Product Description

The first collection of selected poetry from perhaps the preeminent African American literary figure of our time. Baraka almost single-handedly changed both the nature and the form of post-World War II African-American literature, and this volume is an important contribution to Modernist literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142143 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The poems selected here span from Baraka's first collection, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961), to the long poem Wise, Why's, Y'z, published earlier this year. The best work here has been culled from his second and third books, The Dead Lecturer (1964) and Black Magic (1969). Despite coming out of distinct phases in Baraka's life (the former when he was a book Beat, by the latter he'd become black nationalist), these works combine the personal and political in highly charged ways. When Baraka writes of "the roaring harmonies of need" or of "stumbling over our souls in the dark, for the sake of unnatural advantage," he succeeds as both an activist and a poet. However, as revolutionary politics increasingly intrude, Baraka seems largely to abandon the craft of poetry for the the broader strokes of diatribe and rant ("dont tell me shit about the tradition of slavemasters/ & henry james... "). However disappointing much of this later work may be, it is readily argued that Baraka's influential work prefigured rap and the current vogue of spoken-word performances and poetry slams. This collection provides a useful overview of his work.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the editor of this critically important collection explains in his foreword, the title Transbluesency derives from a 1946 Duke Ellington composition. The entire book resonates with jazz rhythms and homages to Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. This use of jazz as inspiration and artistic model is just one of many signs that Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) came of age during the Beat movement and remains perhaps its truest practitioner. His poems are aggressive challenges to the status-quo, relying on daring images, short chant-like lines, neologisms, slang, blues lyrics, and scat-singing: "BaBa Ree Bopp/Ooo Shoobie/Doobie." Transbluesency is a chronicle of nearly 40 years of poetic output, from "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" (1961) to "Wise, Why's, Y's" (1995). In an era when celebrated African American poets like Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa are writing highly literary verse, Baraka raucously celebrates "negritude." Highly recommended.?Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Life of a Revolutionary Poet
This book is not for those sensitive to raw material. But if you're a fan of Mr. Baraka, this book is a 40-year collection, and a definite must for your bookshelf. In the words of Mr. Baraka, "Can you stand such beauty? So violent and transforming." This line from his poem "Return of the Native" encompasses all that is Transbluency. This book is for the true fan of protest poetry. Mr. Baraka uses blues and jazz rhythms as well as the natural essence of words to express himself in amazing ways. I enjoy this book not only because I am a fan, but because it is rare to find a poet who has mastered the art of poetic language and imagery.

word beat
Baraka's "Best Of..." collection is quite simply a must-read for any person with an interest in 20th century poetry. The words almost leap out against you when you open the book, and the language is mind-bending. Try to read these poems aloud to yourself, and you might just get the word-kick of a lifetime. Oop Bop Sh'Bam...