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The complete collected poems of Maya Angelou. by They went home -- Gamut -- Zorro man -- To a man -- Late October -- No loser, no weeper -- When you come to me -- Remembering -- In a time -- Tears -- Detached -- To a husband -- Accident -- Let's majeste -- After -- Mothering blackness -- On diverse deviations -- Mourning grace -- How I can lie to you -- Sounds Like Pearls -- When I Think About Myself -- On a Bright Day, Next Week -- Letter to an Aspiring Junkie -- Miss Scarlett, Mr. Rhett and other latter-day saints -- Times-Square-shoeshine-composition -- Faces -- To a freedom fighter -- Riot : 60's -- We saw beyond our seeming -- Black ode -- No no no no -- My guilt -- The Calling of names -- On working white liberals -- Sepia fashion show -- Thirteens (Black) -- Thirteens (White) -- Harlem hopscotch -- Pickin em up and layin em down -- Here's to adhering -- On reaching forty -- Telephone -- Passing time -- Now long ago -- Greyday -- Poor girl -- Come, and be my baby -- Senses of Insecurity -- alone -- Communication I -- Communication II -- Wonder -- Conceit -- Request -- Africa -- America -- For us, who dare not dare -- Lord, in my heart -- Artful pose -- Couple -- Pusher -- Chicken-Licken -- I almost remember -- Prisoner -- Woman me -- John J. -- Southeast Arkanasia -- Song for the old ones -- Child dead in old seas -- Take time out -- Elegy -- Reverses -- Little girl speakings -- This winter day -- Kind of love, some say -- Country lover -- Remembrance -- Where we belong, a duet -- Phenomenal woman -- Men -- Refusal -- Just for a time -- Junkie monkey reel -- Lesson -- California prodigal -- My Arkansas -- Through the inner city to the Suburbs -- Lady Luncheon Club -- Momma welfare roll -- Singer will not sing -- Willie -- To beat the child was bad enough -- Woman work -- One more round -- Traveler -- Kin -- Memory -- Still I rise -- Ain't that bad? -- Life doesn't frighten me -- Bump d'bump -- On aging -- In retrospect -- Just like Job -- Call Letters: Mrs. V. B. -- Thank you, Lord.
Awaking in New York -- Good woman feeling bad -- Health-food diner -- Georgia song -- Unmeasured tempo -- Amoebaean for Daddy -- Recovery -- Impeccable conception -- Caged bird -- Avec merci, Mother -- Arrival -- Plagued journey -- Starvation -- Contemporary announcement -- Prelude to a parting -- Martial choreograph -- To a suitor -- Insomniac -- Weekend glory -- Lie -- Prescience -- Family affairs -- Changes -- Brief innocence -- Last decision -- Slave Coffle -- Shaker, why don't you Sing? -- My life has turned to blue -- Worker's song -- Human family -- Man bigot -- Old Folks laugh -- Is love -- Forgive -- Insignificant -- Love Letter -- Equality -- Coleridge Jackson -- Why Are They Happy People? -- Son to Mother -- Known to Eve and Me -- These Yet to Be United States -- Me and My work -- Changing -- Born that way -- Televised -- Nothing much -- Glory Falls -- London -- Savior -- Many and more -- New house -- Our grandmothers -- Preacher, don't send me -- Fightin' was natural -- Loss of love -- Seven women's blessed assurance -- In my Missouri -- They ask why -- Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield -- On the pulse of morning.Call Number: PS3551 .N464 A17 1994ISBN: 067942895X -
Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison, the only living American Nobel laureate in literature, published her first novel in 1970. In the ensuing forty plus years, Morrison's work has become synonymous with the most significant literary art and intellectual engagements of our time. The publication of Home (May 2012), as well as her 2011 play Desdemona affirm the range and acuity of Morrison's imagination. Toni Morrison: Forty Years in The Clearing enables audiences/readers, critics, and students to review Morrison's cultural and literary impacts and to consider the import, and influence of her legacies in her multiple roles as writer, editor, publisher, reader, scholar, artist, and teacher over the last four decades. Some of the highlights of the collection include contributions from many of the major scholars of Morrison's canon: as well as art pieces, music, photographs and commentary from poets, Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez; novelist, A.J. Verdelle; playwright, Lydia Diamond; composer, Richard Danielpour; photographer, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders; the first published interview with Morrison's friends from Howard University, Florence Ladd and Mary Wilburn; and commentary from President Barack Obama. What distinguishes this book from the many other publications that engage Morrison's work is that the collection is not exclusively a work of critical interpretation or reference. This is the first publication to contextualize and to consider the interdisciplinary, artistic, and intellectual impacts of Toni Morrison using the formal fluidity and dynamism that characterize her work. This book adopts Morrison's metaphor as articulated in her Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, Beloved. The narrative describes the clearing as "a wide-open place cut deep in the woods nobody knew for what. . . . In the heat of every Saturday afternoon, she sat in the clearing while the people waited among the trees." Morrison's Clearing is a complicated and dynamic space. Like the intricacies of Morrison's intellectual and artistic voyages, the Clearing is both verdant and deadly, a sanctuary and a prison. Morrison's vision invites consideration of these complexities and confronts these most basic human conundrums with courage, resolve and grace. This collection attempts to reproduce the character and spirit of this metaphorical terrain.Call Number: PS3563.O8749 Z9134 2015 -
The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia by Intended for lay readers and scholars alike, this reference offers a convenient overview of her life and achievements. The first book of its kind, this reference offers hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries on Morrison's works, major characters, themes, and other topics. Lengthier essays cover each of her novels, along with various approaches to her writings. Each of the entries was written by an expert contributor, and many close with suggestions for further reading. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography of major studies. All told, this book provides a remarkable overview of Morrison's primary concerns and achievements, charting a helpful course for readers who wish to venture deeper into the work of this extraordinary author. Toni Morrison is arguably the most popular and significant contemporary African American author of all time. As a writer, she personifies courage, blending the personal and the political and doing so in a way that resonates for readers of every age, race, ethnicity, and gender. Her stories are imagined in language that is both graceful and powerful--a truly poetic prose. Morrison's works have received increased scholarly attention, and her contributions were formally recognized around the world when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.Call Number: PS3563.O8749 Z913 2003 -
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 by Winner of the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry "The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 may be the most important book of poetry to appear in years."--Publishers Weekly "All poetry readers will want to own this book; almost everything is in it."--Publishers Weekly "If you only read one poetry book in 2012,The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton ought to be it."--NPR "The 'Collected Clifton' is a gift, not just for her fans...but for all of us."--The Washington Post "The love readers feel for Lucille Clifton--both the woman and her poetry--is constant and deeply felt. The lines that surface most frequently in praise of her work and her person are moving declarations of racial pride, courage, steadfastness."--Toni Morrison, from the Foreword The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 combines all eleven of Lucille Clifton's published collections with more than fifty previously unpublished poems. The unpublished poems feature early poems from 1965-1969, a collection-in-progress titledthe book of days (2008), and a poignant selection of final poems. An insightful foreword by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and comprehensive afterword by noted poet Kevin Young frames Clifton's lifetime body of work, providing the definitive statement about this major America poet's career. On February 13, 2010, the poetry world lost one of its most distinguished members with the passing of Lucille Clifton. In the last year of her life, she was named the first African American woman to receive the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honoring a US poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition," and was posthumously awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America. "mother-tongue: to man-kind" (from the unpublishedthe book of days): all that I am asking is that you see me as something more than a common occurrence, more than a woman in her ordinary skin.Call Number: PS3553 .L45 2012 -
Alice Walker by This biography explores Alice Walker's life experiences and her lifework in context of her philosophical thought, and celebrates the author's creative genius and heroism. * Represents the only biography that offers a philosophical examination of this deeply philosophical artist-activist * Provides insightful perspectives on negotiating our ever-changing and volatile worldCall Number: PS3573.A425 Z85 2017
Online Articles and Websites
Online From CCBC Libraries
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Maya Angelou by A comprehensive biographical and critical reading of the works of American poet and memoirist Maya Angelou (1928-2014). Linda Wagner-Martin covers all six of Angelou's autobiographies, as well as her essay and poetry collections, while also exploring Angelou's life as an African American in the United States, her career as stage and film performer, her thoughtful participation in the Civil Rights actions of the 1960s, and her travels abroad in Egypt, Africa, and Europe. In her discussion of Angelou's methods of writing her stunning autobiography, which began with the 1970 publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Wagner-Martin writes about the influences of the Harlem Writers Group (led by James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and John O. Killens) as well as Angelou's significant friendships with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders from both international and African American United States cultures. Crucial concepts throughout include the role of oral traditions, of song and dance, of the spiritualism of art based on religious belief, of Angelou's voiced rhythms and her polished use of dialogue to convey more abstract "meaning." Wagner-Martin shows that, viewing herself as a global citizen, Angelou never lost her spirit of adventure and discovery as well as her ability to overcome.Publication Date: 2015 -
The Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison has written some of the most significant and demanding fiction of the modern age. Her dazzling depictions of African-American experience are studied in high schools and colleges, debated in the media and analyzed by scholars at an astounding rate. This Introduction offers readers a guide to the world of Morrison in all its complexity, from her status as a key player on the global intellectual stage to her unique perspective on American history and her innovative narrative techniques. Covering every novel from The Bluest Eye to A Mercy, Tessa Roynon combines close readings with critical insights into Morrison's other creative work, such as short stories, libretto and song lyrics and unpublished pieces for performance. Lively and accessibly written, Roynon's insightful text is ideal for readers approaching Morrison for the first time as well as those familiar with her work.Publication Date: 2012 -
Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison has pinpointed the 'trauma of racism' as 'the severe fragmentation of the self' (Morrison, Unspeakable 214), and her works are dedicated to envisioning for African Americans ways of defining and developing identity for themselves, their community, and their literary tradition. As towering and daunting as this tripartite purpose may be, Morrison has achieved even more.Writing within the African American vernacular tradition and creating literature about and for African Americans (for she writes Without the White Gaze; qtd. in Houston 4), Morrison gifts us with works (novels, essays, a play) that speak to and for all humankind, earning her a global audience as well as international accolades, awards, and ever-expanding critical study.Publication Date: 2009 -
Ernest J. Gaines by Drawing on his rich Louisiana past, Ernest J. Gaines creates a fictional world representative of the human experience. His work explores the complex racial relationships--so much a part of Southern history and culture--and the unwritten and unspoken conventions of caste and class. Often structured around journeys of discovery, Gaines' works affirm the integrity of the individual and the unequivocal place in American life for Americans of African descent. This study offers a clear, accessible reading of Gaines' fiction. It analyzes in turn all of Gaines' novels as well as his collection of short stories. A complete bibliography of Gaines' fiction, as well as selected reviews and criticism, completes the study. Following a biographical chapter on Gaines' life, an overview of his fiction explores his work in light of his literary heritage and use of genre. Each of the following chapters examines an individual novel: Catherine Carmier (1964), Of Love and Dust (1967), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), In My Father's House (1978), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), A Lesson Before Dying (1994), and a collection of short stories, Bloodline (1968). The discussion of each work includes sections on plot and character development, thematic issues, and an alternative critical approach from which to read the novel. Carmean shows how each of Gaines' novels focuses on themes of personal value and place and affirms the need for recognizing the value of the individual, regardless of race. This study will help readers to understand the compelling issue of human relationships raised by Gaines and to see why he is one of America's finest writers.Publication Date: 1998 -
Understanding John Edgar Wideman by Among the many gifted African American authors who emerged in the 1970s and 80s, John Edgar Wideman is one of the most challenging and innovative. His analytical mind can turn almost any topic into an intellectual adventure, whether it is playground basketball, the blues, the prison experience, father-son relationships, or the stories he lived or heard growing up in the impoverished section of Pittsburgh known as Homewood. In Understanding John Edgar Wideman, D. Quentin Miller offers a comprehensive overview of Wideman's writings, which range from the critically acclaimed books of the Homewood Trilogy to lesser known writings such as the early novels A Glance Away and The Lynchers. Notably Miller includes the first scholarly analysis of Writing to Save a Life, Wideman's recently published meditation on the military trial and execution of the father of civil rights martyr Emmett Till. In his fiction, nonfiction, and works that artfully combine both forms, Wideman has employed a multilayered and often difficult writing style in order to explore a wide range of topics. Miller tackles such topics as African American folk history, the intersection of personal and public history, the confluence of oral and written traditions, and the quest for meaning in nihilistic urban settings where black families struggle against crime, poverty, and despair. Miller also shows how Wideman's singular personal history is interwoven into his writings. His impressive accomplishments, including an Ivy League education and numerous literary honors, have come alongside family tragedies. By the time his sixth novel was published, both his brother and son were serving life sentences for murder, a source of anguish that he wrestled with in Brothers and Keepers and Fatheralong. Wideman writes with such authority on so many subjects that readers frequently have no idea what to expect with a new publication. Understanding John Edgar Wideman is thus a necessary guide to a prolific, varied, and essential oeuvre.Publication Date: 2018
Databases
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Gale Literary SourcesArticles and essays on literary criticism, and biographies of authors from many countries.
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Humanities International CompleteArticles and ebooks about humanities topics like arts, history, language, law, literature, philosophy, and politics.
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Oxford African American Studies CenterArticles and scholarly essays, historical newspaper articles, primary sources, and timelines you can use for African American topics.