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Joseph
Harrington
OK
- so I'm teaching a course on "Documentary Poetry" next semester - a
seminar for senior honors students. I want to teach docupoems by African
American poets. I'm thinking about Cecil Giscombe, but am worried he might fry
them. I could do Don't Let Me Be Lonely. Other ideas?
Mark
Wallace Too obvious, of course, and not recent: Langston Hughes, "Montage
of a Dream Deferred," and Melvin Tolson, Harlem Gallery.
Joseph
Harrington You're right, Mark - I think I'm going to include at least one of
those.
Dennis
EtzelJr Don't Let Me Be Lonely! Love that one. How about the latest Kevin Young
one around the Amistad?
Joseph
Harrington O right - have you read it, Dennis?
Dennis
EtzelJr No, I haven't. I remember how different it looks. Less like his
stanzas, more like documents, letters.
Catherine
Daly though it would be a shame to do young's Amistad without Barbara Chase-Ribaud...
Dennis
EtzelJr Nice!
Ben
Friedlander If you are including Rukeyser, might be good to add Robert Hayden's
"Middle Passage," which drew on her Amistad research. There's also
Gwendolyn Brooks's "verse journalism," her poem "In
Montgomery," first published in a special issue of Ebony on the state of
the South. I suspect you could fit Jay Wright in too, if you like his work, as
an instance of Dogon research.
Jena
Osman don't know if you can include Caribbean: Trench Town Rock by Kamau
Brathwaite
Jena
Osman and for Tolson you might want to try his Libretto for the Republic of
Liberia
Catherine
Daly Cesaire
Jena
Osman again, not American (as in U.S.), but certainly addressing issues of
race: Nourbese Philip's Zong
Michele
Battiste Camille Dungy's Suck on the Marrow
Michele
Battiste Tyehimba Jess's Leadbelly
Ben
Friedlander Thinking too that the documentary status of African American poetry
has been at issue from Wheatley on, which ought to be addressed. And in that
light would propose God's Trombones as exemplary: it's documentary in method
while making a case for the sermon's own status as document.
Rosa
Alcala Yes, Jena Osman, Trench Town Rock, although its Caribbean. And Natasha
Trethewey. I even want to put Mullen's S*PeRM**K*T in there.
Rosa
Alcala it's
Rosa
Alcala I think Ben's right, and to consider Hughes' work as documentary is to
delve into matters of" "authenticity" vs. artistic
expression/representation.
Rosa
Alcala I want to take your class, Joe!
Joseph
Harrington These are great ideas, folks! Thank you! Ben, hadn't known re: the
Rukeyser/Hayden connection - definitely doing Book of the Dead, maybe
Mediterraneo. But Jay Wright? His stuff fries *me* (tho I like the sound of it
quite a bit). And excellent point Re: Af-Am poetry (lit.) being taken *as*
documentary. Jena - yeah, those are on my short-list. But I also have an eye on
this NEH seminar we're having this summer re: teaching African-American poetry
(per se). Michele - thanks for mentioning Suck on the Marrow as a docupoem -
that was one I was thinking of. More voice-based than most stuff I'm doing, but
that's precisely what's at issue, in that book. Rosa - why S*perM*k*t as
docupo? B/c of the lyrics, ads, etc?
Joseph
Harrington My cup runneth over! I'm running to get another cup! Keep 'em comin!
Rosa
Alcala I know it's a stretch, but I'm thinking of the ways it documents this
commercial space. Of course, it's not investigative in the usual sense, in its
direct or collaged use of sources. But, I wouldn't consider Hughes' Montage
investigative or documentary.
Lee
Chapman What do you mean Giscombe might fry them? He's an excellent docupoem
proponent. Would frying them be a good thing or a bad thing?
Sarah
Fox Zong is amazing, I second that, and have taught parts of it with great
success.
Susan
Schweik I've taught Cecil's "Indianapolis, Indiana" to nonmajors
even. With a lot of framing about the Tribe of Ishmael. Very fun. Even did it
again.
Joseph
Harrington Thanks, Sue!! I was looking for some encouragement. I'm thinking
honors students here = regular students at Berkeley, in terms of prep. Do you
have any resources re: Tribe of Ishmael that you'd recommend?
Susan
Schweik I've got something unpublished written on it I can send you!
Joseph
Harrington Thanks!!
Don
Byrd Paul Metcalf
Goro
Takano Wish I could take your course, Joe.
Dale
Martin Smith Lorenzo Thomas--Dancing on Main Street--Chances Are Few, etc
Dale
Martin Smith Also M. Nourbese Philips' ZONG
Aldon
Lynn Nielsen
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/nyregion/amiri-baraka-newark-poet-looks-back-on-a-bloody-week-in-1967.html?_r=0
Aldon
Lynn Nielsen I hadn't jumped in yet because I wasn't clear from the comments
how people were defining "documentary" -- but if Montage of a Dream
Deferred qualifies, then certainly Baraka's WISE does. And check out that piece
in today's NY TIMES.
Rachel
Blau DuPlessis There's something about the few prose poems by Fenton Johnson
that might help out here.
Joseph
Harrington I'm not sure I've ever read them, Rachel - book?
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