Harlem Shadows: Poems
By Claude McKay and Jericho Brown
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About this ebook
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vulture
With pure heart, passion, and honesty, Claude McKay offers an acute reflection on the complex nature of racial identity in the Caribbean diaspora, encompassing issues such as nationalism, freedom of expression, class, gender, and sex. The collection’s eponymous poem, “Harlem Shadows,” portrays the struggle of sex workers in 1920s Harlem. In “If We Must Die,” McKay calls for justice and retribution for Black people in the face of racist abuse.
Juxtaposing the cacophony of New York City with the serene beauty of Jamaica, McKay urges us to reckon with the oppression that plagues a “long-suffering race,” who he argues has no home in a white man’s world. Poems of Blackness, queerness, desire, performance, and love are infused with a radical message of resistance in this sonorous cry for universal human rights. Simultaneously a love letter to the spirit of New York City and an indictment of its harsh cruelty, Harlem Shadows is a stunning collection that remains all too relevant one hundred years after its original publication.
Claude McKay
Claude McKay (1889—1948) was a Jamaican poet and novelist. Born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, McKay was raised in a strict Baptist family alongside seven siblings. Sent to live with his brother Theo, a journalist, at the age of nine, McKay excelled in school while reading poetry in his free time. In 1912, he published his debut collection Songs of Jamaica, the first poems written in Jamaican Patois to appear in print. That same year, he moved to the United States to attend the Tuskegee Institute, though he eventually transferred to Kansas State University. Upon his arrival in the South, he was shocked by the racism and segregation experienced by Black Americans, which—combined with his reading of W. E. B. Du Bois’ work—inspired him to write political poems and to explore the principles of socialism. He moved to New York in 1914 without completing his degree, turning his efforts to publishing poems in The Seven Arts and later The Liberator, where he would serve as co-executive editor from 1919 to 1922. Over the next decade, he would devote himself to communism and black radicalism, joining the Industrial Workers of the World, opposing the efforts of Marcus Garvey and the NAACP, and travelling to Britain and Russia to meet with communists and write articles for various leftist publications. McKay, a bisexual man, was also a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, penning Harlem Shadows (1922), a successful collection of poems, and Home to Harlem (1928), an award-winning novel exploring Harlem’s legendary nightlife.
Read more from Claude Mc Kay
Home to Harlem Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Harlem Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarlem Shadows: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Selected Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Collected Articles of Claude McKay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarlem Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSongs of Jamaica Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConstab Ballads: Including the Poem 'If We Must Die' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpring in New Hampshire and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHome to Harlem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHome To Harlem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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