Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Giovanni, Nikki (1996). Shimmy shimmy shimmy like my sister Kate:  Looking at the Harlem Rennaissance through poems. New York:  Henry Holt and Company.

ISBN: 0805034943

Summary:  Award-winning, contemporary African-American poet, teacher, and activist Nikki Giovanni has compiled and commented on a collection of 20th-century poems largely from the Harlem Renaissance to celebrate and affirm being a black American. Selections include well-known poems, such as Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy" ("I know why the caged bird sings!" and Langston Hughes' "Harlem" ("What happens to a dream deferred?") as well as poems from less prolific authors, such as Waring Cuney and Lance Jeffers.

Additional comments:  Nikki Giovanni reflects on each poem's meaning and historical context. She also comments on each poet's life and legacy.  This anthology is full of anger at the persecution blacks have faced and continue to face, full of hope for the future, and full of love, pride, and strength for what's been overcome.   

 

Spoken Word Revolution, Redux (Audio CD)

Eleveld, Mark (2007). Spoken word revolution, redux (Audio recording).  Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebook Media Fusion. 
ISBN: 1402208693 /978-1-4022-0869-0

Summary:  A book and CD collection of a variety of poetry in the form of slam, hip hop, musical interpretations, and youth-created. A broad range of topics are represented, some with a political theme, such as "Sonny's Letta" and some with a light-hearted tone, such as "Tom Waits, I hate you" and "Truce, why I'm not a businessman".  Some poems explore sexualtiy, such as "Slut", while others explore reflections on self-image, like "Thick" and identity, like "My name is not Rodriguez".

Additional comments: This anthology presents a terrific introduction to spoken word.  The accompanying CD brings the poems to life with rhythmic and impassioned readings, and sometimes background music and sounds like audience laughter and applause. 

Edgar Allen Poe (Audio CD)

Price, Vincent and Rathbone, Basil (2000). Edgar Allen Poe Audio Collection. Caedmon; Unabridged edition 
ISBN: 0694524190 / 978-0694524198  

Summary:  Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone, two masters of classic horror, read poems and short stories by Edgar Allen Poe.  

Additional Comments:  Poe's rhythmic and haunting gothic poetry may confuse readers with the antiquated and formal language of the 1800's.  Yet, when read aloud, the poetry turns into music and the meaning is more accessible. 

Vincent Price, whose voice teens might recognize as the deep, spooky narrator in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, and Basil Rathbone both have bass voices that convey the sinister, dark mood of Poe's writing.  Yet, they also both use a range of pitches and cadences, which is particularly effective in Basil Rathbone's reading of  "The Bells" because it describes the sound and the mood of bells in various contexts, some light and happy and some full of terror. Click on the links below to view YouTube videos that complement the readings.

Vincent Price reading "The Raven"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID1CiB4bcU

Basil Rathbone reading "The Bells"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0889pnbURtY

Basil Rathbone reading "Annabel Lee"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJhvKEMhn20

Basil Rathbone reading "The Tell-Tale-Heart"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHUNY_NXsU

Revenge of the "Illegal Alien", by Cesar A. Preciado-Cruz

Preciado-Cruz, Cesar A. (2008). Revenge of the “illegal alien: A Mexican takes on the Empire. Oakland: Making Changes Press.

ISBN 9780615152998

Summary:  Human rights activist Cesar Preciado-Cruz (teolol) releases revolutionary rage in his Revenge of the “illegal alien: A Mexican takes on the Empire, a collection of poems and short stories that condemn the United States for the repression of people of color, for the wealthy corporate elite, for the political lies about Iraq, for the general contempt of undocumented workers by Americans who benefit from their services, and for historical atrocities. Cruz’s radical poems in English and Spanish lend themselves to spoken word to fully realize the emotional intensity of his writing. 

Additional Comments: Some readers will undoubtedly squirm with discomfort from his calls for insurgency in poems like “license this” and “the terrorist” and from his vilification of the American government in poems like “on the 4th u lie (4th of july)” and “things taken”. However, his voice represents the vital perspective of the underrepresented and marginalized.