A Black Arts Poetry Machine: Amiri Baraka and the Umbra Poets

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A vital hub of poetry readings, performance, publications and radical politics in 1960s New York, the Umbra Workshop was a cornerstone of the African American avant-garde. Bringing together new archival research and detailed close readings of poetry, A Black Arts Poetry Machine is a groundbreaking study of this important but neglected group of poets. David Grundy explores the work of such poets as Amiri Baraka, Lorenzo Thomas and Calvin Hernton and how their innovative poetic forms engaged with radical political responses to state violence and urban insurrection. Through this examination, the book highlights the continuing relevance of the work of the Umbra Workshop today and is essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century American poetry.

Reviews

Grundy has produced a notable contribution to the field of American literary and cultural studies not only in its attention to Umbra, but also in its attention to the complexities of how we approach and understand literary movements. * Journal of Beat Studies *
Grundy (Univ. of Cambridge, UK) chronicles the Umbra poets, historical moments (for instance the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965), and the rise of black nationalism, investigating themand the literature that came out of this period of awakeningwith equal thoroughness Grundy is also an excellent close reader of poetry. Though Grundy is an academic, there is no academic jargon in this well-researched, clearly presented study. He does an excellent job of dealing with the complexities of this history and how it informed the period. * CHOICE *
The book produces some fine close readings and provides a useful (re)introduction to poets such as Henderson and Dent. * American Literary Scholarship *
By granting more attention to Tom Dent, David Henderson, Calvin Hernton, and Lorenzo Thomas, A Black Arts Poetry Machine remains specific and attentive to the range of approaches and poetic responses to the struggle for rights and community with the breadth of a 'workshop' rather than the unity of a 'movement'. * The Year's Work in English Studies *

Author Bio

David Grundy teaches at Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK.