-
Title
-
This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poetry
-
This edition
-
"This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poetry". Ed. Kwame Alexander. New York: Little, Brown, 2024. xix+426 pp.
-
Table of contents
-
The language of joy.
Quilting the black-eyed pea (we're going to Mars) / Nikki Giovanni -- The language of joy / Jacqueline Allen Trimble -- Garden of the gods / Ama Codjoe -- Labor / Jericho Brown -- Black boys / Tony Medina -- Navel / Robin Coste Lewis -- A parable of sorts / Malika S. Booker -- Boxing lessons / LeRonn Brooks -- On voting for Barack Obama with a Nat Turner t-shirt on / Reginald Dwayne Betts -- After people stop asking about me / Kyle Dargan -- Your dream is / Jason Reynolds -- A new day dawns / Nikky Finney -- Carolina prayer / Justin Phillip Reed -- Inescapable country / Mark McMorris -- Blood memory / Ronda Taylor -- The nightflies / Sheree Renée Thomas -- Healing / Lolita Stewart-White -- This is the honey / Mahogany L. Browne --
That's my heart right there.
This is an incomprehensive list of all the reasons I know I married the right person / Clint Brown -- That's my heart right there / Willie Perdomo -- Refractions / Alan King -- I wish my love was here / Kurtis Lamkin -- tripping / Van G. Garrett -- Fruitful / Evie Shockley -- Poem that begins w/a tweet about Gwendolyn Brooks / Mitchell L.H. Douglas -- Love poem / Cameron Awkward-Rich -- May perpetual light shine / Patricia Spears Jones -- Forcing it / Antoinette Brim-Bell -- In my rush / Jonterri Gadson -- Characteristics of life / Camille T. Dungy -- As serious as a heart attack / Kalamu ya Salaam -- The talk / Gayle Danley -- Crows in a strong wind / Cornelius Eady -- How we made you / Kwame Alexander -- Weathering out / Rita Dove -- Want could kill me / Xan Forest Phillips -- When Macnolia greases my hair / A. Van Jordan -- "[love letter to self] / Warsan Shire -- a poem about you and me and the new country / Anis Mojgani -- Patience / Ross Gay -- Figurative language / A$iahMae -- hello / Sean Hill -- Delores Jepps / Tim Seibles -- The ear is an organ made for love / E. Ethelbert Miller -- Love for a song / J. Drew Lanham -- Most beautiful accident : a single parent's ode / Samantha Thornhill -- How to get emotional distance when voodoo is not an option / Pamela L. Taylor -- distant lover #1 [my michigan bed remix--for ellen g] / Brian Gilmore --
Where I'm from.
Butter / Elizabeth Alexander -- Our people II / CM Burroughs -- The blue dress / Saeed Jones -- Owed to the plastic on your grandmother's couch / Joshua Bennett -- On Mother's Day / Frank X Walker -- A twice named family / Traci Dant -- Another homecoming / Jarita Davis -- Magnitude and bond / Nicole Terez Dutton -- (Twigi) / Gary Jackson -- For the healing / Marlanda Dekine -- Inheritance / Tyree Daye -- Mule / Sharan Strange -- Hanging laundry / Maritza Rivera -- The painter / Opal Palmer Adisa -- Beloved, or If you are murdered tomorrow / Elizabeth Acevedo -- "Harold's Chicken Shack #35" / Nate Marshall -- On Rampart & Canal / Nadir Lasana Bomani -- Where I'm from / Nikki Grimes -- Inundated / Hayes Davis -- The Black girl comes to dinner / Taylor Byas -- oh didn't they tell us we would all have new names when we decided to convert? / Nikia Chaney -- Richard Pryor and me / Curtis L. Crisler -- In my extremity / Mary Moore Easter -- Ode to Sudanese-Americans / Safia Elhillo -- Demonstration / Chanda Feldman -- R&B facts / Nicholas Goodly -- Dear future ones / Jacqueline Woodson -- Back to the past / Amanda Gorman -- Stand / Ruth Forman -- Reunion / Reginald Harris -- Blue magic / Niki Herd -- Antebellum / Gregory Pardlo -- Pastoral / Natasha Trethewey -- Southern history / Natasha Trethewey -- Nelsons (on the road 1957) / Marilyn Nelson -- Accents (after Denise Frohman) / Yvette R. Murray -- The mystery man in the black hat speaks / Quincy Troupe -- The I Be tree / truth thomas -- We not crazy, we feeling irie / Arisa White --
Devotions.
His presence / Kwame Dawes -- You are not Christ / Rickey Laurentiis -- Conjecture on the stained-glass image of white Christ at Ebenezer Baptist Church / Marcus Wicker -- Condition : if the Garden of Eden was in Africa / DéLana R.A. Dameron -- Offertory / Chris Abani -- grief / toni blackman -- sallie ledbetter : a mother's hymn / Tyehimba Jess -- My father's geography / Afaa Michael Weaver -- Sunday poem / Joel Dias-Porter -- I could eat collard greens indefinitely / Alice Walker -- The gray mare / Afaa Michael Weaver -- The Easter prayer, 2020 A.C. / Frank X Walker -- Tell them what you want / Jabari Asim -- Devotions / Derrick L. Austin -- Wanderlust / Remica Bingham-Risher --
Race raise rage : the blackened alphabet.
To racism / Lucinda Roy -- The blackened alphabet / Nikky Finney -- "I'm rooting for everybody Black" / Cortney Lamar Charleston -- The blue Seuss / Terrance Hayes -- Dear barbershop, / Chris Slaughter -- Before I fire her, the therapist asks What IS it like to be a Black woman HERE / Aricka Foreman -- A piece of tail / Teri Ellen Cross Davis -- Why I can dance down a Soul-Train line in public and still be Muslim / Aisha Sharif -- Fuck/time / Inua Ellams -- Beyoncé on the line for Gaga / Morgan Parker -- Contemplating "Mistress," Sally in 2017 / Chet'la Sebree -- Mussels / Lucinda Roy -- 5 South 43rd Street, Floor 2 / Yolanda Wisher -- Unrest in Baton Rouge / Tracy K. Smith -- Quare / L. Lamar Wilson -- Some young kings / Roger Reeves -- We are not responsible / Harryette Mullen -- Carl's Barbershop / Abdul Ali -- On being called the N-word in Atlanta, 2016 : a southern ghazal / teri elam -- The president has never said the word Black / Morgan Parker -- [this is to say I am more terrified of capitalism than any wildlife encounter] / Jasmine Elizabeth Smith -- In the event of / Shane McCrae -- Happy / Kevin Powell -- Holla / Evie Shockley --
When I see the stars : praise poems.
A prayer for workers / Yusef Komunyakaa -- Heaven : for Nikki Giovanni's 80th birthday / Renée Watson -- The origins of the artist: Natalie Cole / Toi Derricotte -- Elegy for Chadwick Boseman / Len Lawson -- When I see the stars in the night sky / Joy Priest -- Hip hop analogies / Tara Betts -- For ben harper (7:42pm 1-18-02) / Jessica Care Moore -- My poems / Joanna Crowell -- Aubade to Langston / Rachel Eliza Griffiths -- What women are made of / Bianca Lynne Spriggs -- ruth (for a sister poet) / Michael Datcher -- Black gold redux (for Nina Simone) / Jacqueline Johnson -- for Duke Ellington / Reuben Jackson -- Don't let me be lonely [Mahalia Jackson is a genius] / Claudia Rankine -- For John Lewis, who loved to dance / Pearl Cleage -- Soul Train / Allison Joseph -- for allison joseph / Van G. Garrett -- I, master (for David Drake, enslaved potter-poet) / Glenis Redmond -- San Diego and Matisse / Clarence Major -- Ashe / Kevin Young -- Queen Bess / Kimberly A. Collins -- The ragged and the beautiful / Safiya Sinclair -- brown-eyed girls / Gerald L. Coleman -- Zebra (for my son) / January Gill O'Neil -- Quality : Gwendolyn Brooks at 73 / Haki R. Madhubuti -- A love poem written for Sterling Brown / Sonia Sanchez -- Whispers on the wave / Dr. Tonya Maria Matthews -- Praise / Angelo Geter.
-
About the anthology
-
The book is divided into six sections: (1) The Language Of Joy, (2) That’s My Heart Right There, (3) Where I’m From, (4) Devotions, (5) Race Raise Rage: The Blackened Alphabet, and (6) When I See The Stars: Praise Poems.
-
Publisher's description
-
"A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni, This Is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy, “each incantation,” as Mahogany L. Browne puts it in her titular poem, is “a jubilee of a people dreaming wildly.”
"This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall’s The Black Poets and E. Ethelbert Miller’s In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, race, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A.Trimble likens “Black woman joy” to indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Daye, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of “home” through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards. Clint Smith and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From a “jewel in the hand” (Patricia Spears Jones) to “butter melting in small pools” (Elizabeth Alexander), This Is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music, and raised fists.
"Fresh, memorable, and deeply moving, this definitive collection a must-have for any lover of language and a gift for our time."
-
Reviews and notices of anthology
-
Sutter, Herman. "Library Journal" 22 Dec. 2023.
"The poems are organized thematically (joy, love, origin, race, resistance, praise) and make for rich browsing. Alexander’s introduction to the volume makes it clear he doesn’t want to pigeonhole Black writers but instead to celebrate the scope and individuality of their work."
"This amazing anthology may be the most important poetry collection of this decade. It is a book for poetry lovers, a book for the curious, a book of comfort, a book of prayer, a book of passion and a book of joy, a book of sorrow and a book of desire, but in the end, it is simply and wondrously a grand and glorious book."
-
Library Journal
-
Greene, Brenda M. "Our Time Press" 5 April 2024.
"Alexander asks readers to view this anthology as “a gathering space for Black poets to honor and celebrate. To be romantic and provocative. To be unburdened and bodacious.” This is the Honey is in the tradition of Dudley Randall’s seminal collection of poetry The Black Poets: A New Anthology (1971) and E. Ethelbert Miller’s In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry (1994)."
-
Our Time Press
-
McKay, Neil. "Cascadia Daily News" 7 April 2024.
"In 2020, poet Kevin Young, current director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and poetry editor for the New Yorker, published “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song.” Young’s 1,110-page anthology is a comprehensive array of Black poets from 1770’s Phillis Wheatley to 2020’s Mahogany Browne. It belongs on any poetry lover’s bookshelf. Four years later, Kwame Alexander, a poet, educator and author of children’s books, has come out with “This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets.” Alexander’s anthology is less a catalog of poets and more a moment in time. Alexander gathered the 154 or so poems in this book with thoughtfulness and deliberation, hoping to acknowledge and shine a light on the joy and sorrow of the Black experience today through the provocative beauty of this poetry."
"As the title indicates, the poets are all contemporary living Black poets . . . And while Alexander says the poems are “unapologetically matter-of-fact Black,” he invites everyone to find inspiration and to rejoice in the hope this book contains. I would add a caveat that the hope you find in these poems has always come at a cost, and that is not forgotten in these pages."
"This is Alexander’s second anthology of Black poetry. His first, “360° A Revolution of Black Poets,” co-edited with New Orleans author and activist Kalamu ya Salaam came out in 1998. That book, according to Alexander, was a “call to action,” and while action is still needed, “This is the Honey” might be described as a call to celebration."
-
Cascadia Daily News
-
Commentary on anthology
-
Nawaz, Amna. "Kwame Alexander Discusses His Anthology of Black Poetry, 'This Is the Honey.'" "PBS NewsHour" 9 Feb. 2024.
Alexander remarks that he shaped the anthology on the model of a person's experiences moving through a day: "I sort of view this book like you would a day in your life. So you wake up in the morning, the sun is out. It's promise. And so this first section of the book is going to be poems of hope and promise and joy. You greet your family, the people who you love, the people who love you. So the next section of the book is going to be love poems. And then, of course, you go out into the world and you're dealing with all the craziness, and so you're going to have poems that challenge us, that are obstacles. And then, next, you're going to sort of take that lunch break. Or, in my case, when I worked in corporate America, I'd go to the restroom and just sort of chill a little bit just to get my bearings and to say a prayer. (Laughter) So you're going to have your devotions. And, of course, the last part of the book is, you come home. And it's a long day, and you eat food, and you share, and you're grateful. And so you're going to have praise poems. So I thought about that as the metaphor. And then I just sort of started looking for poems and poets that fit."
Alexander's book "The Crossover" (2014) won the Newbery Medal in 2015 and was adapted as a Disney+ series in 2023 and the series won a Children's and Family Emmy for Outstanding Young Teen Series: Nawaz asks him, "What was that moment like?" Alexander: "Well, somebody asked me, was it a dream come true to win an Emmy Award? And I was like, no, because it was never a dream. I wanted to write good books. And so the fact that this book that got rejected by 22 publishers, the fact that this book, which came out six years, seven years ago won an Emmy Award for a TV adaptation, it just speaks to the power of poetry to me, how it can translate and transfer across different mediums."
-
PBS NewsHour
-
Item Number
-
A0627
