No Matter Where You Travel, You Still Be Black

by Houston A. Baker Jr.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

Houston A. Baker is Distinguished University Professor and a professor of English at Vanderbilt University. He has been awarded fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and has been a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the National Humanities Center. He has served as president of the Modern Language Association and as editor of the journal American Literature.

Reviews

[Sameen Shakya · Rating 5 out of 5]

No Matter Where You Travel, You Still Be Black: Poems by Houston A. Baker Jr. is a short book of poems about what it means to be black.

That's nothing new. A lot of black poets have written poems about what it means to be black. The 20th century was rife with them. What makes Houston A. Baker Jr. so special. Well.

First of all, the poems in this collection pack a punch. They are vital. They are also digestible. Never before, since Langston Hughes, have I read poems about blackness that were both lofty and weighted. This poet does that.

There's anger. Yes. A black man living in America has every right to be angry. I was a brown man in America for 7 years and I got anger issues. Imagine being born there with darker skin. But, there is also music. I think that's why I love this book.