Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art. (anthologies).Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art edited by Samiya A. Bashir, Quaraysh Ali Lansana, Tony Medina Third World Press, October 2001 $24.95, ISBN 0-883-78239-1 Consider that anthos is the Greek word for flower and logia lo·gi·a n. Bible Plural of logion. logia maxims or sayings attributed to a religious leader. See also christ. the Greek word for collecting. Now imagine a solitary author, laboring for months over a novel, a story or a poem, cultivating it like a gardener who slaves over a prizewinning prize·win·ning also prize-win·ning adj. Having won or worthy of winning a prize: the prizewinning entry. Adj. 1. African violet. Now imagine a florist carefully pruning and arranging a collection of brilliantly hued flowers, in other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , an anthology. Editors Samiya A. Bashir, Quaraysh Ali Lansana and Tony Medina have done just that in Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art. A weighty tome--a phat 512 pages--Role Call is divided into seven sections that examine how the work of recognized and emerging young black artists deal with race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class, as well as the joy and pain of being black in America. If anything, Role Call is exceedingly self-aware. In the foreword, Haki R. Madhubuti Haki R. Madhubuti (born Don Luther Lee on February 23 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States) is a renowned African-American author, educator, and poet. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa, and served in the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1963. , founder and publisher of Third World Press, extols, "Role Call is to this generation what Black Fire was to mine." Even the most cursory reading makes it clear that Role Call is shaped by a powerful historical awareness of black struggle, and by an equally powerful understanding of the Black Arts movement The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoy Jones). . The most unique feature of Role Call is its commitment to visual art. The anthology includes everything from photographs and batik batik (bətēk`), method of decorating fabrics practiced for centuries by the natives of Indonesia. It consists of applying a design to the surface of the cloth by using melted wax. to paintings and collages--86 such pieces in all. And of course, there are the literary works: six dramas, 205 poems, 24 works of fiction and as many essays. The roll of Role Call includes poets Thomas Sayers Ellis Thomas Sayers Ellis is a poet, photographer, and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY and a core faculty member of the Lesley University Low Residency MFA Program in Cambridge, MA. , Lita Hooper, Willie Perdomo, DJ Renegade, and Natasha Trethewey; essayists Farai Chideya and Catherine McKinley; and fiction writers like Jeffrey Renard Allen and Thomas Glave. The editors of Role Call have arranged a rather fine literary bouquet that just may contain the best and brightest flowers of our time. --Trent Masiki is an English professor in Worcester, Massachusetts. |
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