Introduction ixNikki Giovanni, and Kevin Young. Ultimately,
what attracts us to hip-hop culture and rap is the
seeming continuity and resonance between it and
the Black Arts Movement apparent in the often
raw, unveiled, and unsilenced voices of many
hip-hop artists, including Tupac Shakur, Queen
Latifah, and Public Enemy, who use their lyrics,
poetry, and fiction as social and political vehicles
of comment. As critic Mel Donalson maintains,
“Much like poets Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti,
Gil Scott Herron, and Nikki Giovanni, who sought
to use the Black Arts Movement as a vehicle
for black consciousness and liberation, Public
Enemy and the new black youth culture sought to
empower their generation and the black commu-
nity through rap lyrics and hip-hop sounds.”
In summary, we have chosen to include more
than just the best-known authors of the African-
American canon. Indeed, our emphasis is on new
and emerging writers, who, we are convinced, are
equally and totally committed to speaking the
unspeakable; we also call attention to what Hogue
identifies as the more “polyvalent nature of Afri-
can American literature, history and criticism”
(2), not only to distinguish the Encyclopedia of
African-American Literature from other reference
works but also, in our view, to provide some of its
most significant value.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baldwin, James. “Everybody’s Protest Novel.” In
Notes of a Native Son. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955,
13–22.
Bigsby, C. W. E., ed. The Black American Writer. Vol.
1, Fiction. Deland, Fla.: Everett/Edwards, 1969.
Bone, Robert. The Negro Novel in America. New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958.
Donalson, Mel. Interview. Pasadena, Calif.: June 20,
2006.
DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. In W. E. B.
DuBois: Writings. New York: Library of America
College Edition, 1986, 357–546.
Ellison, Ralph. “The Art of Fiction: An Interview.” In
Shadow and Act. New York: Vintage Books, 1972,
167–183.
Fuller, Hoyt. “Contemporary Negro Fiction.” South-
ern Review 50 (1965): 321–335.
Hogue, Lawrence W. The African American Male,
Writing, and Difference: A Polycentric Approach
to African American Literature, Criticism and His-
tory. Albany: State University of New York Press,
2003.
hooks, bell. Salvation: Black People and Love. New
York: William Morrow, 2001.
Morrison, Toni. “Unspeakable Things Unspoken:
The Afro-American Presence in American Litera-
ture. In Toni Morrison, edited by Harold Bloom,
201–230. New York: Chelsea House Publishers,
1990.
Neel, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” In The Black
Aesthetics, edited by Addison Gayle, 256–274.
New York: Doubleday & Company, 1972.
Turner, Darwin T. “The Negro Novel in America: In
Rebuttal.” College Language Association Journal 10
(1966): 122–134.