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Affrilachia: Poems by Frank X Walker

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Frank X. Walker's fine poems are engaging and personal--they form a sort of memoir of the poet's life, one that tocuhes the reader's own memory and sense of self. We recognize moments of our own--personal moments, cultural moments, political moments, spiritual moments--and that recognition speaks to us of both the poet's power and the poem's. My favorite poem may be "Fireproof," about the aftermath of the burning of a black church building. I also appreciated "Hummingbird," about the death of a young man from AIDS. But it is difficult to pick out single poems for comment--though many are incredibly powerful individually, it is as a collection that the work finds a place within you and makes a home. This volume demonstrates Frank X. Walker is a voice that will be heard.

I just recently saw the theatrical version of AFFRILACHIA on the campus of the University of Kentucky (which was truly something else), and had to have a copy of his book immediately afterwards. Having met and spoken to the author on several occasion, I knew his honesty and warmth would inevitably express itself in collection of his writings.

AFFRILACHIA is a love letter to the Black Kentuckian soul. And yet in it's regional specificity, rhythmic lyricism and illuminating of time, place, events and relationships (as well as their marriage to universal human truths and modern lies) it is a celebration of the African-American creative spirit transcendental as it continues to walk tall, shout hallelujah and dance throughout our country, and much of the world. Frank X. Walker achieves many sacred paradoxes with the honesty of his craft and style: the more universally he ruminates on the human condition and the grand themes of the late 20th Century African-American experience, the more he unveils the singularity of what it is to be a Black man from Kentucky. The more he speaks to the personal experiences of his heart and the individual things, people and ideas he truly loves (like, obviously, the prose poetic language itself), the more universal his poetry becomes, and the deeper it resonates in your heart.

Being a poet and musician myself born and raised in New York City, I came to his work mired in unconscious stereotype based purely on regional demographics. (The very prejudice a brother [or anyone] from the big city of big cities would be offended by if he witnessed its expression, experienced it by others, or if you brought it to his attention.) I told myself unawares not to expect the jazz lyricism, introspection, challenging political insight wrapped in rhythmic eternal emotional truths- in other words, all that signifies the triumph of prose over the prosaic- of my classic favorites, heroes and friends in his work. And then I read "In Hell, Exhale", and couldn't stop smiling. I found myself being reminded of the true poet's power to create the space for the paradigm shifts that philosophers, historians and idealogues fill in his potent demand for new perspectives on Dr. Martin Luther King (forshadowing the heart and soul, it seems, of Eric Dyson's monumental new biography) with "Lil Kings". I laughed out loud at the celebrated soul of Blackness in the rap artist in "Neopolitan", as he challenged me to consider that their veracity, as it exists in our time, has the power to "eclipse jazz" the way Bird and Coltrane- and the visual art of Miles Davis in the eighties- in their own way eclipsed the shining stars of their predecessors in their own time. And the performance of a select number of the gems in this book in the theatrical piece created for its celebration humbled me to the point of knowing that, even in leaving Harlem for the Bluegrass, I found a way to come home.

This work is full of honesty, and full of heart. He teaches as much as he entertains. He is a fine poet, and this is a fine book of poetry.

As you enter Frank X.Walker's collection of poetry know that you are entering a place of truth. Know that he is blazing a trail into Kentucky's literary history. Written by one of the state's own native sons, these words shed new light and breathe color. Affrilachia declares loudly and proudly that "some of the Bluegrass is Black." You will find on these pages indication of Frank's mastery of language and his ability and power to captivate you from a universal place, not just the Affrilachian experience. From this black man's eye we see Kentucky in all its beauty and its ugliness. We glimpse the Million Man March from the inside. We pay homage to African and Blackfoot Indian ancestry. We see Betty Shabazz's transition in death and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resurrected as a rap artist. From his gut we feel divorce, a family member's drug addiction, religious differences, and the deaths of loved ones. We bear witness to a father's devotion to his children and share the ecstasy, trials and tribulations of love. Through Frank we begin to understand a "belly warm" bond with a best friend and the feelings generated from a callous stare and shouts of `selling out' from a stranger. Enter these poems with anticipated satisfaction. Know that by absorbing these words, by fingering these pages, you witness this Affrilachian Poet buffalo soldiering his way. Know that these are words of genuine truth that put Frank in his rightful place in a peacock chair alongside Kentucky's greats Gurney Norman, George C. Wolfe, James Still, William Wells Brown, bell hooks, Wendell Berry, Gayl Jones, Ed McClanahan, Effie Waller Smith and countless others.

I had the priviledge to study with Frank X. Walker when I was a student at Ky Governor's School for the Arts. At the time, I knew nothing about black history--so shamefully little that I didn't even know what Malcolm X looked like. Frank introduced me to the richness of black culture and showed me what I was missing. He is a man of great power; that power forces bare words into tremendous fluidity of motion. His bare bones personality comes across in his writing and the heartfeltness behind his poetry, while expressing the emotions of an African American, transcends cultural barriers so that even I, the whitest white girl alive, can begin to understand.

These are the words of a Black Southern Poet. His words stick to the bones. My favorite pieces include Wishbone and Crooked Afro because of their concise language and focus on family. Walker's work is that of a poet in keen awareness of history, politics and African tradition.

I also love the honesty of Hummingbird and Taking the Stares. These two poems examine the state of our collective humanity. Affilacia is an autobiography, a claiming of space and identity and a lyric love story to family (African and Affrilachian).

The poems in Affrilachia are like the Southern pecan tree: enduring, real and tasty.

if you can remember how that first taste of southern cooking sat in your belly warm with the love that prepared it. If you have never had a meal sit with you decades after it was consumed get yourself down south. If you cannot, then buy yourself a copy of this book it's the next best thing.

I have had the privilege of working with Frank in the past, and this collection of poems represents a writer with immense discipline and command of verse. His unique voice has given voice to a part of the Kentucky experience that is all but absent in the literary world. Bravo!