Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters Today

FAIN: GW-259323-18

Library of America (New York, NY 10022-1006)
Max Rudin (Project Director: August 2017 to September 2022)

Production of an anthology of African American poetry and an accompanying series of reading and discussion programs.

Library of America requests a grant in the amount of $458,418 in partial support of Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters Today, a major national initiative to explore and reassess the multifaceted African American poetic tradition, its complex engagement with American history over 250 years, and its ongoing relevance to our national life. The project has two related objectives. One is to bring together Americans of varied backgrounds around the country to engage with the richness of this essential American tradition in ways that illuminate the continuities and discontinuities between past and present and offer context and insight into questions that remain of vital national importance. The second is to make permanently available a groundbreaking anthology reflecting several generations of scholarly and archival research and rediscovery that will encourage exploration and discussion of the tradition’s meanings and resonances long after the project is over.

Associated Products

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (Book)
Title: African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song
Editor: Kevin Young
Abstract: The anthology will be an authoritative collection that combines a) the full chronological span of African American poetry, informed by the last several decades of scholarly research and revaluation; b) a critical introductory essay by a knowledgeable scholar; c) a selection of poems that takes account of the present flourishing/renaissance of black poetry; and d) informative endnotes and other contextualizing editorial apparatus that allow the book to be used and enjoyed both in the classroom and by a general audience. The collection will embrace the entire tradition of African American poetry from its eighteenth-century beginnings to the present. Every poem in the book will be judged on the basis of its literary merit, but the aim is a comprehensive, wide-ranging volume that is representative of the many styles, schools, periods, and regional variations of African American poetry.
Year: 2020
Publisher: Library of America
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-1-59853-66

Lift Every Voice Reader and Discussion Guide (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Lift Every Voice Reader and Discussion Guide
Author: Kevin Young, Editor
Abstract: The Reader will be a resource for libraries and other institutions participating in Lift Every Voice to offer public programming in their local communities. Organized by the project's featured humanities themes, the Reader will present select poems from the anthology along with contextual aids and discussion questions that will promote inquiry and conversation and will facilitate comparison of historical and contemporary African American poetic expression. Additionally, the Reader will include a brief chronology of the African American poetic tradition and suggestions for further reading.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://www.africanamericanpoetry.org
Primary URL Description: The Reader will be available for free download on the project website, africanamericanpoetry.org.
Audience: General Public

Lift Every Voice Project Website (Web Resource)
Title: Lift Every Voice Project Website
Author: Project Team
Abstract: Developed to allow and encourage a global audience to participate in Lift Every Voice, the project website will include an interactive timeline for the African American poetic tradition with links to images, documents, poets, and historical milestones that provide a chronological and thematic framework for public discussion and lifelong learning. The featured poems in the Lift Every Voice Reader will be presented on the website with contextual aids that expand upon the project's featured humanities themes, direct public engagement, and provide entry into the works and lives of the respective poets. Videos of scholars, poets, and other distinguished figures reading poetry and providing textual analysis will be archived on the website. The Lift Every Voice Reader will also be available for free download from the site.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://www.africanamericanpoetry.org
Primary URL Description: See above.

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