Black Fire – Amiri Baraka

Soul is Screamin/ Screechin TINTINNABULATION! That’s Soul!! Ring bells oh You can’t touch it or feel it but you touch it and feel it it moves ya when you see it, and you feel it when it moves ya cause you can’t see it if it moves ya It’s the holy ghost It’s the seven seas It’s chicken pie and a bloody nose It’s the rhythmic beat of two flat feet thumpin and bumpin out soul will beat ya in a minute if you’re highfaluttin round in it Listen: A beautiful south sea island, the whistle of the waves, grass skirts, the whistle of, a liner docks, smiling faces You’re here!

Mr. & Mrs. Westerveal Duddly Hammington, you’re here staying at the HILTON, registered and fed, you take a “dip” at the hotel pool A dance? A drink from a ceramic coconut A piece of mint thrown on the side A flower in Miz Duddlys’ hair? That’s Soul? (You’re told). But in the distance: drums beatin, natives retreatin, night grows darker, fires starta glowin, somethin magic gets ta goin heat gettin hotta, somethin swellin deep inside ya, hips movin and groovin, this ain’t art It’s Real/Movin!

Soul is the titular head of your emotional household something in man believed to be the source of his spiritual being Yeah, man! Soul is the holy rollers and all the unholy rollers groovin in their own kinda way Soul is the swish and swash of a fat bahind with somethin good on her mind Please understand it! You can’t go round spillin out pat definitions on Soul Cause Soul is goin down in the gutter down and comin up/ STRONG a rose with a gutter smell and ya love that smell wont lose that smell cause it’s where ya been and ya might go back Heard a man say, “I laughed all the breath out my body.”

Now that’s Soul Soul is burnin for learnin and learnin ta burn and singin for singin, no more Soul is an honest livin legal or illegal when you’re honest with yourself about life Soul is a heart cut out of watermelon rind screamin, “I wanta VOTE!” while the vein of a country the A-okay order, chokes off it’s breath See how deep Soul can go.

Anyhow, for those who don’t understand Soul, there is this word, you never will.

Black Classic Press specializes in publishing popular and academic works by and about people of African descent and is one of the oldest independently owned Black publishers in operation in the United States. www.blackclassicbooks.com 1kitap1.com/en Grateful acknowledgment is made to: Negro Digest for permission to reprint “Life With Red Top” by Ronald L. Fair, copyright © 1965 by Negro Digest; “The Fellah, The Chosen Ones, The Guardian” by David Llorens, copyright © 1966 by Negro Digest; “The Baroness and the Black Musician” by Larry Neal, copyright © 1966 by Negro Digest; “The New Breed” by Peter Labrie, copyright © 1966 by Negro Digest; “Not Your Singing, Dancing Spade” by Julia Fields, copyright © 1967 by Negro Digest; “That She Would Dance No More” by Jean Wheeler Smith, copyright © 1967 by Negro Digest.

Boss for permission to reprint “A Black Stick with a Ball of Cotton for a Head and a Running Machine for a Mouth” by Calvin C. Hernton, copyright 1967 by Reginald Gay. Transatlantic Review for permission to reprint “Summary” by Sonia Sanchez, copyright 1966 by Joseph McCrindle. Kulchur Press, Inc. for permission to reprint “tomorrow the heroes” by A. B. Spellman, copyright 1966 by Kulchur Press, Inc. Dasein-Jupiter Hammon, Publishers, for permission to reprint “To the ‘JFK’ Quintet” by Al Fraser, which appeared originally in Dasein, copyright 1963 by Dasein Literary Society; “Man With a Furnace in His Hand” by Lance Jeffers, which appeared originally in Burning Spear, copyright 1963 by Dasein Literary Society; “Elegy for a Lady” by Walt Delegall, which appeared originally in Dasein, copyright 1962 by Dasein Literary Society.

Burning Spear for permission to reprint “Psalm for Sonny Rollins” by Walt Delegall. American Society of African Culture for permission to reprint “Reclaiming the Lost African Heritage” by John Henrik Clarke, which appeared originally in The American Negro Writer and his Roots, copyright by the American Society of African Culture. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for permission to reprint “Toward Black Liberation” by Stokely Carmichael, reprinted from The Massachusetts Review, Autumn, 1966, and “Ain’t That a Groove” by Charlie Cobb, which first appeared in Student Voice.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 7aecfbafd3fc1a34
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,867,743 bytes (3.689 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781574780390, 9781574781120
• Pages: 806
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 794.07 minutes
• Total Words: 158,813
• Total Characters: 908,397
• Average Words per Page: 197.04
• Average Characters per Page: 1127.04

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