Bookedited by Jesmyn Ward.
Summary: "National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew," which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: "You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon." Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin's words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a "post-racial" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
The Tradition / by Jericho Brown
Introduction / by Jesmyn Ward
Part I: Legacy
Homegoing, AD / by Kima Jones
The Weight / by Rachel Ghansah / Lonely in America / by Wendy S. Walters
Where Do We Go from Here? / by Isabel Wilkerson
"The Dear Pledges of Our Love": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband / Honoree Jeffers
White Rage / by Carol Anderson
Cracking the Code / by Jesmyn Ward
Part II: Reckoning
Queries of Unrest / by Clint Smith
Blacker Than Thou / by Kevin Young
Da Art of Storytellin' (a prequel) / by Kiese Laymon
Black and Blue / by Garnette Cadogan
The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning / by Claudia Rankine
Know Your Rights! / by Emily Raboteau
Composite Pops / by Mitchell Jackson
Part III: Jubilee
Theories of Time and Space / by Natasha Trethewey
Love in the Time of Contradiction / by Daniel Jose Older
Message to My Daughters / by Edwidge Danticat.
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