Like Redmond, Felice Belle narrows the hypocrisy
of having a global voice by revealing the absurd
sounds of a national voice. By listing the historical
lies and myths that cultivate such a crazy notion,
“Exceptions” regenerates cultural fads to demystify
the African American’s lack of participation in the
white global economy (163–166).
While AMIRI BARAKA testifies that the artist’s
blood courses naturally (perhaps fatedly) through
the African American (264), GWENDOLYN BROOKS
creates physical and tangible metaphors so readers
can envision the human and artistic challenge of
community development and extension in “Build-
ing” (xxix). Poet and dramatist Carl Hancock Rux
simply turns contemporary artistic challenges on
their head. Turning phrases that are sometimes
maudlin, other times musical, Rux relies on the
universal language—music—to continue the col-
lection’s thematic thread of a media-developed
sense of place and its illusionary results. The ef-
fect of working with two artistic mediums—mix-
ing poetry and music—perhaps mimics blending
and the death of individual cultural esteem in
America:
am Belial...
Nostrils wide open, veins hungry, mouthing
incantations to Spanish Key on trumpet
reading Faust out loud
drunk on Moett. (116)Many of the poems address such social and
political issues as drive-by shootings, the threat of
AIDS, and police brutality.
In Bum Rush, these contemporary problems,
attributable directly and indirectly to the history
of racism and discrimination, are often described
or attested to by the collection’s youngest, most
novice poets. However, the youthfulness of the
chorus does not detract from the literary potency
of the political verses. They address the upsurge of
gangs in the 1980s and 1990s in poems like “Bullet
Hole Man” and “Bensonhurst” (110, 243), offering
fresh insight into this intraracial class warfare in
black America. These brave poems are often som-
ber, morose, and emotional. Other poems, such
as “Complected” and “The Tragic Mulatto Is Nei-
ther,” address the struggle with cultural and artistic
identity, contributing to the poetic canon gener-
ated by “complected” American poets long ago
(154–158). Also, there are commemorative poems
that acknowledge, celebrate, and express appre-
ciation of social and literary icons who not only
influenced but also mentored the younger genera-
tion of poets.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Braithwaite, Wendy. Motion in Poetry. Toronto: Wom-
en’s Press, 2002.
Komunyakaa, Yusef, Foreword. In Listen Up! Spoken
Word Poetry, edited by Zoë Angelesey New York:
Ballantine Publishing Group, 1999.
Lawrence T. PotterButler, Octavia E. (1947–2006)
Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947 to Laurice
Butler and Octavia M. Guy in Pasadena, Califor-
nia. She was an only child whose father died when
she was a baby. Her mother, grandmother, and
other close relatives raised her in a racially diverse
neighborhood that was nonetheless unified in its
fight for economic survival. Butler characterized
herself as an introspective daydreamer. She had
to overcome dyslexia, and she started writing at
a young age to deal with her boredom and lone-
liness. As a young teenager, she was interested in
science fiction because it appealed to her sense as
an alienated or “out kid.” In 1968 she earned an
associate of arts from Pasadena City College. She
then studied at California State University, Los An-
geles, and the University of California at Los An-
geles but did not study creative writing formally,
opting instead to take writing classes at night. She
received further creative writing training in the
Open Door Program of the Screen Writers Guild
of America in the 1960s and 1970s and the Clarion
Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop in 1970. Butler
also devoted time to researching biology, genetics,
and physical science.
Butler has written both novels and short sto-
ries. The Patternist series consists of Wild Seed
(1980), Mind of My Mind (1977), Patternmaster84 Butler, Octavia E.