Rise (Paperback)

~ A. Van Jordan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Let's call this, the way a sound is born," suggests Jordan's speaker, with an acute desire to articulate beauty tempered by taut emotional restraint. Racial slurs, rage and fistfights receive a cold monotone; the voice softens slightly into empathy, melancholy and sometimes humor in response to music (Sidney Bechet, John Coltrane, Robert Johnson), the disenfranchised, "[t]he philosopher, Richard Pryor" or divine intervention: the radio played "four Eddie Harris tunes in a row." In "Beggar's Song," Jordan imagines the longings of a man afraid of love: "If I could dream now,/ A dark woman would obsess/ Over my hands."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Jordan's debut collection opens with a pummeling poem about a confrontation between a white man and a black man in a bar in Washington, D.C., a concussive clash that resounds throughout the book like a booming heart or a bass drum. Blues lyrics and field hollers infuse and shape his lines; jazz supplies a lustrous ambience and such heroes as Ellington, Davis, and Monk. Although Jordan's poems move with musical grace and surety, his imagery is thickly visual and arrestingly tactile, and violence hovers chillingly in the wings. These are poems about racism in America, painful memories and ongoing nightmares, the emotional fallout of headlined tragedies (the death of Yusuf Hawkins), and such private horrors as being stopped by the police as a boy for no crime other than being black. But there is benevolence in these finely crafted, subtly formal poems and free-floating faith as Jordan praises the strength and beauty of women and embraces African American history and art with sorrow-dappled pride. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Tia Chucha (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882688260
• ISBN-13: 978-1882688265
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #330,623 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, July 23, 2001

By	Erren Geraud Kelly (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews

this book is rooted in blues and jazz. jordan has a good ear for down home speech and an excellent eye for observation and history. in the poem " overcoat, " he tells a poiganat tale about police harassment in a shopping mall in white suburban ohio. " kind of blue " tells about an ex-lover, the music of miles davis and of drug addiction. the poems about john henry and robert johnson definately qualify as black folklore and they are a pleasure to read. the poem voodoo which a fellow poet disses a poem jordan wrote about a woman they were both involved with is funny. tia chuca press always puts out good work

3 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars typical, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

Jordan joins the clan of blues bandwagoners as member emeritus. These poems are just plain, throwbacks from the (great and sufficient) protest poetry of the past. ...dispense with this treatise.