On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems [Paperback]

Jayne Cortez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2009

"Cortez has been and continues to be an explorer, probing the valleys and chasms of human existence. No ravine is too perilous, no abyss too threatening for Jayne Cortez."--Maya Angelou "If you haven't read Jayne Cortez, you're missing some of the best that life has to offer. A compellingly original voice of fire and freedom."--Franklyn Rosemont "Jayne Cortez's poems are filled with images that most of us are afraid to see."--Walter Mosley

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jayne Cortez is the author of eleven books of poetry and performer of her poems with music on nine recordings. Her voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral sound. Cortez has presented her work and ideas at universities, museums, and festivals around the world. Her poems have been translated into many languages and widely published in anthologies, journals, and magazines. She is a recipient of several awards including: Arts International, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International African Festival Award. The Langston Hughes Medal, The American Book Award, and the Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professorship Award. Her most recent books are THE BEAUTIFUL BOOK (Bola Press) and JAZZ FAN LOOKS BACK (Hanging Loose Press). Her latest CDs with the Firespitter Band are FIND YOUR OWN VOICE, BORDERS OF DISORDERLY TIME (Bola Press), TAKING THE BLUES BACK HOME, produced by Harmolodic and by Verve Records. Cortez is organizer of the international symposium "Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition & Creative Progress" (NYU) and director of the film Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization. She is co-founder and president of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc., and can be seen on screen in the films Women In Jazz and Poetry In Motion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 131 pages
• Publisher: Hanging Loose Press (February 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931236909
• ISBN-13: 978-1931236904
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On the Imperial Highway, October 4, 2010

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taogoat (the mothership) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

Great collection of Jayne Cortez's poetry, spanning across her career from the early 70s to the late 2000s. Contains selections from the books Scarifications (1973), Mouth on Paper (1977), Firespitter (1982), Coagulations (1984), Somewhere in the Advance of Nowhere (1996), The Beautiful Book (2007), and What a Mouthfull (new poems, presumably).

Her poetry is rhythmic, vernacular, surreal, political, honest. This is what spoken word ought to sound like.

I think it's worth getting her earlier collection of selected poems, Coagulations, in addition to the new collection. Coagulations has 24 poems that are not in On the Imperial Highway, including two of my favorites, "I See Chano Pozo" and "You Know." On the Imperial Highway has 4 poems from the 70s and 80s that are not in Coagulations, in addition to 38 newer poems from the 90s to the present.

Also check out her recordings with her band and videos on youtube.

peace