Malcolm X and the Poetics of Haki Madhubuti

Illustrating the power of oratory in the 1960s and its successful merging with the art of that era, this text examines the significance of Malcolm X as a literary muse for Haki Madhubuti, one of America’s premiere poets and essayists. Long after the death of Malcolm X, Haki Mudhubuti continued to expound on X’s major oratorical themes, including the effort to destroy the racial appellation “Negro” and to create new definitions for words that relate to Africa. X’s persistence in oratory during the 1960s influenced an art movement that changed the psychology and behavior of American Blacks. Through a historical and literary analysis of Black poetry, this text charts how selected writers exhibited great tensions around issues of race until the arrival of the 1960s generation of artists. This book contributes to a broader understanding of Malcolm X and his impact on American writing and culture.

Regina Jennings lives in Philadelphia and teaches at Rutgers University.

Regina Jennings
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 296
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2006
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2619-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Preface      1
Introduction: Malcolm Imagining the Black Arts Movement and Madhubuti      5

1. From Nigger to Negro: Dysfunctional Beginnings of Identity for New World Africans      29
2. How New Is the New Negro?      51
3. Africa as Motif in Pre-1960s Poetry: Selections of the Antebellum, the Reconstruction, and the Harlem Renaissance      60
4. Early Influences of a Revolutionary Aesthetic in Black Poetry: Langston Hughes and Marcus Garvey      104
5. W.E.B. Du Bois, Cheikh Anta Diop, Malcolm X, and Haki Madhubuti: Claiming and Containing Continuity in Black Language and Institutions      125
6. Issues of Memory and Maleness: Malcolm and Madhubuti: Institution Builders and Educators      135
7. Malcolm and Haki and Safisha Madhubuti on African-Centered Education and Africa in the Imagination      157
8. Malcolm X and Madhubuti: A Physical and Personal Merging      174
9. Communion: X, a Magnet for Madhubuti and Brooks      188
10. The X-Factor Influence: A Theoretical Frame for Resistance Poetry      199
11. The X-Factor Influence on the Transformed Image of Africa in the Poetry of Haki Madhubuti: Issues of Re(re)naming and Inversion      220

Chapter Notes      257
Works Cited      271
Index      283

ANKH Award for Best Scholarly Book—Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference