|
Rudolph Lewis and Amin Sharif, Editors
I Am New Orleans and Other Poems by Marcus B. Christian
New Orleans: Xavier University Press,
1999, 112p
A Labor
of Genuine Love
A Review by Herbert Rogers
This collection of poetry compiled and edited
by Lewis and Sharif opens with an introductory essay on the life
and works of Marcus Bruce Christian. Spanning four decades,
Christian wrote over two thousand poems and thousands of pages
of historical scholarship on blacks in Louisiana. Between 1922
and 1942, some of Christian’s poetry appeared in Opportunity
and Crisis magazines. But most of his poetry remained
unpublished.
While affiliated with the Federal Writers’
project, Christian no longer wrote in isolation of other African
American writers; he came into contact with his fellow
writers. Among the distinguished group of writers that Christian
met was Arna Bontemps, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, and
Margaret Walker. Unlike these writers, Christian was not
interested in free verse as he wrote in rhymed, metered verse.
The fifty poems selected in this collection
have been thematically grouped to allow the reader to capture
the range of Christian’s talent as a poet. There are poems
that consider the social role of the poet and others that
consider the perverse effects Jim Crow has on the natural
affections of men and women of different races. We, also, see
poems on the role of Africa and blackness in world politics and
humanity. The poem, the longest in the collection, expresses
Christian’s vision of New Orleans as a multiracial society.
Literacy critics and creative writers have
resurrected some of our finest writers. Henry Louis Gates’
research on Harriet Wilson’s
Our Nig comes to mind.
This text was lost to the reading public for over a century,
before Gates discovered its true significance. We cannot forget
Eugene Redmond in seeing that Henry Dumas’ work reached a
larger community, nor can we ignore the role of Alice Walker in
revitalizing interest in the extraordinary life and work of
Zora Neale Hurston.
We can now add the names of Rudolph Lewis and
Amin Sharif to this distinguished list of writers as critics.
And it was obviously for the editors, long before it reached a
stage of completion sufficient for a book, a labor of love.
* * * * *
Books by Henry Dumas
Ark of Bones
(1970) /
Poetry for
My People (1971) /
Play Ebony
Play Ivory (1974)
/
Jonah and the Green Stone
(1976)
Rope of Wind and Other Stories
(1979) /
Goodbye,
Sweetwater (1988) /
Knees of a Natural Man: The Selected
Poetry of Henry Dumas (1989)
Echo
Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
 |
Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * * *
|
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
By David Graeber
Before there was money, there was debt. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy. Economist Glenn Loury /Criminalizing a Race
|
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
posted 19 August 2005 / update 29 June 2008
|
