Stop by the display near the Reference Desk to explore works by Affrilachian Poets

 

A sampling of Affrilachian Poets

 

Affrilachia defined

Stop by the display near Reference to check out the following Affrilachian titles:

Books:

Cover Art Affrilachia by Frank X. Walker; Nyoka Hawkins (Editor, Designed by)
Publication Date: 2000
"This personal poetic narrative is a historic valuable offering . . . an eagle's-eye view into what it means to be young, Black, artistic, and male in Appalachia, as one century comes to an end and another begins."-- Nikky Finney, author of "Rice."
 
 
 
 
Cover Art Black Box by Frank X. Walker; Nyoka Hawkins (Designed by, Editor)
Publication Date: 2006
A powerful new collection from Frank X Walker, winner of the 2005 Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry. Featuring 68 poems on family, place, identity, and social justice, Black Box continues the brilliant autobiographical journey of Affrilachia, the author's groundbreaking first volume of poems. "The work of Frank X Walker is an eclectic, powerful mixture of liberating style, profound insight, and unwavering organic connection to the intellectual, political, and cultural struggles of a people. He stands in the tradition of DuBois, McKay, Robeson and Hughes." -- Ricky L. Jones, Black Haze.
 
Cover Art How Swallowtails Become Dragons by Bianca Spriggs; Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (Editor); 
Publication Date: 2011
"In How Swallowtails become Dragons, Bianca Spriggs proves herself to be a poet of metamorphosis - a shape shifter, a medium for the dead and imagined. She speaks for those long silenced and for those who remind us to never make a pact with our own silence. In these pages we meet Sweet Evenin' Breeze; Orfeu Negro; the Boabab Girl; and even Eurydice Thomas, a lazarus slave sold dead for parts. But in these pages we also meet a poet who is willing to welcome the wild into her own house, and even into her sleep - a poet willing to reach deep into the dark depth and mine that bit of light last remaining." --Rebecca Gayle Howell, Author of The Hatchet Buddha
 
Cover Art Kaffir Lily by Bianca Spriggs
Publication Date: 2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cover Art On my Mind by Jude McPherson
Publication Date: 2007-09-01
Raised somewhere between the tobacco fields and horse farms of Woodford County, Kentucky, Jude McPherson has been bending and stretching syllables as long as he can remember. 'on my mind' blends his insatiable love of hip-hop with heaping helpings of front porch tall tales and social consciousness into his writing. He has published two previous collections of poetry through blacoetry press; loves taxicab blues revisited (1998) and the book of jude (2000) .
 
Cover Art Black Bone by Bianca Lynne Spriggs (Editor); Jeremy Paden (Editor); Frank X. Walker (Contribution by)
Publication Date: 2018
The Appalachian region stretches from Mississippi to New York, encompassing rural areas as well as cities from Birmingham to Pittsburgh. Though Appalachia's people are as diverse as its terrain, few other regions in America are as burdened with stereotypes. Author Frank X Walker coined the term "Affrilachia" to give identity and voice to people of African descent from this region and to highlight Appalachia's multicultural identity. This act inspired a group of gifted artists, the Affrilachian Poets, to begin working together and using their writing to defy persistent stereotypes of Appalachia as a racially and culturally homogenized region. After years of growth, honors, and accomplishments, the group is acknowledging its silver anniversary with Black Bone. Edited by two newer members of the Affrilachian Poets, Bianca Lynne Spriggs and Jeremy Paden, Black Bone is a beautiful collection of both new and classic work and features submissions from Frank X Walker, Nikky Finney, Gerald Coleman, Crystal Wilkinson, Kelly Norman Ellis, and many others. This illuminating and powerful collection is a testament to a groundbreaking group and its enduring legacy.
 
DVD: 
 
Coal black voices : a documentary
Publication Date: 2001
"Coal Black voices is an intimate mosaic of images, poetry, and storytelling by the Affrilachian Poets as they glimpses of life in the American Black South and Appalachian region. The ensemble of African-American writers challenge simple notions of an all white Appalachian region and culture while drawing on the traditions such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the experiences of the African Diaspora. The poetry of the Afrilachian poets celebrates their African heritage and rural roots while encompassing themes of racism and Black identity. In this documentary they give voice to the pleasures of family, land, good food, artistic community, music and transformation"