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Books by and about Dudley Randall
Julius E. Thompson. Dudley Randall,
Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit,
1960-1995. Jefferson: McFarland, 1999. 344 pp
The Black Poets.
Edited by Dudley Randall. A Bantam Book 1971.
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Dudley Randall
Randall, a librarian by training and trade . . . figures
prominently in the development of an audience for the
new black poetry. Randall also served in World War II
and writes poems about the war, love, violence, art, and
the black presence. His well known "Booker T. and W.E.B.,"
digesting the Washington-Du Bois controversy, was seen
by Du Bois, and this pleased Randall. The poem first
appeared in Midwest Journal, 1952. Randall has also
written about and translated Russian poetry.
Dudley Randall-- Publishe, Editor, Poet
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Black Magic
By Dudley Randall
Black girl black girl
lips as curved as cherries
full as grape bunches
sweet as blackberries
Black girl black girl
when you walk you are
magic as a rising bird
or a falling star
Black girl black girl
what’s your spell to make
the heart in my breast
jump
stop shake
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The Poetry of Black
America. Copyright © 1973 by Arnold
Adoff. Introduction copyright © 1973 by
Gwendolyn Brooks Blakely • Harper & Row •
New York, N.Y. 10022 |
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Books by Audre Lorde
Sister
Outsider: Essays and Speeches /
The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde /
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
The
Black Unicorn: Poems /
A Burst of Light /
The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power /
Cancer Journals
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Audre Lorde
After graduating
from high school, she attended Hunter College from 1954
to 1959, graduating with a bachelors degree. While
studying library science, Lorde supported herself
working various odd jobs: factory worker, ghost writer,
social worker, X-ray technician, medical clerk, and arts
and crafts supervisor. In 1954, she spent a pivotal year
as a student at the National University of Mexico, a
period described by Lorde as a time of affirmation and
renewal because she confirmed her identity on personal
and artistic levels as a lesbian and poet. On her return
to New York, Lorde went to college, worked as a
librarian, continued writing, and became an active
participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village.
Lorde furthered her education at Columbia University,
earning a master’s degree in library science in 1961.
During this time she also worked as a librarian at Mount
Vernon Public Library and marred attorney Edward Ashley
Rollins; they later divorced in 1970 after having two
children, Elizabeth and Johnathan. In 1966, Lorde became
head librarian at Town School Library in New York City
where she remained until 1968. (BK)
Lorde Life
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Naturally
By Audre Lorde
Since
Naturally Black is Naturally Beautiful
I must be
proud
And,
naturally
Black and
Beautiful
Who always
was a trifle
Yellow
And plain,
though proud,
Before.
Now I've
given up pomades
Having spent
the summer sunning
And feeling
naturally free
(if I die of skin cancer
oh well -- one less
black and beautiful me)
Yet no
agency spends millions
To prevent
my summer tanning
And who
trembles nightly
With the
fear of their lily cities being swallowed
By a summer
ocean of naturally wooly hair?
But I've
bought my can of
Natural Hair
Spray
Made and
marketed in Watts
Still
thinking more
Proud
beautiful Black women
Could better
make and use
Black bread.
Source:
In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection
of African American Poetry, edited
by E. Ethelbert Miller. Illustrated by
Terrance Cummings. New York: Stewart, Tabori
& Chang, 1994. |
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Other Poetry Collections
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posted 15 April 2008 |