Small Talk at 125th and Lenox

by Gil Scott-Heron

Genres: Poetry

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Gilbert Scott Heron was born in 1949. His mother was a librarian and his father a soccer player from Jamaica. In his youth Heron displayed both sporting prowess and academic ability (he won a place at Pennsylvania Lincoln University, like his role model Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance man). But he quit college after the first year to write his first novel, The Vulture (1970). While Heron was writing this the ferment of black politics and student radicalism was coming to a head, and his second novel The Nigger Factory (1972) reflects these developments.
Heron has been more adventurous in his work as a musician and rapper.

Reviews

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as impressed as i thought I'd be with his poems but i still enjoyed them. I liked the black and white photographs interspersed with the poems, and i liked the narrow book format. I enjoyed reading the full "who will survive in america?" piece (sampled by Kanye West on his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). It definitely made me want to read his other work, i'm especially looking forward to his novel called Vulture.

[Lily Greeley]

"Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon.)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills
(Air Mail Special)
(To Whitey on the moon.)"