African American Poetry: The Black Arts Movement

In this course students will read the major poets of the Black Arts Movement (Baraka, Brooks, Giovanni, Jordan, Madhabuti) as well as some lesser known poets of the 1960s and 1970s. We will explore the politics and aesthetics of the movement, comparing and contrasting nuances of BAM with the Harlem Renaissance and the current Spoken Word/Slam Poetry/Hip-Hop Movement of today.