Breaking the silence : Anthology of Liberian poetry / edited by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wesley, Patricia Jabbeh, editor.

Series:

African poetry book series.

African poetry book series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Liberian poetry (English).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2023]

Summary:

Breaking the Silence is the first comprehensive collection of literature from Liberia since before the nation's independence. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley has gathered work from the 1800s to the present, including poets and emerging young writers exploring contemporary literary traditions with African and African diaspora poetry that transcends borders. In this collection, Liberia's founding settlers wrestle with their identity as African free slaves in the homeland from which their ancestors were captured, and writers of the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries find themselves navigating a landscape at odds with itself. From poets of Liberia's past to young writers of the present, the contributors to this volume celebrate the beauty of their nation while mourning the devastation of a long, bloody civil war.

Contents:

Introduction

Early Liberian Poetry, 1800-

Land of the Mighty Dead

Hymn / Hilary Teage

"All Hail, Liberia Hail," Liberian National Anthem

Wishing to Be "21" / Daniel Bashiel Warner

Heavenly Rest Implored

Rise, Take Up Thy Bed and Walk

Song of the First Emigrants to Cape Palmas / Robert H. Gibson

St Paul's River Liberia / Anonymous

The Emigrant's Hymn / Pierre

The Lone Star: A National Song

To Pauline-a Flirt

To Lygia

To Jealous Lygia

Human Greatness

Afric's Lament

The Race-Soul

The Ocean's Roar

Dawn

Song of the Harmattan

The Past / Edwin James Barclay

Part 2. Liberian Poetry, 1960-

O Maryland! Dear Maryland!

Land of the Beautiful

Cavalla Grand

Ode to Cape Mount

Divine Guidance / Rev. Father James David Kwee Baker

Is This Africa

Africa's Plea

The Lone Star Shines

When You Die-a Philosophy of Life

The Poet's Ear

Take the World Away, but Give Me Freedom

Go On and Do, Let the People Talk

To Man

The Pepper Bird Is Singing

Liberia in Verse and Song / Roland Tombekai Dempster

A Sonnet-the Poet's Soul

Ask Me Why

No Longer Yesterday

Because You Told Me

When You Sigh

At Sunset

Echoes of a Longing Heart

The Tom-Toms Beat No More / H. Carey Thomas

Ebony Dust

Monrovia Market Women

Africa in Retrospect

The Legend of Shad Tubman

A Wingless Bird

My Africa

The Bulldozer

The Hallelujah Stuff

Yana Boys

The Strength of a Nation

Ko Bomi hee m koa

Ba nya m go koma / Bai T. Moore

Dear Patrice Lumumba

Our Man on Broad Street

Unnamed Thing

Their Words-Deception

To Time Our Enemy

The Old Stream / Kona Khasu (James Roberts)

Part 3. Contemporary Liberian Poetry, 1990-Present

Who's on Watch?

Visiting Khufu

Oya (Wind in Cape Town)

A Different Kind of Pied Piper 2020

The Cat-Gods Have Fallen / Althea Romeo-Mark

Praise Song for My Children

November 12, 2015

What Took Us to War

When Monrovia Rises

I Want to Be the Woman

Biography When the Wanderers Come Home

We Departed Our Homelands and We Came

An Elegy for the St. Peter's Church Massacre

They Want to Rise Up

Pittsburgh

Monrovia Women

I'm Waiting / Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Part 4. Emerging and Aspiring Liberian Poets

Harper Nedee?

Oche Dike Ala (Grandma Has Gone) / Barth Akpah

A Woman

If

My Mother's Tale / Jee-Won Mawein Esika Arkoi

While Tomorrow Waits

Divided We Stand / Watchen Johnson Babalola

New Kru Town, Where I Come From

Darkness, the Surname of a Poor Lover

How to Write a Dirge for Liberia / Edwin Olu Bestman

Memories of Home

Curing My Mother's Wound

Genealogy of the Fourteen Pieces of Liberia

Maybe I'll Go Home / Edward K. Boateng

He Stole a Piece of Me / Tetee Alexandra Bonar

Identity / Chorlyn E. Chor

You Are Mine

Words in Portrait / Sunny Eddie Crawford

Deepu: A Definition of Divinity

Origins of the Poet Next Door

This Is Poetry / Arthur Shedrick Davies

Free Me / Maureen Jennifer Davies

Our Mother Is Gold

When a Rolling Stone Leaves Pebbles Behind

For Daughters Who May Never Be Mothers

For Women Who Are Water in Fields of Rice

From Coal Pots to Gas Stoves

I Wasn't Ready to Open My Eyes / Essah Cozett Diaz

The Brown Beauty

Who Is a Leader? / Mawata Dukuly

The Oppressed

I Am Nothing (Neutrality) / James Varney Dwalu

Where Were You? / Cynthia Senu Gailor

Quarantine in Hope / Daniel W. Garteh Jr.

Africa / Cherbo Geeplay

The Diary of an Orphan

Pain as Metaphor

West Point, Liberia / Aloysius S. Harmon

Nah Fooh, Nah Fooh

Grey Stone Blues

Mother and Daughter / Ruby M. Harmon

We Need to Pass It On / Quita Harvey

One World, One People / Laurel Iloani

The Ebola Ride

An Afro-Madrilen̳a Love Note / Patrice Juah

Ebony Perfection / McChen A. D. Kanneo

The Making of Grief

Elegy for a Friend / Jeremy Teddy Karn

My First Winter / Evelyn Kehleay-Miller

I Live Where Billboards Are Broken

Home / Kerry Adamah Kennedy

Water Birds

My Grieving Mother

Memorabilia / Janetta Konah

The Life of a Poet

My Father's Last Prayer / Nvesakie Konneh

Rock Your Jaws

You Post Stockade / Lekpele M. Nyamalon

Say Nothing / Jackie Sayegh

Sing to Me, Ade: On Reading "Praise Song for My Children" / Eunice Sua Seyaker

Ashes of My Heart / Lamelle Shaw

Nomad Child

The First Heartbeat / Mohamed Sheriff

Tragedies / Joshua T. G. Smith

Let's Be Cool / Prince U. D. Tardeh

Red Light / Augustine F. Taylor Jr.

Earth's a Battlefield

On Searching for Peace from Within

The Women of Monrovia Are Citizens of Heaven

Rebirth / Ayouba Toure

The Home in Ruin / Kulah K. Washington

Peace

If We Could Love Again / Vermon Washington

Monrovia Vagrants

Sit Down

Monrovia Flood / Othello Weh

The Secrets of September / Korto Williams

As If I Never Left / Masnoh Wilson.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781496235916

1496235916

OCLC:

1368312029