Black Pow-Wow: Jazz Poems (American Century)

This book is awesome!! Black Pow-Wow is my introduction to the works of Ted Joans. Love his poetry and recommend this book.

Ted Joans is one of the Best poets I became familiar with in college and it’s ashamed that the average American thinks beatnik is what it means the same way they think of the sixties and early 70’s as sex drugs and hippies.

This book is essential to everyone who wants to know the real human experience!

Given my interest in jazz and the New York avant-guard scene in the 1950s and 60s, I purchased this book after reading about a recent exhibit of Joans's work. The poems are often angry, obscene, and even repugnant. Race relations were strained or worse during his lifetime, but the hatred he sometimes displays toward whites helps no one. This is sad, since this collection is subtitled, "jazz poems." Jazz, at its best, brought the races together to perform a music beyond any one race, but, of course, rooted in black experience. The only poem I found attractive was a lament over the death of John Coltrane.Joans gives scattered insights into black life in his day, and an occasional noteworthy image or turn of phrase; but the poems are marred by leftist cliches about imperialism and capitalism, as well as scatological interjections. His style is odd. He uses strange spacing and too much capitalization. Yes, the Beat poetry of his day was experimental, but some experiments fail, and many of his fail...

Beautiful, clean book of classic poerty. Not filled with markings, highlights, and notations. Love it. Thanks.

Language not used these days very prominent and obviously used to fire up the black revolution !Very strong stuff !!!

Brilliant