Full Description
Sterling A. Brown was renowned for his prolific poetry and scholarship on African American folklife. A contemporary of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer and the first poet laureate of the District of Columbia, Brown gained acclaim for blues, jazz, and southern folklore. His celebrated works, including Southern Road, are collages of narrative and dialect unique to Brown's unflinching poetic voice.
Edited by the late distinguished poet Michael S. Harper, this new edition includes a foreword by award-winning poet Cornelius Eady and introductory texts by James Weldon Johnson and Sterling Stuckey. The result is a tour de force by one of the most distinctive poets in American letters.
Contents
Foreword by Cornelius Eady
Preface by Michael S. Harper
Southern Road
Introduction by Sterling Stuckey
Introduction to the first edition by James Weldon Johnson
Part One: ROAD SO ROCKY
Odyssey of Big Boy
Long Gone
Maumee Ruth
When de Saints Go Ma'ching Home
Dark of the Moon
Seeking Religion
Georgie Grimes
Scotty Has His Say
Ruminations of Luke Johnson
Virginia Portrait
Old Man Buzzard
Johnny Thomas
Frankie and Johnny
Sam Smiley
To Sallie, Walking
Bessie
Kentucky Blues
Mister Samuel and Sam
Southern Road
Sister Lou
Strong Men
Part Two: ON RESTLESS RIVER
Memphis Blues
Ma Rainey
Old King Cotton
Children of the Mississippi
New St. Louis Blues
Foreclosure
Checkers
Mose
After Winter
Pardners
Slim Greer
Slim Lands a Job?
Slim in Atlanta
Slim Hears "The Call"
Slim in Hell
New Steps
Convict
Strange Legacies
Revelations
Riverbank Blues
Part Three: TIN ROOF BLUES
Tin Roof Blues
Effie
Children's Children
Mecca
Chillen Get Shoes
Funeral
Harlem Street Walkers
Sporting Beasley
Cabaret
Part Four: VESTIGES
Salutamus
To a Certain Lady, in Her Garden
Challenge
Telling Fortunes
Rain
Return
Nous n'irons plus au bois . . .
Thoughts of Death
Against That Day
Mill Mountain
The Last Ride of Wild Bill
The Last Ride of Wild Bill
He Was a Man
Elder Mistletoe
Crispus Attucks McKoy
A Bad, Bad Man
Break of Day
Rent Day Blues
The Ballad of Joe Meek
No Hiding Place
Part One: HARLEM STOPOVER
Harlem Happiness
Negro Improvement League
The Temple
Roberta Lee
Real mammy Song
The Law for George
The New Congo
Part Two: THE COTTON SOUTH
Arkansas Chant
The Young Ones
Old Lem
Sharecroppers
Master and Man
Part Three: DOWN IN ATLANTA
Southern Cop
Mr. Danny
An Old Woman Remembers
Transfer
Episode
All Are Gay
Part Four: "ROCKS CRIED OUT"
Legend
Bitter Fruit of the Tree
Memo: For the Race Orators
Crossing
Call for Barnum
Song of Triumph
Remembering Nat Turner
Part Five: ROAD TO THE LEFT
Raise a Song
Colloquy
Street Car Gang
Side by Side
Part Six: FRILOT COVE
Let Us Suppose
Cloteel
Parish Doctor
Uncle Joe
Louisiana Pastoral
Part Seven: WASHINGTON, D.C.
Glory, Glory
Choices
No More Worlds to Conquer
Call Boy
Puttin' on Dog
Part Eight: REMEMBRANCES
April in Coolwell
Coolwell Vignette
Honey Mah Love
Memories of Salem
Idyll
One Way of Taking Leave
Isaiah to Mandy
Conjured
Long Track Blues
An Annotated Bibliography by Robert G. O'Meally
