Red Sun Songs
This book of poetry was first published by Inner Visions Press in January 1981. All 24 poems published in that first release have been included here. One of those poems, titled “Theme for El Jefe,” was a Grand Prize winner in the Gil Scott-Heron Poetry Contest. That contest was held in 1979 and sponsored by Arista Record Company and radio station KRE in Berkeley, California. I felt extremely honored when Gil Scott-Heron selected my poem as a Grand Prize winner.
As a group, these poems reflect my mindset then and now. The poems are written in a free-verse style and reflect people I have known and things I have experienced. For example, there are two poems dedicated to my daughter Aliya, who is my first-born child and now a grown woman. There is also a series of poems that deal with the death of Frankie Duncan, a young Black man who died while in police custody in Waycross, Georgia. I went to high school with him in the shadows of the Satilla River and the Okefenokee Swamp. In addition, the poems have been influenced by the jazz sounds of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, Marion Brown, Gary Bartz, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Joe Henderson, Patrice Rushen, Herbie Hancock, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joe Henderson, and Eddie Jefferson as well as the jazzoetry of Gil Scott-Heron, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti (aka Don L. Lee), Johari Amini, Sonia Sanchez, Carolyn Rodgers, Mari Evans, Wanda Robinson, Owen Dodson, Michael Harper, and the Last Poets.
—Dr. J. Vern Cromartie
Excerpted from the Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition
This book of poetry was first published by Inner Visions Press in January 1981. All 24 poems published in that first release have been included here. One of those poems, titled “Theme for El Jefe,” was a Grand Prize winner in the Gil Scott-Heron Poetry Contest. That contest was held in 1979 and sponsored by Arista Record Company and radio station KRE in Berkeley, California. I felt extremely honored when Gil Scott-Heron selected my poem as a Grand Prize winner.
As a group, these poems reflect my mindset then and now. The poems are written in a free-verse style and reflect people I have known and things I have experienced. For example, there are two poems dedicated to my daughter Aliya, who is my first-born child and now a grown woman. There is also a series of poems that deal with the death of Frankie Duncan, a young Black man who died while in police custody in Waycross, Georgia. I went to high school with him in the shadows of the Satilla River and the Okefenokee Swamp. In addition, the poems have been influenced by the jazz sounds of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, Marion Brown, Gary Bartz, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Joe Henderson, Patrice Rushen, Herbie Hancock, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joe Henderson, and Eddie Jefferson as well as the jazzoetry of Gil Scott-Heron, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti (aka Don L. Lee), Johari Amini, Sonia Sanchez, Carolyn Rodgers, Mari Evans, Wanda Robinson, Owen Dodson, Michael Harper, and the Last Poets.
—Dr. J. Vern Cromartie
Excerpted from the Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition
This book of poetry was first published by Inner Visions Press in January 1981. All 24 poems published in that first release have been included here. One of those poems, titled “Theme for El Jefe,” was a Grand Prize winner in the Gil Scott-Heron Poetry Contest. That contest was held in 1979 and sponsored by Arista Record Company and radio station KRE in Berkeley, California. I felt extremely honored when Gil Scott-Heron selected my poem as a Grand Prize winner.
As a group, these poems reflect my mindset then and now. The poems are written in a free-verse style and reflect people I have known and things I have experienced. For example, there are two poems dedicated to my daughter Aliya, who is my first-born child and now a grown woman. There is also a series of poems that deal with the death of Frankie Duncan, a young Black man who died while in police custody in Waycross, Georgia. I went to high school with him in the shadows of the Satilla River and the Okefenokee Swamp. In addition, the poems have been influenced by the jazz sounds of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, Marion Brown, Gary Bartz, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Joe Henderson, Patrice Rushen, Herbie Hancock, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joe Henderson, and Eddie Jefferson as well as the jazzoetry of Gil Scott-Heron, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti (aka Don L. Lee), Johari Amini, Sonia Sanchez, Carolyn Rodgers, Mari Evans, Wanda Robinson, Owen Dodson, Michael Harper, and the Last Poets.
—Dr. J. Vern Cromartie
Excerpted from the Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition