Poetry and Jazz Music have been friendly kissing cousins at least since the 1920s during the United States ’ great jazz age and the very famous worldwide Harlem Renaissance. That was when the great author Langston Hughes and others thrilled themselves and their friends by reciting and recording poetry to the beats of jazz. Many more––Jack Kerouac, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Sekou Sundiata, June Jordan, etc––later followed their example. With that in mind, it makes sense that the Academy of American Poets kicked off the first National Poetry Month in April 1996, and that the Smithsonian Institution followed suit in April 2002 with a “Jam Session” headed by famed New Orleans son Branford Marsalis. In April 2003, the Jam Session was officially recognized by the U.S. Congress as Jazz Music Appreciation Month. Some might say, “Yeah, well, that’s nice and everything but why bother to celebrate?” Excellent question. Here are some answers: Probably no other single literar

“All this life and love and strife and failure––is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day?” –– The Wisdom of WEB Du Bois The first half of the twentieth century in the United States and much of the world was an era when racial and ethnic differences determined even the most uncontrived actions. Stepping into a restaurant, boarding a train, engaging in sexual relationships, or running or voting for a public office were all ruled by notions of differences between groups. Race remained an element that tempted society in general and historians in particular to half-truths, shortsightedness, and outright falsifications. However, as W.E.B. Du Bois noted in his many observations on the nature of history, it was important to realize that the record of human interaction was much more than an account of entanglements between people with varying shades of skin color. It was also the log of humankind’s ability or inability to rise above age-old phobi

(Academy Award Winners Forest Whitaker and Denzel Washington) When reading about what may be described as the lesser celebrated heroic figures of the Harlem Renaissance, we rarely get a definitive look at just how complicated and sometimes dangerous their everyday lives were. In fact, until the past ten years, many defined the period primarily by its well-known literary, musical, and artistic elements while overlooking the fact there was any political component to it at all. THE GREAT DEBATERS corrects both oversights by giving us an extraordinary portrait of poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson (1898-1966) portrayed with convincing restraint by Denzel Washington, who also directed the movie. At the same time, it delivers an exciting story filled with the creative intellectual genius that characterized the Harlem Renaissance, the thrill of youthful romance, and the painful loss of innocence. Tolson, historically, is known largely as the celebrated author-poet of “Rendezvous with America

CTI News Room, Dec 2007--Within weeks of the release of his first novel, the controversial “Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World,” American author Aberjhani made a surprise move with the early-December release of a powerful collection of poetry titled “The Bridge of Silver Wings.” Both titles have been included in the Google Book Search Program. “These titles came out relatively late for the holiday shopping season because the original plans for their publication were changed at the last minute,” said Aberjhani. “So their inclusion in the Google Book Search Program in such a short period of time is kind of miraculous and very necessary because it gives readers worldwide an opportunity to preview the books before buying them.” In a recent interview posted on The Student Operated Press, poet Chase Von (author of YOUR CHANCE TO HEAR THE LAST PANTHER SPEAK) discussed with Aberjhani the sometimes controversial nature of his work. They also spoke about his prolific output, which incl

(photo of Bayo Olorunto and A.K. Powell courtesy of Nightjohn) In many ways Hiphop is the Harlem Renaissance of the twentyfirst century. Two particularly good examples supportive of that hypothesis are Bayo Olorunto (a member here at CB) and A.K. Powell. Known collectively as Nightjohn, theirs is the combined talent behind the icon-challenging book "The Hiphop Driven Life" and their ultra-fresh self-titled CD. So how do we bridge the historical gap between such giants of the (1920s to 1940s) Harlem Renaissance as author Zora Neale Hurston and jazz great Duke Ellington, and the modern-day multi-talented duo Nightjohn? By considering the following factors: Just as the highly successful Harlem Renaissance blossomed out of the innate creative talents of African Americans, so did the crossover triumph of Hiphop. Just as advances in technology, the growth of the publishing industry, diverse forms of black music, and everyday folk culture provided the Harlem Renaissance with the raw