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Book

The BreakBeat poets : new American poetry in the age of hip-hop

Call Number

  • 811 C8731.4 (POW)

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Publication Information

Chicago : Haymarket Books, ©2015.

Physical Description

xxii, 350 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Summary

"This is the first anthology of poems by and for the hip-hop generation . . . It includes more than four decades of poets and covers the birth to the now of hip-hop culture and music and style"--page xv.

Contents

  • Kevin Coval : Introduction
  • Randall Horton (1961) : An (i)witness say he still had the mike in his hand
  • Joel Dias-Porter aka DJ Renegade (1962) : Turning the tables ; Wednesday poem
  • Thoas Sayers Ellis (1963) : An excerpt from Crank shaped notes
  • Quraysh Ali Lansana (1964) : Mascot ; Crack house ; Seventy-first & King Drive
  • Evie Shockley (1965) : Duck, duck, redux ; Post-white
  • Tony Medina (1966) : Everything you wanted to know about hip hop but where afraid to be hipped for fear of being hopped ; The keepin' it real awards
  • Willie Perdomo (1967) : Shit to write about ; Word to everything I love ; Writing about what you know
  • Mario (1967) : Agate
  • Roger Bonair-Agard (1968) : Honorific or black boy to black boy ; Fast - how I knew ; In defense of the code-switch or why you talk like that or why you gotta always be cussing
  • Lynne Procope (1969) : Shine (for Joe Bataan) ; All night
  • Patrick Rosal (1969) : B-boy infinitives ; Kundiman ending on a theme from t la rock ; A note to Thomas Alva ; Ode to the cee-lo players
  • Tracie Morris : Untitled
  • Jason Carney (1970) : America's pastime
  • LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs (1970) : Who you callin' a jynx? (after mista popo) ; Damn right it's betta than yours ; Gamin' gabby
  • Mitchell L. H. Douglas (1970) : Manifesto, or ars poetica #2 ; Preface to a twenty volume homicide note
  • Adrian Matejka (1971) : Beat boxing ; Robot music
  • Jessica Care Moore (1971) : mic check, 1-2
  • John Murillo (1971) : Ode to the crossfader ; 1989 ; Renegades of funk
  • Francine J. Harris (1972) : Stitches ; Pull down the earth ; This is a test
  • T'ai Freedom Ford (1973) : How to get over (senior to freshman) ; how to get over (for my niggas) ; how to get over (for Kanye)
  • Suheir Hammad (1973) : Break (rebirth) ; Break (sister) ; Break (embargo)
  • Marty McConnell (1973) : The world tells how the world ends ; Object
  • John Rodriguez (1973-2013) : Bronx bombers ; What I saw was not your funeral ; At my best
  • Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie (1973) : Paper bag poems ; Global warming blues ; Sunday ; Possible (for Amiri Baraka)
  • Tara Betts (1974) : Hip hop analogies ; Switch
  • Paolo Javier (1974) : From all convulsions
  • Douglas Kearney (1974) : Quantum spit ; No homo ; Drop it like it's hottentot venus
  • Avery R. Young (1974) : A prayer fo mama Brenda Matthews (warrior brew) ; After an artis(t) talk
  • Lemon Andersen (1975) : The future
  • Michael Cirelli (1975) : The message ; Astronomy (8th light)
  • Kevin Coval (1975) : The crossover ; Jewtown ; Molemen beat tapes ; White on the block
  • Jericho Brown (1976) : Motherland
  • Mahogany L Browne (1976) : When 12 play was on repeat ; Upon viewing the death of basquiat ; nameless
  • Aracelis Girmay (1977) : Elegy in gold ; Break
  • Idris Goodwin (1977) : Say my name ; Old ladies and dope boys ; These are the breaks
  • Enzo Silon Surin (1977) : Corners
  • Mayda Del Valle (1978) : It's just begun
  • Denizen Kane (1978) : Ciphers pt. 1 ; Vigil pt. 1
  • Paul Martinez Pompa : I have a drone
  • Kyle Dargan (1980) : Crews ; Slang ; O.P.P.
  • Tarfia Faizullah (1980) : 100 bells : Nocturne in need of a bitch ; Blossoms in the dark ; Self-portrait as slinky
  • Samantha Thornhill (1980) : Elegy for a trojan ; Ode to a star fig ; Ode to gentrification ; Ode to a killer whale
  • Aleshea Harris (1981) : Harbor
  • Jacob Saenz (1982) : Evolution of my block ; Evolution of my profile ; GTA : Sandreas (or, 'Grove Street bitch!')
  • Nadia Sulayman (1982) : Bint ibrahim
  • Sarah Blake (1984) : Ha ha hum ; Adventures
  • Adam Falkner (1984) Small poems for big
  • Marcus Wicker (1984) : Stakes is high ; When I'm alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call ; Ars poetica in the mode of j-live ; Bonita applebum
  • Michael Mlekoday (1985) : Self portrait with gunshot vernacular ; Self portrait from the other side ; Thaumaturgy
  • Kristiana Colon (1986) : To the notebook kid
  • Ciara Miller (1987) : In search of black birds
  • Morgan Parker (1987) : Let me handle my business, damn
  • Joshua Bennett (1988) : When asked about my hometown : an admission ; When asked about my hometown : an anecdote ; Love letter to Zack, the black power ranger
  • Alysia Nicole Harris (1988) : When I put my hands in the air it's praise
  • Britteney Black Rose Kapri (1988) : Winthrop Ave. ; We house : after Krista Franklin's definition of funk
  • Angel Nafis (1988) : Legend ; Ghazal for my sister ; Conspiracy : A suite ; Gravity
  • Jose Olivarez (1988) : Ode to the first white girl I ever loved ; Home court
  • Joy Priest (1988) : No country for black boys
  • Ocean Vuong (1988) : Always & forever ; Self-portrait as exit wounds ; Prayer for the newly damned ; Daily bread
  • Fatimah Asghar (1989) : When tip drill comes on at the frat party or, when refusing to twerk is a radical form of self-love ; Unemployment ; Pluto shits on the universe
  • Franny Choi (1989) : Pussy monster ; Impulse buy
  • Nate Marshall (1989) : On caskets ; Prelude ; Picking flowers ; Juke
  • Aaron Samuels (1989) : Broken ghazal in the voice of my brother jacob
  • Danez Smith (1989) : Cue the gangsta rap when my knees bend ; Twerk (v.) ; Dinosaurs in the hood ; Dear white America
  • Jamila Woods (1989) : Defense ; Blk girl art ; Deep in the homeroom of doom ; Daddy dozens
  • Benjamin Alfara (1990) : What the eyes saw
  • Safia Elhillo (1990) : A suite for ol' dirty
  • Aziza Barnes (1992) : Juicy (an erasure)
  • Camonghne Felix (1992) : Badu interviews Lamar (an erasure) ; Police
  • Steven Willis (1992) : Beat writers
  • Reed Bobroff (1993) : Four elements of ghostdance
  • Malcolm London (1993) : Grand slam
  • Kush Thompson (1994) : This, here
  • E'mon McGee (1996) : My niece's hip-hop
  • Angel Pantoja (1997) : Murder is my name
  • Nile Lansana (1997) and Onam Lansana (1999) : Lesson one
  • Ars poeticas & essays
  • Quraysh Ali Lansana : Art, artiface, & artifact
  • T'ai Freedom Ford : Artist statement
  • Michael Mlekoday : Artist statement
  • Douglas Kearney : Artist statement
  • Angel Nafis : Artist statement
  • Aziza Barnes : A locus of control and the erasure
  • Tara Betts : Life is good : How hip-hop channels duende
  • roger Bonair-Agard : Journeying to the break : The cost of the pilgrimage
  • Patrick Rosal : The art of the mistake : Some notes on breaking as making
  • Nate Marshall : Blueprint for breakbeat writing
  • Reprinted poems
  • Acknowledgments
  • Biographies.

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