First of the Year: 2008: Volume I

by DeMott,Benj

• ISBN13: 9781412808019
• ISBN10: 1412808014
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This is the first in a continuing series of reminders that the past informs the present as it infuses the future. As Benj DeMott notes, the aim of First of the Year is to define "the democratic imperatives and demotic tones that make our ongoing politics of culture matter." This annual publication is grounded in the needs of "dissed" people: disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disinherited, discomfited, and dismissed. But the concept has been sharpened to acknowledge that though the underdog is owed sympathy, the mad dog is owed a bullet. In short, First of the Year is very much an effort of the twenty-first century. The publication aims to be more than a launching pad for writers. It attempts to bridge the gap between radical perspectives without losing focus on the centrality of African-American culture to the national conversation. The coming together of figures like Armond White, Kate Millett, Lorenzo Thomas, Russell Jacoby, Adolph Reed, and Amiri Baraka is quite unlike what can be found in standard literary and social publications. They treat the African-American condition as a policy issue or an executive summary report-not as a touchstone for the state of the nation as a whole. The initial volume also deals extensively and seriously with the issue of humanism and terror, the nature of social movements, electoral and urban politics, and the musical trends of our time. It does so with a sense of urgency often denied in mainstream literary reviews. Issues of "standards" are addressed from the angle of African-American cultural traditions, and the mind-body problem as a matter of race not just of metaphysics. In a nutshell, this volume intends to open a new chapter in the Harlem Renaissance; or better, an American renaissance with a Harlem lilt.

Table of Contents

First Cuts	p. 1
"The Message" (2007)	p. 5
"Never Too Soon" (2006)	p. 5
"Locked" (2006)	p. 10
"What's Love Got to Do with It" (2004)	p. 12
"Reconstructing America" (2004)	p. 14
"One of Us" (2004)	p. 21
"Play Fuckin Loud" (2006)	p. 24
"Safe American Home" (2002)	p. 29
"Nothing New Under the Sun" (2002)	p. 34
"Inside the Whale" (2002)	p. 46
"An Afternoon W/An Agnostic" (2005)	p. 53
"Death from Above" (2006)	p. 54
"A Fascinating Fear of Fascism" (1999)	p. 55
"In My Lonely Room" (2002)	p. 58
"Common Cruelty" (2004)	p. 63
"World Body" (2007)	p. 64
Humanism and Terror	p. 67
"Flayed" (2004)	p. 67
"Bliss" (2004)	p. 70
"Before the War" (2007)	p. 73
"Stop Breaking Down" (2006)	p. 74
"Weapons of Criticism, Criticism of Weapons" (2007)	p. 75
"With Friends Like These" (2005)	p. 78
"Cruelty & Irony" (2005)	p. 86
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (2005)	p. 89
"A Palestinian Gandhi?" (2002)	p. 91
The American Organizing Tradition	p. 97
"Back in the Day and Today" (2003)	p. 98
"There Are No Accidents" (2006)	p. 101
"The Politics of Patience" (2003)	p. 105
"The Democratic Revolution" (2000)	p. 119
"The Felt Quality of Autonomy" (2000)	p. 121
"Among the Believers" (2005)	p. 125
"Message from the Grassroots" (1999)	p. 128
Metro Section	p. 131
"Malign Neglect" (2001)	p. 131
"Stoptime" (2008)	p. 133
"Never Grow Old" (2002)	p. 138
"The City Among Us" (2004)	p. 141
"The Perfect Winter" (2000)	p. 147
"Triumph Over Time" (2001)	p. 148
"Holes in the Argument" (1999)	p. 155
The Margin Is the Center	p. 161
"Majestic Alienation" (2003)	p. 164
"Into Africa" (2004)	p. 166
"A Politics of Experience" (2002)	p. 170
"Tales from Behind the Black Curtain" (2005)	p. 181
"Mandela's Eyes" (2000)
"Mr. Brown, May God Rest His Funky Soul" (2007)	p. 185
"Shout Sister Shout!" (2004)	p. 188
"Squeezing Out Sparks" (2003)	p. 191
"Public Intellectual" (2004)	p. 197
"First You Strike" (2002)	p. 199
"Running Buddy" (2004)	p. 204
Wild Light	p. 211
"Old Rasputin and Old Milwaukee" (2006)	p. 212
"Death of Edgar Alan Poe in Baltimore, Maryland on October 7, 1849" (2000)	p. 214
"Da Enron Ron Hey Da Enron Ron" (2001)	p. 216
"Outsource This!" (2004)	p. 216
"You Must Choose" (1999)	p. 219
"The Blueprint" (2004)	p. 221
"Fujiyama Mama" (2002)	p. 223
"Aliens Got My Sister!!" (2004)	p. 223
"she don't like my gospel music" (2003)	p. 224
"The Depths" ( 2004)	p. 225
"Head of State" (1998)	p. 226
"Ghazal of Twat" (2001)	p. 229
"What Salvation Must Be Like After a While" (2005)	p. 230
"Into the Summer Sea" (1998)	p. 230
Forget U	p. 239
"History Gets Lost in the Matrix" (2003)	p. 240
"A Mighty Wind" (2003)	p. 246
"Grossman-ism" (2000)	p. 255
"Death By Cookie Cutter" (2003)	p. 261
"Test Time vs. Dreamtime" (2000)	p. 265
"The University as Sweatshop" (2000)	p. 268
"No Sell Out" (2002)	p. 273
New Criterion	p. 283
"Real Writing" (2007)	p. 284
"The Saving Right to Reprove" (2001)	p. 291
"Our Man in Hollywood" (2000)	p. 295
"The Soul of a Simulacrum" (2004)	p. 299
"Lost and Looking" (2000)	p. 305
"The Wright Stuff' (2005)	p. 314
"A Winter's Tale" (2003)	p. 317
"Time Will TakeYou Out" (2007)	p. 318
"Back in the Day" (2005)	p. 320
"Nursing Ganesha" (2004)	p. 321
"Puce" (2004)	p. 322
"Man on the Run" (2007)	p. 326
"Who Killed Our Little Shani"(2004)	p. 328
"The God of Rough Places" (2004)	p. 330
"The Hidden Face" (2006)	p. 334
Where Were You	p. 335
"Skies Over America" (2001)	p. 336
"Crisis of Meaning" (2001)	p. 337
"Citizen Jay Z" (2001)	p. 339
"Waging Peace" (2001)	p. 344
"The War" (2001)	p. 348
First Draft of History	p. 355
"Asian Fantasies" (2002)	p. 358
"The Ballot and the Bullet (2003)	p. 362
"Rivers of Babylon" (2002)	p. 366
"Reality TV" (2003)	p. 367
"Welcome to the Reality of the Desert" (2003)	p. 368
"An Avuncular 'No!'" (2004)	p. 370
"Snow White and the Seven Chumps" (2004)	p. 372
"Into the Breach Again" (2004)	p. 376
"Radicle: The Root is Women in Nature" (2008)	p. 382
"The Perils of Political Maternalism" (2006)	p. 384
"The Way Old Friends Do" (2005)	p. 387
"Reason and Revolution (2006)	p. 393
"The Truman Show" (2006)	p. 394
"Refugees and Searchers Go to the Movies" (2005)	p. 396
"Now Lie in It" (2008)	p. 403
Amateur Hours (Or The Pity of Love)	p. 405
"Fathers and Sons" (2005)	p. 405
"All Boy" (2004)	p. 416
"Sisterhood Is Powerful" (2006)	p. 417
"Four Tough Good Byes" (2007)	p. 420
"Lineaments of a Promised Land" (2007)	p. 425
"Expat on Main Street" (2004)	p. 429
"Rainy Night in Europa" (2004)	p. 434
"Geezer Music" (2004)	p. 435
Unwritten Rules	p. 437
Contributor's Notes	p. 445
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.