A Reader's Advisory, readalike and new book blog. From Long Island with a Brentwood slant.
Gayatri Singh (References Services Coordinator & Librarian for Communication at the Social Sciences & Humanities Library, UC San Diego) brought Regina Andrews to our attention and shared this information from a talk at her library by Ethelene Whitmire (UW-Madison):
Regina Andrews…
Her Lips Are Copper Wire
whisper of yellow globes
gleaming on lamp posts that sway
like bootleg licker drinkers in the fog
and let your breath be moist against me
like bright beads on yellow globes
telephone the power-house
that the main wires are insulate
(her words play up and down
dewy corridors of billboards)
then with your tongue remove the tape
and press your lips to mine
till they are incandescent
-Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer is considered one of the founders of the Harlem Renaissance, and his work Cane is considered one of the greatest American works of the past century. It details through the styles of dialect, playwright form, vignettes, repetition and short stories the movement of Northeners back to the South in early 20th Century America. A classic because of its style and the way one identifies oneself, Toomer never picked up these themes again. As a result, he’s not as widely known as other Harlem Renaissance authors, but not for the lack of quality. Pick up Cane at the library today.
“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems
Pick up a copy of Langston Hughes Work by clicking on the link here.
Happy 99th Birthday Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) “The world is a possibility if only you’ll discover it.”
Pick up the books of the African-American Literary Master at your local library, by clicking here.
Thanks NYLA / Empire State Center for the Book
“For A Poet”
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold;
Where long will cling the lips of the moth,
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth;
I hide no hate; I am not even wroth
Who found the earth’s breath so keen and cold;
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold.
—Countee Cullen
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen (born today in 1903; d.1946).
Pick up My Soul’s High Song : The Collected writings of Countee Cullen, voice of the Harlem Renaissance at Brentwood by clicking here. We also have the Spoken Arts Treasury, a CD with 100 American Poets reading their own Poetry. Countee Cullen is on the CD, reading his poem Heritage.
