This is the zone for people who like to lose themselves browsing through 2nd hand bookstores on lazy days... old editions stacked on shelves, loud, but torn graphic dustjackets from the 1950s catch your eye...

If you've adopted one of these gems with a torn cover, or well-thumbed pages... this is the place to give it a second life

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FireFly,

A paperback from 1972... orig. pub. 1969

Back cover blurb...
"The New Black Poetry was the cosmic anthology of the Sixties..." Ishael Reed

"The best work by black American poets is to be found in Clarence Major's book..." Addison Gayle Jr. New York Times Book Review

The New Black Poetry
Edited with an Intro by CLARENCE MAJOR


A poem by GERALD L. SIMMONS, Jr.
Take Tools Our Strength...

Take tools, our strength to break chains
and locks of containment and oppression.
Look - open eyes,
see images. Black images - Beauty images,
cornbread souls and African dust.
Strike blows, death blows.
Be free.
We are beautiful,
Winners.

Another...

GLORIA DAVIS
To Egypt

Where are my people?
When will your tales unfurl,
and let the white world know
You were once my mother
and I
your soft kinky headed girl...
Tell them-
White America, I mean,
How you built me a strong black nation
from a vibrant black seed!
Tell them that my fathers,
the Pharaohs, were black,
Tell the white world
let them know Hannibal,
was my brother.
And that the temples soothed in blackness
were the toys of a
foolish girl.

I found this book today at a 2nd hand market bookstall.

Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society by Gluckman. Yes it is English, but it is also details early systems of society and worship and aspects of anthropology that is not only physical but cultural and spiritual.

It's a first edition from 1965 which means it is full of quite unusual and unique photos of indigenous people from Canada, Africa, Australia and Pacific Island nations.

Stateless societies? Dispute and settlement. Mystical Disturbance and Ritual Adjustment... lots of reading ahead!