In recognition for Black History Month, we are highlighting some recent and forthcoming poetry releases by Black authors, as well as books celebrating Black artists and history.
Recent books include Dear Yusef: Essays, Letters, Poems, For and About One Mr. Komunyakaa (edited by Nicole Sealey and John Murillo), a literary celebration of the incredible impact that this revered American poet has had on the literary community on a global scale. The book contains essays, letters, and poems by dozens of Komunyakaa’s former students and colleagues, including Terrance Hayes, Carolyn Forché, Sharon Olds, Martín Espada, and many more. A chapbook, I Said That Love Heals From Inside, is also newly available—featuring five decades of love poems by Komunyakaa. Another new release is Remica Bingham-Risher’s Room Swept Home, in which race, history (both public and personal), mental health, and women’s rights intersect. In Septet for the Luminous Ones, poet fahima ife continues her search for a neotropical mythos. Spoken in quiet recognition and grounded in desire, ife imagines a lush soundscape textured in oblique spiritual fusion of the Taíno and Yoruba. Additionally, we are pleased to have released a paperback edition of The Complete Poetry of Aimé Césaire, a noteworthy release that collects all of Césaire’s celebrated verse into one bilingual edition.
Forthcoming poetry includes Isabelle Baafi’s Chaotic Good. Baafi is an award-winning writer, poet, and editor based in London. Chaotic Good will be published in the UK by Faber & Faber.
In 2024, Wesleyan released two important books related to Black American music in our Music/Culture series. Michael E. Veal’s Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Free Jazz, From Analog to Digital was described by Guthrie Ramsey as “[a] major and singular contribution to the literature on jazz from one of the foremost authorities of American music in the world….Veal’s insights are always astonishing and illuminating.” Benjamin Barson’s Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons recasts the birth of jazz, unearthing vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to reveal how early jazz was inextricably tied to the mass mobilization of freedpeople during Reconstruction and the decades that followed. Barson demonstrates how Black musicians infused participatory music practice with innovative forms of grassroots democracy.
Lastly, we are excited to announce two forthcoming books of note: Their Kindred Earth: Photographs of William Earle Williams, which gathers images of Black Connecticut’s historic sites; and Transtraterrestrial: Dark Matter and Black Divinities by performance artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson, which blends African Diasporic practices with innovative methodologies to explore themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit.
