The black arts enterprise and the production of African American poetry /

A significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship about the Black Arts Movement, Rambsy's book is a carefully observed, systematic account of the milieu out of which, and within which, this paradigm-altering movement occurred. With his close attention to poets--known and less familiar--and their works, significant theoretical debates, publishing venues and performance spaces, the production and circulation of literary anthologies, graphic design, and sonic productions, Rambsy (Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville) places this historic moment squarely on the ground of material production. His chapter on the centrality of Malcolm X and John Coltrane as galvanizing figures of the movement adds heft and texture to his analysis. Carefully researched, meticulously documented, and highly informative, Rambsy's study joins James Smethurst's The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (CH, Dec'05, 43-2058) as an indispensable source for information on this seminal moment in American culture. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. J. A. Miller George Washington University