" Winner of the 35th Annual Lillian Smith Book Award, 2004 A BookSense 76 Spring 2004 Top 10 Poetry Book! Read an excerpt from the book Listen to Frank X Walker reading on NPR's "This I Believe" segment of Morning Edition. This collection of persona poems tells the story of the infamous Lewis & Clark expedition from the point of view of Clark's personal slave, York. The poems form a narrative of York's inner and outer journey, before, during and after the expedition—a journey from slavery to freedom, from the plantation to the great northwest, from servant to soul yearning to be free. Over the course of the saga and through the poems, we are treated to subtle and overt commentaries on literacy, slavery, native Americans, buffalo, the environment, and more. Though Buffalo Dance purposely references historic accounts and facts, it is fictionalized poetry, and Frank X Walker's rare blend of history and art breathes life into an important but overlooked historical figure. Frank X Walker is the author of Affrilachia and the soon to be released Black Box, two collections of poetry. He teaches in the department of English & Theatre and is the interim Director of the African/African American Studies Program at Eastern Kentucky University. He is also a visiting professor in Pan African Studies department at the University of Louisville. A 2004 recipient of the Lillian Smith Book Award, he lives in Lexington, KY. Click here for Frank Walker's website.
Frank X Walker, the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate, is an artist, writer, educator, and has published eleven collections of poetry, including Masked Man, Black: Pandemic & Protest Poems, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, which was awarded an NAACP Image Award and the Black Caucus American Library Association Honor Award. He is also the author of the forthcoming A is for Affrilachia. The recipient of the 35th Annual Lillian Smith Book Award and the Thomas D. Clark Award for Literary Excellence, he is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets.
Table of Contents
Introduction Preface Acknowledgments Wind Talker Falls of the Ohio To Protect and Serve Work Ethic God's House Primer At Ease Sundays and Christmas Lie of Omission Calendar Her Current Medicine Men Spirit Mound Wasicum Sapa Winter Leaf Buffalo Dance A House is Not a Home No Offense Leading Men Domestique Work Song A Rock, a Fort, a Island Not the Only One Perfume Black Magic Sandstone Thighs Mouths and Waters Home, Home on the Range The Portage Sun Son Double Yolks Ornithologists Nigrathologists Swap Meet Promises Nomenclature Respect House Prosperity ...Another Man's Treasure Vision Quest Vision Quest II Ananse Mythology Traveling Men Earth Tones Sweat Lodge Doubt Cold Hearted Inhumane Cure for Homesickness Sad Eye Aurora Borealis Electorate Winter with Jonah Majesty Pomp's Tower The Little Sneeze York Haichu Private Lessons Pastry Chefs Solid Black Pure White Unravel Revisionist History Monticello Souvenir Just Rewards A Love Supreme Night Breaks, Freedom too Holy Water Ursa Major Cumulonimbus Birth Day About the Author
"Buffalo Dance has great power and beauty. This is poetry and storytelling of a high order."
Nikki Giovanni
"And now York, finally, has a voice. The man who made the voyage, the man with all the hopes and dreams of freedom has a voice, raises a song to his freedom, understands that his life was not his best self, only the best that he could do. Let us all raise a praise song to Frank X Walker, for giving voice to York. What a magnificent achievement."
From the Publisher
"And now York, finally, has a voice. The man who made the voyage, the man with all the hopes and dreams of freedom has a voice, raises a song to his freedom, understands that his life was not his best self, only the best that he could do. Let us all raise a praise song to Frank X Walker, for giving voice to York. What a magnificent achievement." — Nikki Giovanni
