I, Too, Sing America, Catherine Clinton
I, Too, Sing America, Catherine Clinton
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I, Too, Sing America
Three Centuries of African American Poetry

Author: Catherine Clinton

Narrator: Ashley Bryan, Renee Joshua-Porter

Unabridged: 2 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2011


Synopsis

Starting with Lucy Terry of the early eighteenth century and finishing with poet laureate Rita Dove, this inspiring anthology edited by Catherine Clinton captures the enormous talent and passion of black poets. Powerful and diverse, I, Too, Sing America is a forum for voices baring their souls, speaking their minds, tracing their roots and proclaiming their dreams. Each of the twenty-five poets is introduced with a brief biography and poetry notes to help the listener place their work in context. Included in the anthology is: - "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes- "Bars Fight" by Lucy Terry- "Liberty and Peace" by Phillis Wheatley- "On Liberty and Slavery" by George Moses Horton- "Yes! Strike Again That Sounding String" by James M. Whitfield- "Bury Me in a Free Land" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper- "The Song of the Smoke" by W.E.B. Du Bois- "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson- "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar- "The Black Finger" by Angelina Weld Grimke- "Your World" and "Interracial" by Georgia Douglas Johnson- "Children of the Sun" by Fenton Johnson- "If We Must Die" and "The White House" by Claude McKay- "Beehive" by Jean Toomer- "Heritage" and "To a Dark Girl" by Gwendolyn Bennett- "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" by Arna Bontemps- "Harlem," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Merry-Go-Round," and "Cross" by Langston Hughes- "Tableau," "Saturday's Child," and "Incident" by Countee Cullen- "Sorrow Home" by Margaret Walker- "Martin Luther King Jr.," "Malcolm X," and "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks- "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou- "Rites of Passage" by Audre Lorde- "In the Year" by Amiri Baraka- "The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr." by Nikki Giovanni- "Women" by Alice Walker- "Primer" by Rita Dove

About Catherine Clinton

Catherine Clinton is the author of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom and Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars. Educated at Harvard, Sussex, and Princeton, she is a member of the advisory committee to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and holds a chair in U.S. history at Queen’s University Belfast.

About Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan grew up to the sound of his mother singing from morning to night. He is an author and beloved illustrator, and his picture book, Freedom over Me, was named a Newbery honor book. He has also been the recipient of the Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and other awards and recognition.

About Renee Joshua-Porter

Renee Joshua-Porter is a professional voice-over artist with several audio books to her credit.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Christopher on November 07, 2020

As a future teacher, I find this book to be an excellent collection of poetry, and a great example of exposure to African American poetry. There are 35 poems, some authors I have heard quite often in the past and most I have not. I find this collection of poems to be a direct source of history and w......more

Goodreads review by Fey on March 01, 2022

An excellent introduction to African American Poets going back as early as 1730. Each poet has a bit of a write up on their life and a short analyzation of their poem that follows on the next page. The illustrations are beautiful and echo the feelings of the various poems. I highly recommend this to a......more

Goodreads review by Lois on February 05, 2018

I listened to this on hoopla and can not reccommend it highly enough. What a pleasure.......more

Goodreads review by Anya on November 14, 2021

Personally, I'm not sure if I'd teach this in my classroom. I feel like tossing all this poetry at my students may be detrimental. There are certain selections that I think would be good to use since there are some very iconic poems in here that I think all students should read, but there are some t......more

Goodreads review by প্রীতম on July 23, 2022

America was the first accurate experimentation in democracy in human history; the management of African Americans has been both America’s country’s greatest conquest and its greatest weakness. “The Negro,” Richard Wright wrote, “is America’s metaphor”—a people uprooted from a traditional homeland an......more


Quotes

“[A] well-chosen collection…likely to put readers on the trail to the poets’ further works.” Publishers Weekly

“When one is given a book—a gift—of poetry, it is sometimes hard to define the characteristics that distinguish it from every other anthology in its category. In the case of this splendid group of poems by African American writers, the special qualities virtually leap off the page and demand to be noticed.” Children’s Literature

“A splendid, rattling good collection of African-American poetry… Tragic, warm, sad, and ferocious voices of great presence that survived beyond all odds.” Kirkus Reviews