The 51±ŸÉ« Press has published âI Am New Orleans,â a poetic compendium of what it means to be and to miss New Orleans featuring the work of 36 contemporary poets.
In 1968, Marcus Christianâs definitive poem âI Am New Orleansâ celebrated the 250th anniversary of the cityâs founding. Now, contemporary poets take up Christianâs enduring theme, simultaneously an assertion and a point of inquiry: what, and who, is New Orleans today?
Christian, who was a writer-in-residence and history professor at the 51±ŸÉ«, was a prolific writer whose poetry often satirized Jim Crow laws. His collection of work is housed in the 51±ŸÉ«âs Earl K. Long Library.
The collection will be the Crescent Cityâs latest major contribution to African American poetry, but far from the first, taking as an antecedent âLes Cenelles,â the first anthology by American poets of color, published in New Orleans in 1845.
âI Am New Orleans,â can be purchased from any of UNO Pressâ local bookstore affiliates or online at uno.edu/unopress.
