Poetry

Alice Walker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple, is beloved for her ability to tell her own truth in ways that speak for and about countless others. In Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, she confronts personal and collective challenges in words that dance, sing, and heal.

Award-winning poet and writer Nikki Giovanni took on the difficult task of selecting the 100 best African American works from classic and contemporary poets. The result is this vibrant collection, which spans from historic to modern, from structured to free form, and which reflects the rich roots and visionary future of African American verse in American culture. It also includes a CD featuring many of the poems read by the poets themselves and performed by Giovanni, Elizabeth Alexander, and Ruby Dee, among others.