Askia's Books

Askia's Books Section: This Section is so-named to point out some of the books that Askia Toure' has contributed to in contemperary times. It includes numerous an- thologies in literature, culture and history, as well as learned studies by renowned scholars and well-known critics and intellectuals. This is necessary to defeat the narrow view that would stereotype Toure' (and his colleagues) by limiting him to the "Old School" 1960s era. Askia, indeed, was taught by Dr. Clarke, John Killens, and other visionaries that one must be constantly knowledgable about the key political, cultural, spiritual and economic issues of one's time in order to speak correctly to one's people.

	From the Pyramids to the Projects: Poems of Genocide and Resistance! Askia M. Toure
	Dawnsong!: The Epic Memory of Askia Toure' by Toure, Askia An epic poem using the landscape of Kemet (Egypt), Kush (the Nile Valley), ancient gods and goddesses, historical events, heroes, and queens as subject symbols, icons, or metaphors to establish a whole new language of verse. Askia Toure
	From Totems to Hip Hop: A Multi-Cultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002 Ishmael Reed (Editor)
	Extraordinary Measures: Afrocentric Modernism and 20th-Century American Poetry Lorenzo Thomas
	Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present Joanne V. Gabbin (Editor)


	In Defense of Mumia S. E. Anderson (Editor), Tony Medina (Editor)
	"Freedom is, Freedom aint! : Jazz and the Movement of the 60s" by Scott Saul. Publisher, Harvard Univ. Press, 2004
	African American Mosaic: A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to the Twenty-First Century, Volume Two: From 1865 to the Present Manisha Sinha (Compiler)
	Soul Looks Back in Wonder Illustrated by Tom Feelings Edited by Maya Angelou Poems by Eminent Black Poets
	Bum Rush the Page A Def Poetry Jam Edited by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera Foreword by Sonia Sanchez Poetry - Anthologies (multiple authors); Social Science - African-American Studies; Performing Arts - Theater \| Three Rivers Press \| Trade Paperback
THE BLACK CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND THE ORIGINS OF HIP-HOP (A Speech given at Wesleyan University, Ct, January, 1999) " Larry Neal and Askia Toure' were my models in the mid-'60s. We wanted the oral tradition in our work, we wanted the sound, the pumping rhythm of black music... We wanted an art that was as black as our music. A blues poetry...; a jazz poetry; a funky verse full of exploding anti-racist weapons. A bebop and new music poetry , that would scream and taunt and rhythm-attack the enemy into submission. An art that would educate and unify black people in our attack on an anti-black, rabid, ra- cist America. We wanted a mass art, an art that could "Monkey" out the libraries and "Boogaloo" down the street in tune with popular revolution. A poetry the people could sing as they beat Faubus and Wallace and Bull Conner to death !" --- Amiri Baraka on Black Arts Poetry and Cultural Revolution As an Elder of what you would define as "Old School," it is imperative that I remind you of your Tradition, and inform you that the great Hip-Hop Youth Culture emerged from a historical period of massive attempts--efforts by literally millions--of Blacks to wage cultural and political Revolution in the United States. The Black Arts movement was the largest cultural movement in African-American, and U.S., history. It was the embodied Vision of thousands of ... (continued..)