Larry Neal: Liberated Black Philly Poet With a Blues Streak of Mellow Wisdom

This book captures & expands the blues ethos to include aspects of contemporary hip hop culture, especially rap aesthetics. Drawing upon oral interviews, observations & conversations with the subject, as well as extensive primary research, Spady reveals new dimensions of this remarkable dramatist, social historian, poet, teacher, literary, film & music critic, Larry Neal. The author follows the richly textured contours of Larry Neal's diverse life through the streets of Bill Cosby's Philadelphia during the 1950's & '60's. What did the black fugitives from the terroristic white South impart to Neal's generation? How did this Catholic, Lincoln University & the University of Pennsylvania educated intellectual/activist help to forge & interpret black consciousness during the 1960's? How did Larry Neal become the co-editor of BLACK FIRE along with Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones, the Commissioner on the Arts in Washington D.C., a Guggenheim Fellow, & the author of BLACK BOOGALOO? Larry Neal's political, social, religious, cultural & educational activities are vividly presented in a highly readable style, through semiotical association, critical historical assessments. It is a fusion of syntax, rhythm & music. Special Features include: Introduction & Photographs by Leandre Jackson, illustrations & index.