Joanne V. Gabbin, Judith McCray, and Elizabeth Howarth, producers. Ed. John Hodges. Furious Flower II: The Black Poetic Tradition.

Joanne V. Gabbin, Judith McCray, and Elizabeth Howarth, producers. Ed. John Hodges. Furious Flower II: The Black Poetic Tradition. San Francisco: Newsreel, 2005.

VHS, DVD 3 Episodes, approx. 60 min. each. Price varies from $99.00-$195.00 depending on institution/organization Online facilitator guide available: www.newsreel.org

Recently I watched an undergraduate endeavor to explain the rhetoric of the Black Arts Movement as it existed in the 1960s and early 70s. She tried to communicate its unique aesthetic and political position. When she finished her presentation, I asked her if the Movement continues. She grew flustered and replied, "Well, if it exists, it's different. Umm.... I'm just not sure." That uncertain answer is what makes this visual record of black poets and scholars--who exhibit such a variety of style and process, who continue the movement by making the personal political and the political personal--so very important. The film is comprised of performances and interviews recorded during the second conference sponsored by the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. The conference, which took place in September of 2004, had the stated goal of regenerating the black poetic movement; the film about it provides an intriguing exploration of the wild blooms of poesis, those "furious flower[s]" that Gwendolyn Brooks references in "The Second Sermon on the Warpland" that yield the Center and conference its name.

The film is organized into three programs or episodes, each of which explores a unifying theme for individual interviews with and performances by each poet. The interviews are visually uninspired: two talking heads sitting opposite each other on either a sofa or chairs, all filmed in the same office. Still, they offer tremendous insight into what cultivates the bloom of a finished poem. Each interview is cross-cut with the poet in performance, making a clear connection between the poet's creative impulse and process and the poetry he or she has formed. The narrative that opens each episode reminds us that for black poets, poetry is "like the beating of the drum that carries the song long after the historical fact has been muted" and that these poets and scholars feel "an urgency" to "map the geographies" of the poetic soul.

The first program, "Roots and First Fruits," emphasizes the importance of memory to the black aesthetic. Houston A. Baker, Jr., begins the proceedings by reading "This Is Not a Poem," a private memory of his mother that Baker makes both political and emotional. It sets the theme of this episode and also of the entire film. Discussing his academic training and its influences on his writing, Baker recounts how his graduate literature professors, espousing the ideals of New Criticism, taught him that to have an emotional response to a poem was to embrace the "affective fallacy" of poetics. He writes to defy that literary concept, to connect with the emotional context of memory formed in a communal environment. One of his main observations about the current state of black poetry is the erosion of the community from which black poetic traditions arose--a recurring concern voiced in many of the interviews. Other highlights of the first program that emphasize the importance of connective community traditions include Nikky Finney's reading of her poem "Jacques Cousteau." Calling herself "a child of the Black Arts Movement," Finney tells how she came to love the color red after Nikki Giovanni took the time to read and evaluate some of her early work. Askia Toure discusses the early genesis of the Movement and explains that black poetry is not just about a black aesthetic strictly for black people, but a black aesthetic that is also universal in its appeal--an exaltation of blackness to which all people can respond and appreciate--as he demonstrates in his celebratory work "The Patriot's Song." A younger voice is heard in Major Jones's "Urban Renewal xvi," a reflection on the importance of naming in African American traditions.

The second program, "Cross-Pollination in the Diaspora," features poets Velma Pollard and Kwame Dawes, whose poetry echoes Caribbean island cultural influences on rhythm and theme. Brenda Marie Osbey's reflections on the unique cultural manifestations of New Orleans are a sobering reminder of what was perhaps irretrievably lost when the levies failed in 2005. Haki Madhubti celebrates the musicality of the black vernacular tradition in "The B Network"; his discussion focuses heavily on the usefulness of rap as the vehicle for the next generation of black poets. Yusef Komunyakaa may offer the most succinct observation on the invasion of the hip hop aesthetic. His poem "The Same Beat" blasts the genre as the product of "second-hand soul," saying, "I know any man with that much gold in his mouth / has already been bought and sold."

The political highlight of the film emerges at the beginning of the third program, "Blooming in the Whirlwind." Amiri Baraka, having received the Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award, comments on the Movement and cites "the one mistake" made by its founders: the failure to realize that all peoples are divided by class struggle. He also reads his new poem "The Sisyphus Syndrome," which depicts Sisyphus as a metaphor for black cultural experience. Sisyphus is "the god of pain--that lives / That which should be dead--but lives." Baraka moves next into "Someone Blew-up America," ending with its shrill insistent cry, "Whhhoooo?" that echoes soulfully long after the poem has ended. The third episode, moreover, comments most directly on the state of African American poetry today. Marilyn Nelson contends that it is fragmented because black and African American poets are separated by MFA programs that may only have one or two students of color and perhaps one professor of color if they are lucky. Sharan Strange, Kevin Young, Cornelius Eady, and Tony Medina all concur with that claim. They speak of the need for beneficial poetic communities like the Dark Room Collective and the Cave Canem center. The final presenter, "poet of the universe" Sonia Sanchez, charts a more inclusive course for the future of the Movement: "It's all our pain ... we have to hear the breathing of others around you. Don't talk just about what it means to be a black or a minority, but what does it mean to be human." Her "Poem for Some Women" does just that. Her mesmerizing performance forces listeners to connect to the pain and desperation of the poem's persona; it insists that if we continue to ignore "that type" of woman, our culture, our humanity, will cease to exist.

Because of the variety of the interview responses and the performances of individual poets, Furious Flower II possesses extraordinary flexibility for educators, who can easily highlight the units that best suit the objectives of their respective classrooms. The word highlight is important because the repetition of the general pattern of introduction of the poet by a narrator, questions, performance, and follow-up questions, tends to make for tedious extended viewing. The production values are definitely low budget, particularly unfortunate when poor sound quality nearly silences the beginning of Baraka's passionate remarks, and poets' performances are too brief, especially since they are so awe-inspiring. However, visual and occasional sound glitches aside, the project remains a priceless "mapping of the geography of the soul" of the black poetic movement and the individuals who created it, who maintain it, and who work toward its continuance.

Reviewed by

Laurie A. Britt-Smith

Saint Louis University