ONE LAST WORD: WISDOM FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grimes, Nikki, et al. 2017.ONE LAST WORD: WISDOM FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. New York, Bloomsbury Children's Books. ISBN 9781619635548
PLOT SUMMARY
ONE LAST WORD: WISDOM FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE is a vital collection of poetry from various Harlem Renaissance poets, and Grimes’ continuation of the poems with her own poetry written in the form of the “Golden Shovel” for,, keeping the original theme of the poem created by the poet, but expanding and exploring it further within her own. In her poetry collection, Grimes first introduces some background information about the Harlem Renaissance, and why it is vital to keep the history alive. Next, she takes time to explain the “Golden Shovel” form she uses to create her poetry in continuation to the original poems by the cast of both well-known Harlem Renaissance poets, and the little known poets that she introduces the reader to. The poetry collection is divided into three parts, of which all of the poems are sorted into by their themes : “Emergency Measures,” “Calling Dreams”, and “To a Dark Girl.” Overall, there are fourteen total poems in the collection by the original Harlem Renaissance poets, and sixteen original poems created by Grimes in response to the early poets in this collection who spoke on racial pride, the strength, joys and hardships of life, and radical endurance during the difficult time period that was enhanced by the violent and racist Jim Crow laws. Fifteen illustrators, including Nikki Grimes herself, created the vivid illustrations that accompany each of the poems, to bring the words of the past to life along with Grimes’ continuations of the poems for readers.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Nikki Grimes’ explanation of the Golden Shovel form best explains the challenges and rewards of the method to the reader:
“ The idea of a Golden Shovel poem is to make a short poem in its entirety, or a line from that poem ( called a striking line), and create a new poem, using the words from the original. Say you decide to use a single line: you would arrange that line, word by word, in the right margin.
in
the
right
margin.
Then you would write a new poem, each line ending in one of these words. In the example above, that would mean the first line of the new poem would end with the word in, the second line would end with the word the, and so on.”
While a very challenging form, added onto the already difficult task of creating a poem with words that make sense to readers and that portray the theme of the piece, Nikki presents a unique form of art in poetry, created to further the themes of each of the poems, weaving fluidly with each unique poem to complement each of the authors individual voices
For example, in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask”, Grimes uses the entire first stanza of 5 lines to create her own poem echoing the theme of the Black and African American people’s experience of figuratively wearing a pleasing “mask” to present to a world where people who instantly judges from the color of their skin and their race to be thugs, poor, gangs, thieves, and weaves it into a continuation of a masquerade they despise having to play to disguise their fears of the hostility they face on a daily basis.
In the second line of Dunbar’s poem, “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,”
Grimes’ continuation of the line is:
“We despise the masquerade. It
May disguise our fears, but also hides
Our kind and tender hearts, our
Agile minds, the wit that sits behind our cheeks-
Who’d guess that some of us our geeks and
Nerds and poets too? Clothed in shades
Of chocolate skin, our color works to camouflage our
Character and promise- at least, in certain eyes.”
Each of the poems introduced in the ONE LAST WORD poetry collection demonstrate powerful visual imagery in the words chosen by the original authors and Grimes, as well having the effect of bringing about an emotional response from readers of all races. However, the illustrations within the collection also bring a deeper level of meaning to the poems and their timeless themes. Each of the illustrations, created by fifteen different artists, illustrates the power of the poem it accompanies, all in different art forms. The art media in the illustrations are of a large variety, and are unique to the individual artist. Some are water color, mixed media, oil paint, and the others consist of everything in between. The illustrations paired with the poems all present a powerful, emotional, and enduring collection of poetry that needs to be shared with the world, and that has the potential to educate and change the hearts of readers.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
School Library Journal:
/* Starred Review */ Gr 6 Up—In this innovative and powerful compendium, Grimes pairs original poems with classics from the Harlem Renaissance. In a brief historical note on the period, she acknowledges the significance of black artists giving voice to the experiences of black life and cites the continued relevance of the literature of the period in a society that, decades later, still struggles with racial identity and injustice. The author credits as inspiration the messages of hope, perseverance, survival, and positivity she finds in the work of poets like Countee Cullen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Langston Hughes, and she, too, explores these themes in her own poems. Furthermore, Grimes brilliantly uses the words of her literary predecessors to structure the book , employing the golden shovel, a form in which the words from selected lines or stanzas are borrowed, only to become the last words of each line in a new poem. The result is not only a beautiful homage to the Harlem Renaissance but also a moving reflection on the African American experience and the resilience of the human spirit.
Kirkus:
/* Starred Review */ “Timely and thought-provoking, Grimes’ collection transports young readers through the enduring expressiveness of the Harlem Renaissance, juxtaposing classic poems of the era with her own original work and full-color art by contemporary African-American illustrators. Grimes’ choice of form, the Golden Shovel poem, does the magic of weaving generations of black verbal artistry into a useful, thematic, golden thread...This striking, passionate anthology reminds young readers and adult fans of poetry alike that while black life remains “no crystal stair,” there remains reason to hope and a reserve of courage from which to draw.”
CONNECTIONS
Awards:
American Library Association Children’s Literature Legacy Award
Claudia Lewis Award
Notable Books for a Global Society: 2018
School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Books: 2017
Activities:
Choose an original Harlem Renaissance poet and their poem, and create your own original poems using the Golden Shovel form.
Poetry Month: Introduce different poets of the Harlem Renaissance, and pair with biographies and poems
Passive Program Activity: With a magnetic display board and magnetic poetry word pieces, encourage the patrons to create their own poems on the display to share with others.
Similar Books:
Alexander, Kwame. OUT OF WONDER: POEMS CELEBRATING POETS. ISBN 9780763680947
Hughes, Langston. I TOO AM AMERICA. ISBN 9781442420083
Pinckney, Andrea Davis. HAND IN HAND: TEN BLACK MEN WHO CHANGED AMERICA. ISBN 9781423142577
Riley-Webb. THE ENTRANCE PLACE OF WONDERS: POEMS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. ISBN 9780810959972
Shange, Ntozke. ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET. ISBN 9780689828843
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