Soulscript: A Collection of Classic African American Poetry » (Reprint)

JUNE JORDAN was an internationally recognized and beloved writer, teacher, and activist. The author of several books of poetry, including Kissing God Goodbye, Haruko/Love Poems, Who Look at Me, and Things That I Do in the Dark, she died from breast cancer in 2002.

Black poets from the early twentieth century and onward come together for a moving anthology, edited and organized by the late, revered poet June Jordan.

First published in 1970, soulscript is a poignant, panoramic collection of poetry from some of the most eloquent voices in the art. Selected for their literary excellence and by the dictates of Jordan’s heart, these works tell the story of both collective and personal experiences, in Jordan’s words, “in tears, in rage, in hope, in sonnet, in blank/free verse, in overwhelming rhetorical scream.”
Soulscript features works by Jordan and other luminaries like Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gayl Jines, James Weldon Johnson, Audre Lorde, Claude McKay, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, and Richard Wright, as well as the fresh voices of a turbulent era’s younger writers. Celebrated spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin, an original cast member of Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, has also added an introduction that speaks to Jordan’s legacy, helping to further cement soulscript as a visionary compilation that has already become a modern classic.

Library Journal

Assembled by editor Jordan in 1970, this anthology includes works by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, and numerous others. The poems are divided into multiple categories such as Tomorrow Words Today, Black Eyes on a Fallowland, and Attitudes of the Soul. Good stuff. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.