African-American literature

grittiness, the anonymity, and the visual and aural
noise of this environment find their way into her
poems as monumental icons; “the crowd wears
sunglasses” offers an excellent example, describing
“the city” as a complicated place where

... the need
for greed
weaves pain
into fear
into a slow
kill.

Despite its complexity, the vibrant and electrify-
ing city must also be associated with fear and slow
death.
Equally important, as observers and commen-
tators, Boyd’s speakers are deeply informed about
the endemic class and racial conflicts in modern
America. Consequently, through her speakers
Boyd often directly and unabashadedly addresses
the ills of American modernity and the African-
American community, such as drugs, homeless-
ness, police brutality, disfranchisement, and white
privilege in a racialized society, as she does in “We
Want Our City Back”:

We don’t want police

harassing the homeless

for being without a lease.

Mock-irony, a distinct feature of African-Ameri-
can modernism, creates the tension that drives this
poem forward, successfully creating the cacophony
that marks inner city life.
Boyd’s poetics are grounded in the primacy of
the images she creates that seem to mount up like
skyscrapers in an urban skyline. Boyd draws these
images from the rich diversity found in the mod-
ern urban environment, juxtaposing them against
one another to produce unexpected, exciting, and
rich associations. This is true in poems that deal
with both public and private subjects, such as
“passion. joy. peace”:

your gift of

3 words

etched in gold

on 3 pastel

stones.

Since receiving her doctor of arts in English

from the University of Michigan in 1979, Boyd

has taught at the University of Iowa, Ohio State

University, and the University of Michigan–Flint.

She joined the faculty of Wayne State University in

1996 and is currently a professor in the department

of Africana studies. She is also an adjunct professor

at the Center for Afroamerican and African Stud-

ies at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. Boyd

continues to publish poetry and scholarly articles

widely, both in the United States and in Europe,

and has received numerous awards. She lives with

her family in Detroit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyd, Melba Joyce, and M. L. Liebler, eds. Abandon

Automobile: Detroit City Poetry 2001. Detroit:

Wayne State University Press, 2001.

———. The Black Unicorn: Dudley Randall and the

Broadside Press. (Film) 1995.

———. Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the

Life of Frances E. W. Harper (1825–1911). Detroit:

Wayne State University Press, 1994.

———. The Province of Literary Cats. Detroit: Past

Tents Press, 2002.

———. Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and

Broadside Press. New York: Columbia University

Press, 2003.

DuCille, Ann. “Trials and Triumphs of Reconstruc-

tion.” Women’s Review of Books (Autumn 1994):

13–15.

Rampersad, Arnold. “Wrestling with the Muse.”

Columbia University Press Web site. Available

online. URL: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/

data/023113/0231130260.htm. Accessed Septem-

ber 29, 2006.

Geoffrey Jacques

Boykin, Keith (1965– )

Activist author and lecturer Keith Boykin was born

in St. Louis, Missouri, to William Boykin, a small-

68 Boykin, Keith