Roses and revolutions : the selected writings of Dudley Randall / edited and with an introduction by Melba Joyce Boyd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Randall, Dudley, 1914-2000.

Contributor:

Boyd, Melba Joyce.

Series:

African American life series.

African American life series

Standardized Title:

Selections. 2009

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors.

American literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Dudley Randall was one of the foremost voices in African American literature during the twentieth century, best known for his poetry and his work as the editor and publisher of Broadside Press in Detroit. While he published six books of poetry during his life, much of his work is currently out of print or fragmented among numerous anthologies. Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall brings together his most popular poems with his lesser-known short stories, first published in The Negro Digest during the 1960s, and several of his essays, which profoundly influenced the direction and attitude of the Black Arts movement. Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall is arranged in seven sections: "Images from Black Bottom," "Wars: At Home and Abroad," "The Civil Rights Era," "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects," "Love Poems," "Dialectics of the Black Aesthetic," and "The Last Leap of the Muse." Poems and prose are mixed throughout the volume and are arranged roughly chronologically. Taken as a whole, Randall's writings showcase his skill as a wordsmith and his affinity for themes of love, human contradictions, and political action. His essays further contextualize his work by revealing his views on race and writing, aesthetic form, and literary and political history. Editor Melba Joyce Boyd introduces this collection with an overview of Randall's life and career. The collected writings in Roses and Revolutions not only confirm the talent and the creative intellect of Randall as an author and editor but also demonstrate why his voice remains relevant and impressive in the twenty-first century. Randall was named the first Poet Laureate of the City of Detroit and received numerous awards for his literary work, including the Life Achievement Award from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1986. Students and teachers of African American literature as well as readers of poetry will appreciate this landmark volume.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Introduction

Melba Joyce Boyd

Roses and Revolutions

IMAGES FROM BLACK BOTTOM

Essays

The Black Aesthetic in the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties

Poems

Old Witherington

For Pharish Pinckney, Bindle-Stiff during the Depression

Vacant Lot

Ghetto Girls

Laughter in the Slums

George

Short Stories

A Cup for the Loser

Victoria

WARS: AT HOME AND ABROAD

Memorial Wreath

The Southern Road

Legacy: My South

Games

Rx

Jailhouse Blues

The Apparition

Spring before a War

Helmeted Boy

Football Season

Pacific Epitaphs

The Ascent

Coral Atoll

Wait for Me (Zhdi Myenya)

My Native Land (Rodina)

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

Toward Mount Olympus: Ubi Sunt and Hic Sum

White Poet, Black Critic

The Cut Throat

Shoe Shine Boy

Incident on a Bus

Booker T. and W. E. B.

Ballad of Birmingham

Dressed All in Pink

Hymn

Frederick Douglass and the Slave Breaker

Interview

The Dilemma

Poet

Aphorisms

The Intellectuals

Straight Talk from a Patriot

Daily News Report

Blood Precious Blood

A Leader of the People

Essay

Melvin B. Tolson: Portrait of a Poet as Raconteur

POEMS ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS

Hail, Dionysos

Analysands

Winter Campus: Ann Arbor

Shape of the Invisible

Nocturne

Augury for an Infant

Belle Isle

Verse Forms

Poem, on a Nude, from the Ballet, to Debussy's Prelude L'Après-Midi D'un Faune, after Mallarme's L'Après-Midi D'un Faune

Killing a Bug

LOVE POEMS

I Loved You Once (Ya Vas Lyubil)

The Profile on the Pillow

Good to Be in You

Thunderstorm

Black Magic

The Brightness Moved Us Softly

Love Poem

Sanctuary

Love Song

April Mood

Loss

Green Apples

Anniversary Words

DIALECTICS OF THE BLACK AESTHETIC.

Essays

Black Power

Black Publisher, Black Writer: An Answer

Black Poet, White Critic

The Rite

Primitives

The Melting Pot

Justice

Langston Blues

Seeds of Revolution

An Answer to Lerone Bennett's Questionnaire On a Name for Black Americans

Put Your Muzzle Where Your Mouth Is (Or Shut Up)

The Idiot

Informer

F.B.I. Memo

Abu

The Militant Black Poet

Sniper

Tell It Like It Is

Beasts

After the Killing

To the Mercy Killers

Ancestors

A Different Image

In Africa

African Suite

Black Emotion and Experience: The Literature for Understanding

THE LAST LEAP OF THE MUSE

A Poet Is Not a Jukebox

My Muse

Translation from Chopin

Detroit Renaissance

Bag Woman

The Aging Whore

Poor Dumb Butch

To an Old Man

Afterword: Happiness

Appendix 1: Poetry Books by Dudley Randall, with Contents

Appendix 2: A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing

Selected Bibliography.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0-8143-3530-6

OCLC:

757553596