Black Lives Have Always Mattered, A Collection of Essays, Poems, and Personal Narratives

by Abiodun Oyewole (Editor)

Overview

BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED, A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, POEMS AND PERSONAL NARRATIVES, edited by Abiodun Oyewole, extends beyond the Black Lives Matter movement's primary agenda of police brutality to acknowledge that even when affronted with slavery, segregation and Jim Crow, racial injustice and inequality, black lives have always mattered. While written primarily by African American poets, writers, activists and scholars, selections are also from people of the Latino and African diasporas and white activists. Collectively, these 79 contributors provide a call-to-action that challenges readers to confront long-held values and beliefs about black lives, as well as white privilege and fragility, as it surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and its persistence of structural inequality. More importantly, BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED provides a first-hand perspective to a problem known to the African American community long before the Black Lives Matter movement revealed it to the general public: that black lives have always mattered. Connecting the past to the present, the contributors of BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED provide an eye-opening and engaging collection that has the potential to reignite a broader push for black liberation and equality for all.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940158905377
Publisher:	2Leaf Press
Publication date:	07/09/2017
Series:	2LP EXPLORATIONS IN DIVERSITY , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	388
Sales rank:	859,621
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

ABIODUN OYEWOLE is a poet, teacher, and founding member of the American music and spoken-word group, the Last Poets (1968), which laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip hop. He performed on the Last Poets’ albums, THE LAST POETS (1970), HOLY TERROR (1993), and THE TIME HAS COME (1997). He rejoined The Last Poets during its 1990s resurgence, and co-authored with Umar Bin Hassan, ON A MISSION: SELECTED POEMS AND A HISTORY OF THE LAST POETS (1996). He published his first poetry collection, BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ABIODUN OYEWOLE 1969-2013 (2014), released the rap CD, 25 YEARS (1996), and the song albums, GRATITUDE (Sons Rising Entertainment, 2014), and LOVE HAS NO SEASON (2014). Oyewole received his BS in biology and BA in communications at Shaw University, an MA in education at Columbia University, and is a Columbia Charles H. Revson Fellow (1989).

Editorial Reviews

"In this anthology, we are not only given the opportunity to celebrate those in the struggle, but are given a directive to continue the struggle. BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED honors the ancestors, and gives hope for peace and justice for future generations where through policy and a new collective consciousness, all lives will truly matter!"

Dr. Linda H. Humes

"Part of the value of this important new anthology is that it keeps our pursuit of justice in America in historical and political perspective. It reminds us that Black Lives Matter is not a new revelation but a continuation of the Black social gospel proclaimed by Richard Allen, Adam Powell Sr. Garvey, Malcolm, Martin, and the many more."

Bob Law

"No history book, no single Black story, has yanked the rug of comfortable white ignorance from beneath my feet as these readings have. Taken as a whole, this book tells the story of America's silenced racial trauma in a way that will fuel the movement to speak the unspeakable."

Debby Irving