“Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. —Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar œstrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis Whately [sic]; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism.” – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia “…And yet, this is precisely what Gordon argues is the value and insight of Fanon: he fully accepts the definition of himself as pathological as it is imposed by a world that knows itself through that imposition, rather than remaining in a reactive stance that insists […]
Black Brilliance and Recognition: Hip Hop, Hurray!
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Self Portrait (Plaid), 1983 - © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
