De laatste dichters

by Christine Otten

De levensverhalen van de Afro-Amerikaanse dichtersgroep The Last Poets, die in de jaren zestig en zeventig van de 20e eeuw stem gaven aan de emancipatiedrang van de zwarte bevolking.

Genres: Fiction, Hip Hop

447 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[freckledbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Kain and the other poets talked about a fine black world for their black women. I thought: my God, these are strong men, and we’ll make beautiful black babies and help each other and have good black schools ... But most of the women of my generation are single mothers. We work hard, but we still studied, had a career, children ... while the men ...I don’t understand why so many of our men are destructive. The ’70s and ’80s were rough. All those drugs. It took resilience to stay true to your art and yourself.” certainly in those days. The political reaction was fierce. And still ... if you see how little has changed in the past thirty years, with the prisons still full of black men ... It’s become an industry.”

I ended up finishing this book in the wee small hours of the morning. This is a very uncomfortable and tightly woven volume made of acrid fabrics of trigger words (to be expected). Nonetheless, it is a brave, intriguing, and revolutionary book written by Christine Otten.

You get to know who, The Last Poets are. You experience their pain but also espy the courageous innards of these men- human beings.

From the quote mentioned above, and much throughout the book, the reader is also allowed to examine the intimate relationships of these men (Abidun Oyewhole, Umar Bin Hassan, and Baba Donn Babatunde). Some are strong, and some are willing to move on with their lives. Also examined is the relationship between the three of them.

This is unquestionably a must-read if you’re interested in the history of black poets, the injustices they endured, the immense creativity of the black race, hip hop, and the struggles and feats of the race in general.

[Margo Maebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heel graag gelezen. Toch heeft een een lange tijd geduurd tegen dat het uit was, veel verschillende verhaallijnen door elkaar en ontzettend veel personages. Wel super interessant om meer te weten te komen over The Last Poets.

[Dirk Mercelis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een beschrijving van het leven en werk van de Last Poets, een groep zwarte en latino dichters die eind jaren 60 en begin jaren 70 elkaar ontmoetten en gedichten op muziek zetten. De auteur verplaatst zich telkens in een van de dichters, en beschrijft in korte stukjes belangrijke (en minder belangrijke) gebeurtenissen in de afgelopen decennia. De lezer krijgt een goed beeld, maar het continu hoppen in tijd en de verschillende vertelposities maken dat je je aandacht er goed moet bijhouden.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a hip-hop afficiando and never heard of The Last Poets until learning about this novel here. The prose of this book enraptured me, which amazes me because this book was translated from Dutch, and I presume the original interviews were conducted in English.

[Juliët · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moeilijk te lezen en moeilijk verhaal om in te komen. Toch niet helemaal mijn ding.

[Roos Neven · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Shalisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

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The Last Poets by Christine Otten
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One of the first #DNF's of the year, some bits were intriguing but the story is so disjointed you can't connect fully connect with any of the people or their experiences.
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When I was younger if I started a book I HAD to finish it. But now I'm older life is too short to read books I don't enjoy so DNF pile it goes 🤷🏾‍♀️
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I tried to finish this I just could not get into it. The constant shifting of the time period was annoying and made the book feel disjointed. Every chapter seemed to be speaking about someone new, then half way through the chapter you realise it's the same person. As a result, I couldn't connect to the people or their experiences. Considering its a pretty thick book I couldn't put myself through it This was a miss for me.

[Owen Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

How bios of artists should be written. This book perfectly reflects the style, content, anger and love bubbling beneath all of the poems that these men wrote. No interest in tracking a year by year journey of these artists rise and fall and this book is so much better for it.

These images will haunt me. And the distance between the promise of these poems and the reality of the lived experience is where all of these lives seemed to intersect.

[Sofie Bockx · Rating 2 out of 5]

Niks voor mij, ik had het al opgegeven nog voor ik in de helft van het boek geraakt was (wat niet vaak gebeurt). Ik kon er geen plezier aan beleven, noch aan de schrijfstijl, waarbij te veel van de hak op de tak gesprongen werd, noch aan het verhaal, dat voor mij bij wijlen te shockerend was om nog verder te willen lezen.

[Walther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prachtige thematiek die je naar binnen sleurt in de wereld van de wereldberoemde Last Poets.
De jazzy associërende stijl met veel hinkstap tijdsprongen maakt het lezen ook pittig en houdt het verloop te weinig op spanning.

[Abdulaziz Alsuwailem · Rating 5 out of 5]

رواية مؤثرة تسجل مراحل مهمة في تاريخ السود في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية

[Huibert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goed! En verrassend. Alsof je een paar boeken tegelijkertijd leest. Jammer dat de gedichten niet aan iemand toegeschreven of gedateerd zijn, maar allee.

[Karen]

This novel captures the lives and voices of a group of poets and musicians who emerged from the black nationalist movements of the late 1960s and served as important precursors to rap and hip-hop. Otten, a Dutch journalist, tracked down members of the group to tell this textured story about an era of anger and change.