Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Scott Reed (February 22, 1938) is an American poet, essayist and novelist. Reed is one of the best-known African-American writers of his generation, and along with Amiri Baraka is one of the most controversial (and politically left-wing)Fact|date=March 2008. His work consistently satirizes the American right-wing (and often the left as well), highlighting domestic, political, and cultural oppression. While some have found Reed's work a vivid, comic depiction of America, others have criticized it as incoherent or muddledFact|date=March 2008. Another group of public intellectuals has argued that some of Reed's work is misogynistic because of his criticism of the movie version of "The Color Purple", which the novel's author, Alice Walker, also criticizedFact|date=March 2008.

Biography

Reed was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but grew up in Buffalo, New York, where he attended the University of Buffalo, a private university that became part of the state public university system after he left. The University awarded him an honorary Doctorate in1995. While enrolled, he co-hosted a radio program, which was canceled after an interview with Malcolm XFact|date=March 2008.

He moved to New York City in 1962 and co-founded with the late Walter Bowart the "East Village Other", a well-known underground publication. He was also a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, an organization that helped establish the Black Arts Movement and promoted a Black Aesthetic. However, he was not actually a member of the movementFact|date=March 2008.

Reed's best-known works include "The Free-Lance Pallbearers" (1967, Reed's first novel), "Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down" (1969), "Mumbo Jumbo" (1972), "Flight to Canada" (1976), "The Last Days of Louisiana Red" (1974), "Reckless Eyeballing" (1986), and "Japanese By Spring" (1993). He has published more than a dozen books, including nine novels, four collections of poetry, six plays, four collections of essays, and one libretto. His "New and Collected Poems, 1964-2007", received the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal.

He also edited "From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002" (2003), in which he endorses an open definition of American poetry as an amalgamation, which should include work found in the traditional canon of European-influenced American poetry as well as work by immigrants, hip hop artists, and Native Americans. This idea was also the inspiration behind his formation of the Before Columbus Foundation in 1976 and the PEN Oakland Center in 1989Fact|date=March 2008.

Reed currently lives in Oakland, California. In 1998, he received a MacArthur Fellowship, and has recently retired from teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for thirty five years. He has collaborated with American Jazz musicians and composers. These collaborations appear on three CDs: "Conjures, 1, 2, 3". In 2007, he made his debut as a Jazz pianist and bandleader with "For All We Know" by The Ishmael Reed Quintet. He was the first to identify Bill Clinton as a black president in "The Baltimore Sun".Fact|date=May 2008.

Bibliography

* "The Freelance Pallbearers", 1967
* "Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down", 1969
* "Mumbo Jumbo", 1972
* "Neo-HooDoo Manifesto", 1972
* "Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963-1970", 1972
* "Chattanooga: Poems", 1973
* "The Last Days of Louisiana Red", 1974
* "Flight to Canada", 1976
* "Secretary to the Spirits", 1978
* "Shrovetide in Old New Orleans: Essays", 1978
* "The Terrible Twos", 1982
* "God Made Alaska for the Indians: Selected Essays", 1982
* "Reckless Eyeballing", 1986
* "New and Collected Poetry",1988
* "Writing is Fighting: Thirty-Seven Years of Boxing on Paper", 1988
* "The Terrible Threes", 1989
* "Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards 1980-1990"
* "Airing Dirty Laundry", 1993
* "Japanese by Spring", 1993
* "Conversations with Ishmael Reed", ed. Amritjit Singh and Bruce Dick, 1995
* "Blues City: A Walk in Oakland", 2003

References

*Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Mumbo Jumbo"." "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature". Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 1552-53.

External links

* [http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/ Ishmael Reed Publications]
* [http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/reed/reed_ishmael0.html Ishmael Reed by Spring]
*WiredForBooks|ishmaelreed|1986, 1988 audio interviews with Ishmael Reed|by Don Swaim