Pick of the Week- The Fire This Time

is The Fire This Time edited by Jesmyn Ward. This collection of short stories, essays and poems highlight some of the great contemporary voices and minds of this generation. The diverse forms all center around race in the United States today. Check out this thought provoking collection from the national National Book Award winning author.

Black History Month 2017

As we celebrate Black History Month this year, the SRS Library is focusing on the African American literary tradition. From the slave narrative, to the poetry of rap and hip hop, African American voices have been an important part of telling the complete American experience.

Contemporary poetry can be heard through the rap of Chance the Rapper, Common, and printed word poems from Jacqueline Woodward. Colson Whitehead and Zadie Smith are also rocking the literary world with award winning novels. Their brilliant contributions are the first in black literature; Gil Scott Heron, Tupac, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker, Toni Morrison created incredible works of fiction as did Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston a generation before.

While the 20th century saw brilliant literary works from African Americans, there were also many remarkable works in the 18th and 19th century. Fredrick Douglass was perhaps the most prominent African American writer in the 19th century having written an autobiography and a best selling narrative of his life as a slave in Maryland and his escape to Massachusetts. Phyllis Wheately was born in West Africa, brought to the United States as a slave and became a famous poet in the late colonial and revolutionary period.

The contributions of African Americans to the overall American literary tradition have been essential to understanding the American experience. Take the time and read a novel or poem by an African American author this month- you won't regret it.

Pick of the Week- Panther and the Lash

is The Panther and the Lash by Langston Hughes. This is a collection of poems from the legendary Harlem Renaissance poet. These poems were written later in his career around the time of the Civil Rights Movement. These poems are an entry into the mind and emotion of Hughes during this tumultuous time. Here is one of the poems from this collection titled, "Harlem (What happens to a dream deferred?)"

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Written in 1951, this poem proved remarkably prophetic. Check out this book for more insights into an important era in United States History.