soulscript Paperback - 2004

First line

When they write poetry, the very young brothers and sisters predict the future terms for measuring the world we must share.

From the jacket flap

Black poets from the early twentieth century and onward come together for a moving anthology, edited and organized by the late, revered poet June Jordan.
First published in 1970, "soulscript is a poignant, panoramic collection of poetry from some of the most eloquent voices in the art. Selected for their literary excellence and by the dictates of Jordan's heart, these works tell the story of both collective and personal experiences, in Jordan's words, "in tears, in rage, in hope, in sonnet, in blank/free verse, in overwhelming rhetorical scream." "Soulscript features works by Jordan and other luminaries like Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gayl Jines, James Weldon Johnson, Audre Lorde, Claude McKay, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, and Richard Wright, as well as the fresh voices of a turbulent era's younger writers. Celebrated spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin, an original cast member of "Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, has also added an introduction that speaks to Jordan's legacy, helping to further cement "soulscript as a visionary compilation that has already become a modern classic.

Excerpt

MY PEOPLE by Langston Hughes

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.



UNCLE BULL-BOY by June Jordan

His brother after dinner
once a year would play the piano
short and tough in white shirt
plaid suspenders green tie and
checked trousers.
Two teeth were gold. His eyes
were pink with alcohol. His fingers
thumped for Auld Lang Syne.
He played St. Louis Woman
Boogie, Blues, the light
pedestrian.

But one night after dinner
after chitterlings and pigs' feet
after bourbon and rum and rye
after turnip greens and mustard greens
and sweet potato pie
Bullboy looking everywhere
realized his brother was not there.

Who would emphasize the luxury
of ice cream by the gallon who would
repeat effusively the glamour not the gall
of five degrees outstanding on the wall?
Which head would nod and then recall
the crimes the apples stolen from the stalls
the soft coal stolen by the pile?
Who would admire
the eighteenth pair of forty
dollar shoes?
Who could extol their mother with good
brandy as his muse?

His brother dead from drinking
Bullboy drank to clear his thinking
saw the roach inside the riddle.
Soon the bubbles from his glass
were the only bits of charm
which overcame his folded arms.




AMERICAN GOTHIC by Paul Vesey
To Satch
(The legendary Satchel Page, one of the star pitchers in Negro baseball)

Sometimes I feel like I will never stop
Just go on forever
Til one fine mornin'

I'm gonna reach up and grab me a handfulla stars
Swing out my long lean leg
And whip three hot strikes burnin' down the heavens
And look over at God and say
How about that!

Media reviews

“In political journalism that cuts like razors, in essays that blast the darkness of confusion with relentless light; in poetry that looks as closely into lilac buds as into death’s mouth . . . she has comforted, explained, described, wrestled with, taught and made us laugh out loud before we wept . . . I am talking about a span of forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fueled by flawless art.”
—Toni Morrison, on June Jordan

Citations

• Library Journal, 10/01/2004, Page 121