Assesing African American Poetry

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In the last few years, African American literature has lost three of its most celebrated and eloquent poets: Margaret Walker, Sherley Anne Williams, and, most recently, Gwendolyn Brooks, each of whom receives thoughtful consideration in The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry, edited by Joanne V. Gabbin. This remarkably well-conceived volume, whose title alludes to Brooks' poem "Second Sermon on the Warpland," pays homage to the vitality of these women's works, to the cultural wealth of African Americans, and to the longstanding tradition of African American poetry. In her introduction, Gabbin observes that "whether Gwendolyn Brooks intended it or not, the term furious flower is a stunning metaphor for African American poetry because it implies a literature that is both rageful and resolute in its beauty." Several of the foremost scholars and critics of the African American poetic tradition share their insights in essays whose diverse critical perspectives testify to the richness of the tradition as well as to its ability to provoke thought and to stimulate critical dialogue. Gabbin also sprinkles lively conversations held with Michael S. Harper, Eugene Redmond, and Amiri Baraka as well as with Walker, Williams, and Brooks among these essays.