Slam Poetry Links

Saul Williams on HBO's Def Poetry Jam (YouTube Link)

Saul Williams performing "Amethyst Rock" in the movie Slam

Lamont Carey performing "I Can't Read" on HBO Def Jam Poetry (You Tube Link)

Taylor Mali performing "Like, You Know" on Def Jam.

Sonia Sanchez performing "Our Vision is Our Voice" (You Tube Link)

Amiri Baraka performing "Why is We Americans?"

Please also PRINT OUT the handout on Blackboard--read these selections and bring the print out to class.

Literature after 9/11

As you read the excerpts in the Norton Anthology's new "Writing in a Time of Terror: September 11, 2001," think about the questions I posed in class as we were discussing The Road: How did 9/11 change literature? How do writers help us process trauma and work through historical crises? What is the relationship, broadly speaking, between literature and history? Can historical events change literary styles and sensibilities? How does literature create historical memory?

Please bring your copies of The Road to class, too. As you read both the 9/11 readings in the Norton Anthology and The Road for Friday, comment below on both the aesthetics and the politics of the readings. What do the texts say about our times? What assessment do they give of the future?

Cormac McCarthy, The Road (p. 1-69)

As you read The Road for Tuesday's class, think about the stylistic texture of this novel. How would you describe McCarthy's prose? What do you make of the opening images that McCarthy delivers of the world post-apocalypse? Do we get a moral voice here? A neutrally descriptive voice? Why does McCarthy center his novel on the relationship between father and son? Would you consider this to be a novel influenced by 9/11? Why or why not?

Please use the space below to write on any aspect of the novel. You might also want to check out The Road movie trailer and website here.

This interview with Cormac McCarthy appeared a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal. Please read it. Also, The Road was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 2008, and Oprah lured the famously reticient McCarthy out of his writerly seclusion for a very rare interview. Watch a clip of the interview here. You might also want to take a look at how her book club presents The Road here. What are your opinions about the interview and about the book club's take on The Road?

Reed + Baraka + Clifton

Ishmael Reed. See him read here. Check out an animation of his work here.

Lucille Clifton's Poets.org page is available here. She passed away last month and her obituary can be found here. See a video of her reading here. See her reading "homage to my hips" here.

Check out Amiri Baraka's homepage here. Read about his play "Dutchman" here. See him read on Def Jam Poetry here. Also check out an amazing exhibit on Amiri Baraka in LA here. It's also worth seeing him work with the Urban Music Coalition here.