WHAT WE MUST SEE: Young Black Storytellers

by Orde -- Ed. Coombs ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 1971

This attractive collection of new (or newish, some of these writers are already beginning to make names) black fiction complements Coombs's 1970 anthology of young black poetry, We Speak As Liberator& His own admitted aim is double -- the introduction of fresh talent and ""the triumphant proclamation of the validity of a people's lives."" If his writers concur in the latter it is with fewer testimonial polysyllables and on a subtler, less collective level. The variety of styles and subjects includes Val Ferdinand's vignette of a New Orleans funeral, Walter Myers' sour/sentimental tale of a junkie and a down-and-out white girl, and an operatic mounting of madness and suicide by Arnold Kemp. The best, however, are understated and personalized with no polemics needed. R. Ernest Holmes, Audrey M. Lee, John McClusky, and Sonia Sanchez stand out, as witnesses and storytellers.

Pub Date: May 17, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION