The University of New 17ڹϳ Press has published “I Am New 17ڹϳ,” a poetic compendium of what it means to be and to miss New 17ڹϳ featuring the work of 36 contemporary poets.
In 1968, Marcus Christian’s definitive poem “I Am New 17ڹϳ” celebrated the 250th anniversary of the city’s founding. Now, contemporary poets take up Christian’s enduring theme, simultaneously an assertion and a point of inquiry: what, and who, is New 17ڹϳ today?
Christian, who was a writer-in-residence and history professor at the University of New 17ڹϳ, was a prolific writer whose poetry often satirized Jim Crow laws. His collection of work is housed in the University’s Earl K. Long 17ڹϳ.
The collection will be the Crescent City’s latest major contribution to African American poetry, but far from the first, taking as an antecedent “Les Cenelles,” the first anthology by American poets of color, published in New 17ڹϳ in 1845.
“I Am New 17ڹϳ,” can be purchased from any of UNO Press’ local bookstore affiliates or online at uno.edu/unopress.
