Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism

by Aldon Lynn Nielsen

Black Chant traces the embrace and transformation of black modernisms and postmodernisms by African-American poets in the decades after the Second World War. Centering on groups of avant-garde poets, the study particularly attends to those poets whose radical forms of new writing formed the basis for much of what followed in the Black Arts period. Exploring the farthest reaches of black creative experimentation in words and music, Black Chant yields an invaluable reassessment of African-American cultural history as it has been shaped throughout the era we now call postmodern.

Genres: Nonfiction, African American, Literary Criticism

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 1997

Reviews

[Mike Busam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I had read this thirty years ago, but glad I read it today.

[Tony Poerio · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books I read while studying literature. Relates poetry, jazz, rap, and improvisation in a profound and fun way. Got me even more into stuff like Sun Ra, free jazz, and other such wild weirdness. Not an easy read, unless you're doing research, but recommended if you're into Afro-American culture, particularly jazz and poetry.