Continuum: New and Selected Poems, Revised Edition

by Mari Evans

The distinguished poet Mari Evans writes unabashedly for and about African Americans, yet in this collection, readers from all backgrounds can find profound insight into the human experience. Written without the flourish of fancy language, the poems are full of Evans's brilliance, humor, and musical expression. Included are signature poems such as "I am a Black Woman" as well as new works that paint an intimate portrait of contemporary African American life. First released in 2007, this is a new, revised edition with several new poems added.

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

Mari Evans attended the University of Toledo and later taught at several other schools, including Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. She began five years of writing, producing, and directing for an Indianapolis television program, “The Black Experience,” in 1968, the same year her first poetry collection, Where Is All the Music?, was published. With her second collection, I Am a Black Woman (1970), she gained acclaim as an important new poet. Her poem “Who Can Be Born Black” was often anthologized.

Her later collections include Nightstar: 1973–1978 (1981), whose poems praise blues artists and community heroes and heroines, and A Dark and Splendid Mass (1992). Continuum, published in 2007, contains classic poems from Evans's previous collections as well as new work inflected by the same unique insight into African American life that defined her earlier oeuvre. In her works for young readers, Evans often touched on difficult topics such as child abuse ( Dear Corinne: Tell Somebody, 1999) and adolescent relationships ( I'm Late: The Story of LaNeese and Moonlight and Alisha Who Didn't Have Anyone of Her Own, 2005). Evans's plays include River of My Song (produced 1977) and the musical Eyes (produced 1979), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. She edited the anthology Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation (1984) and published Clarity as Concept: A Poet's Perspective (2006), a collection of essays commenting on African American politics and family life.


Oxford Companion to African American Literature: Mari Evans

Reviews

[Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuum is a stunning collection of poems by an important figure in America's Black Arts Movement, writer, musician, and activist Mari Evans. One can only begin to understand the experience of African Americans by reading works like this.

Go here to see my complete review: Review of Continuum by Mari Evans