Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era co-editors have publishing news! Sequoia Maner’s chapbook, Little Girl Blue, was recently published by Host Publications; order it here. Emily Ruth Rutter’s scholarly text Black Celebrity: Contemporary Representations of Postbellum Athletes and Artists was recently published by University of Delaware Press/Rutgers University Press; order it here. And, darlene anita scott published her debut poetry collection, Marrow, with University of Kentucky Press in March 2022; order it here.
Order Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era for your library, classroom, reading and writing groups, and yourself. Royalties will be donated to #SayHerName.
*30% Discount Available – enter the code BOA30 at checkout.*
Reviews
“While the desire to speak to the dead is no uncommon animator in many artforms, in the Black elegy, the address to the living combined with the political context of the death make the critical difference. The very decision to invoke in the title Black Lives Matter, our contemporary’s largest anti-racist movement, clarifies not only the historical framework of the book but also that these elegies are not about death at the hands of time but at the chokehold of the state. Furthermore, while the form of the address (apostrophe) as critical to the lyric has been thoroughly established, the writers in the collection hope to not only speak to the audience (dead or alive) but to see and hear them, suggesting the desire for dialogue, sociality, and—is it possible?—solidarity.” –Xuan An Ho, E3W: Ethnic and World Literatures
“The book includes three main sections: “Elegiac Reconfigurations,” “Hauntings and Reckonings,” and “Elegists as Activists.” Each section includes poems followed scholarly articles and then more poems. It’s a combination that we do not get to witness nearly enough in collections.” –Howard Rambsy II, Cultural Front
“Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era, a collection of poetry and criticism edited by Tiffany Austin, Sequoia Maner, Emily Ruth Rutter and darlene anita scott (and a book that I highly recommend) was published at the end of 2019; the pieces within make for powerful reading in light of this year’s events.” –Jessica Wilkinson, Syndey Review of Books
Virtual Tour
In early March 2020, we kicked off a tour of readings and talks, and have decided to transition that series to a virtual platform for Fall 2020-Spring 2021. If your program or institution is interested in being part of our virtual tour, please contact the editors.
On April 27, 2021, darlene, Sequoia, and Emily joined Revisiting the Elegy contributors Maia Butler and Megan Feifer at the (virtual) University of North Carolina-Wilmington for a cross-disciplinary panel on elegiac traditions in the African diaspora. At this event, they discussed the collection of critical and creative pieces broadly, as well as Drs. Butler and Feifer’s chapter in specific, “Edwidge Danticat’s Elegiac Project: A Transnational Historiography of U.S. Imperialist State Violence.”
On June 25, 2021, darlene, Sequoia, and Emily joined Revisiting the Elegy contributors Angela Jackson-Brown and Lauren Alleyne in conversation with the editor, Ambrose Musiyiwa, and several contributors of Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World. This Zoom event was part of the Over the Edge Reading series in Galway, Ireland. Watch the reading here.
On November 19, 2020, Emily, darlene, Sequoia, and the magnificent poet and Revisiting the Elegy contributor Danielle Legros Georges gave a reading at the Boston Public Library. You can watch the reading and conversation here.
On September 15, 2020, darlene and Sequoia joined Emily at Ball State for a reading from Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era and a conversation about the sociopolitical inequities and artistic impulses that compel contemporary eleqiac expressions. You can watch the event on Ball State’s YouTube channel.
Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era was selected for the 2020 Mayor’s Book Club in Austin, TX: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2020-07-02/mayors-book-club-says-read-local/
Catch-up Cafë – Insta Live conversation between Sequoia Maner and Deborah Paredez on Intsagram Live Tuesday 12 May @ 2:00 pm CST.
WPFW – On The Margin – Live conversation between Emily Ruth Rutter and E. Ethelbert Miller on 21 May @ 9am EST.
Auburn Avenue – journal issue launch on 29 May @ 6:00 PM EST, reading with Sequoia Maner and other writers.
Book Launch
The co-editors were recently reading from and discussing Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era in Austin, TX. On March 3, we participated in a reading at the George Washington Carver Museum with an incredible line-up of Austin poets, including Amanda Johnston, Travis Helms, Monica Teresa Ortiz, Jesus Valles, and KB. On March 4, we gave the Jessie Daniel Ames lecture at Southwestern University. Entitled “Poetry of Witness,” our talk focused on the work of antiracism through and beyond poetry and on and off campuses. We were also joined by Kelly Lessard, who took the poignant photograph on the book’s cover.
Please note that we are donating all royalties from Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era to Black Lives Matter and its kindred organizations. During our book launch in Austin, we raised an additional $191 to support the movement. Let’s keep this momentum up! https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
Black History Month Celebration & Reading
- White Whale Bookstore (Pittsburgh)
- Monday, February 17, 2020
- 7:00 PM-9:00 PM
Check out two incredible poets, Cameron Barnett and Steffan Triplett, included in Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era for a reading in celebration of Black History Month. The complete list of readers is: Cameron Barnett, Jari Bradley, Malcolm Friend, K. Henderson, Willie Kinard III, Nicole Lourette, Gabrielle Ralambo-Rajerison, and Steffan Triplett. Co-organized and co-hosted by Cameron Barnett and Malcolm Friend.
Boston
Hosted by the African American Literature & Culture Society (AALCS), Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era held a round table at the 30th annual conference of the American Literature Association (ALA) which took place from May 23-26, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. Joined by poet Danielle Legros Georges who delivered a memorable and powerful performance, co-editors Emily Rutter, Sequoia Maner, and darlene anita scott (via Skype) previewed poems and essays published in the book.
Cincinnati
Revisiting the Elegy presented at the 32nd annual MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States) conference, held from March 21-24, 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio and organized around the theme “Underground Histories.” Co-editors Emily Rutter and Sequoia Maner, along with contributor Dr. Debbie Mix spoke about the landscape and stakes of black-authored elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era. From memorializing Tiffany Austin to discussions of structural racism in the medical establishment and innovation in contemporary black poetics, the roundtable was lively and fruitful.
Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era 