Celebrating the Black Arts Movement!

To Quote Kalamu Ya Salaam:

The Black Arts movement, usually referred to as a "sixties" movement, coalesced in 1965 and broke apart around 1975/1976. In March 1965 following the 21 February assassination of Malcolm X, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) moved from Manhattan's Lower East Side (he had already moved away from Greenwich Village) uptown to Harlem, an exodus considered the symbolic birth of the Black Arts movement. Jones was a highly visible publisher ( Yugen and Floating Bear magazines, Totem Press), a celebrated poet ( Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note, 1961, and The Dead Lecturer, 1964), a major music critic (Blues People, 1963), and an Obie Award-winning playwright ( Dutchman, 1964) who, up until that fateful split, had functioned in an integrated world. Other than James Baldwin, who at that time had been closely associated with the civil rights movement, Jones was the most respected and most widely published Black writer of his generation.

In this issue of Asili, we will commemorate this movement by linking to historical overviews previously published on the web by Joanne V. Gabbin and Kalamu Ya Salaam. These are excellent academic pieces capturing the history and spirit of the Black Arts Movement. Also featured is a more personal account found on Rudolph Lewis' Chicken Bone: A Journal, in an interview with Askia M. Toure.

We have created a literary "Wall of Respect," a work in progress, to acknowledge the contributions of writers of African descent. Take a minute and check this out. A special thanks to the African American Library and Cultural Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Pearl Woolridge and Wayne Draper of the special collections section and Pilar Ogbu-McNair and her friends, Kimberly Gayle and Brian Copeland for helping me put this table together.

Eugene B. Redmond is taking the new edition of Drumvoices Review #13 to California in late July and the first week in August.

California Poet Laureate Al Young gives us some perspective in his pieces, A Dance for Aging Hipsters, Myself When I am Real, Self Portrait Holding On and The Old Fashioned Cincinnati Blues. These are poems from some of his earlier volumes. Al Young has been good for a long time. Peabody Award winner Quincy Troupe submits for our consideration, Choruses for Allen Ginsberg, the remarkable Sestina for Thirty-Nine Silent Angels, and the lyrical Timeline of Breath and Music. Good Stuff. East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene Redmond brings something new and something old with a Kwansaba for Amiri Baraka called Ode to the Arched Bishop of New Ark, and four vintage pieces of verbal prestidigitation, Rain Desire Rain Desire, On Again; Off/Again, Bye Centennial: Unreflected Thrust and Frontiers. You will enjoy these! Henry Dumas offers the enjoyable Devil Bird. Felix Morrisseau-Leroy completes in this edition his epic Natif--Natal.

Geoffrey Philp gives us a sobering play called "Ogun's Last Stand." Preston Allen contitues to titilate those of us with the gambling jones with "Its a Gun, Its a Gun." The mysterious Changolita gives us the interesting piece From "Tales of the Nada and a wistful Untitled . CM Clark gives us two excellent pieces, Balancing Act and the teary Rehearsals for Losing You. Marc Awodey reprises some of the poetry he has published previously on his and other websites. This is the quintessential on-line poet. Michael Hettich gives us Cello Music, Before the Word Before, and Aunt Betty. We welcome California poet and a longtime friend, Reginald Lockett, to this issue of Asili. Reggie gives us three excellent pieces, Homeboy Adrift in Paris, Quarantine and An O.G. Reflects on a Murder His Daughter Witnessed.

Max Pierre gives an essay on Langston Hughes and his connection with the Black World, especially Haiti. He also gives us three strong poems, A Disoriented Young Man, Full With Love and the poignant I Don't Know Your Grave.

Adrian Castro gives us something new in WHAT NAME IS IN/ ÌKOSÈDÁYÈ and To Begin and something older in Mario's Jacket, a prose piece on coming to America Cubanito style and the mystical poem Ofun Twice Again. Your editor humbly submits the seventh installment in the saga of the boy avatar, Shango, in Iba Ochosi: Iba Olog Arare . He also commemorates the Black Arts Movement with the poem Remembering the Black Arts Movement. Finally, he gives us Reflections on the Tarot: 4 Sonnets.   Let's do it again!