “The Space Traders”
Week 13: The Earth Is a Living Thing
Monday:
- Hale County This Morning, This Evening (film), 2018
- Camille T. Dungy, “Writing Home”
- Selections from Tyree Daye, River Hymns. American Poetry Review, 2017. ISBN: 9780983300854.
Wednesday:
- Donika Kelly, “The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.”
- John Berger, “Why Look at Animals?” in About Looking. Pantheon Books, 1988. ISBN: 9780394511245.
- Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy”
- Wendy S. Walters, “Man Raised as Chicken”
Week 14: The Art of the Spoken Word
Monday:
- Carlos López Estrada, Summertime (film), 2020
- Miguel Algarín and Bob Holman, eds., selections from Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Holt Paperbacks, 1994. ISBN: 9780805032574.
- Bob Holman, “Congratulations you have found the hidden book”
- Jimmy Santiago Baca, “Choices”
- Eliot Katz, “Dinosaur Love”
- Sunni Patterson, “For Those Who Work.” Published on YouTube by Letters from the Porch, 2020.
- Matthew Olzmann, “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem”
Wednesday:
- Tongo Eisen-Martin, “Faceless” and “Skid Bid”
- Tongo Eisen-Martin, “The Course of Meal.” Published on YouTube by San Francisco Chronicle, 2020.
- Toni Morrison, “Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address”
- Pedro Pietri, “Traffic Misdirector” and “Telephone Booth (number 905 ½)”
- Tara Betts, “Those Who Need a True Story”
Week 15: Love is the Why
Monday:
- Edson Oda, Nine Days (film), 2021
- Christopher Gilbert, selections from Turning into Dwelling. Graywolf Press, 2015. ISBN: 9781555977139.
- June Jordan, “Where is the Love?” and “Notes Toward a Black Balancing of Love and Hatred”
Wednesday:
- Stevie Wonder, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (album). Tamla Records, 1979.
- Walt Whitman, selections from Leaves of Grass
- “Song of Myself (1892 Version)”
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “Galileo Galilei”
- Sonia Sanchez, selections from The Collected Poems of Sonia Sanchez
