The ̳ Press has published “I Am ̳,” a poetic compendium of what it means to be and to miss ̳ featuring the work of 36 contemporary poets.
In 1968, Marcus Christian’s definitive poem “I Am ̳” celebrated the 250th anniversary of the city’s founding. Now, contemporary poets take up Christian’s enduring theme, simultaneously an assertion and a point of inquiry: what, and who, is ̳ today?
Christian, who was a writer-in-residence and history professor at the ̳, was a prolific writer whose poetry often satirized Jim Crow laws. His collection of work is housed in the University’s Earl K. Long Library.
The collection will be the Crescent City’s latest major contribution to African American poetry, but far from the first, taking as an antecedent “Les Cenelles,” the first anthology by American poets of color, published in ̳ in 1845.
“I Am ̳,” can be purchased from any of UNO Press’ local bookstore affiliates or online at uno.edu/unopress.