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Overview
“Over three centuries removed / From the scenes his fathers loved, / Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, / What is Africa to me?” In “Heritage,” Cullen investigates his relationship with the past as a black man raised in a nation his people were forced to build. His question bears a dual sense of genuine wonder and cynical doubt, and ultimately produces no easy answer. For Cullen could have just as easily asked “What is America to me?”, to which his poem “Incident” might respond: “I saw a Baltimorean / Keep looking straight at me. / […] / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, ‘Nigger.’ / […] Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I can remember.” In these lines, a single memory serves to define an entire city; an entire childhood, even, is defined by the violent response of a white man consumed with hatred. Cullen’s relationship to place, whether Africa, America, or Baltimore, is inextricably linked to his experience of racial violence. With this knowledge, he navigates the spaces between these places, inhabiting a language and a poetic tradition thrust upon him at birth. For Cullen, poetry is as much a means of survival and self-invention as it is a form of art—without it, where would he be?
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781513282381 |
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Publisher: | Mint Editions |
Publication date: | 03/24/2021 |
Series: | Black Narratives |
Pages: | 110 |
Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
To You Who Read My Book 11
Color
Yet Do I Marvel 17
A Song of Praise 18
Brown Boy to Brown Girl 19
A Brown Girl Dead 20
To a Brown Girl 21
To a Brown Boy 22
Black Magdalens 23
Atlantic City Waiter 24
Near White 25
Tableau 26
Harlem Wine 27
Simon the Cyrenian Speaks 28
Incident 29
Two Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses) 30
Two Who Crossed a Line (He Crosses) 31
Saturday's Child 32
The Dance of Love 33
Pagan Prayer 34
Wisdom Cometh With the Years 35
To My Fairer Brethren 36
Fruit of the Flower 37
The Shroud of Color 38
Heritage 44
Epitaphs
For a Poet 51
For My Grandmother 52
For a Cynic 53
For a Singer 54
For a Virgin 55
For a Lady I Know 56
For a Lovely Lady 57
For an Atheist 58
For an Evolutionist and His Opponent 59
For an Anarchist 60
For a Magician 61
For a Pessimist 62
For a Mouthy Woman 63
For a Philosopher 64
For an Unsuccessful Sinner 65
For a Fool 66
For One Who Gayly Sowed His Oats 67
For a Skeptic 68
For a Fatalist 69
For Daughters of Magdalen 70
For a Wanton 71
For a Preacher 72
For One Who Died Singing of Death 73
For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty 74
For Hazel Hall, American Poet 75
For Paul Lawrence Dunbar 76
For Joseph Conrad 77
For Myself 78
All the Dead 79
For Love's Sake
Oh, For a Little While Be Kind 83
If You Should Go 84
To One Who Said Me Nay 85
Advice to Youth 86
Caprice 87
Sacrament 88
Bread and Wine 89
Spring Reminiscence 90
Varia
Suicide Chant 93
She of the Dancing Feet Sings 94
Judas Iscariot 95
The Wise 98
Mary, Mother of Christ 99
Dialogue 100
In Memory of Col. Charles Young 101
To My Friends 102
Gods 103
To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time 104
On Going 106
Harsh World That Lashest Me 107
Requiescam 108