Big Bank Take Little Bank: New Cafe Poets, No.1

by Paul Beatty

Book by Beatty, Paul

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Paul Beatty (born 1962 in Los Angeles) is a contemporary African-American author. Beatty received an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College and an MA in psychology from Boston University. He is a 1980 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California.

In 1990, Paul Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. One of the prizes for winning that championship title was the book deal which resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Takes Little Bank. This would be followed by another book of poetry Joker, Joker, Deuce as well as appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the series The United States of Poetry). In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

His first novel, The White Boy Shuffle received a positive review in The New York Times, the reviewer, Richard Bernstein, called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life." His second book, Tuff received a positive notice in Time Magazine. Most recently, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject.

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. I wish Paul would return to poetry, since he was so stunningly good at it. His move to prose has not been that satisfying for me. These poems won him the slam competition at the Nuyorican, and taken together, they rock hard. Although there is a strong Nuyorican street speech thing going on here, his best poems remind me of Paul Blackburn, in that they notate speech so accurately, and they can run very deep. Beatty was a revelation in the early 1990's, turning out poems that far exceeded the slam level, which is fine, but for some of us, too entertaining on the stage, and too thin on the page. These poems are wondrous on the page, and stunning on the stage. Great poet. Too bad he didn't like the scene, or whatever it was that made him switch to fiction.

[Leigh Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

our father / who art in the beer section / hallowed be thy brain

[Max-Philipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious and brilliant poetry. It is a shame this is so hard to find and that most people tend to focus on Beatty's novels more than his poetry. You can learn so much from this, Joker, Joker, Deuce and his poetry performances (the very few you can view online), which shapes so much of his later publications.

[Blair Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again... I’m pretty disappointed. Paul Beatty is creative as hell! I’ve read three of his book. But his language is just too much sometimes whenever he uses the er... which is a lot.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is difficult to find, but well worth the search.