Phillis Wheatley, abducted from Africa and brought to America as an enslaved person in 1761, is not only the first African American to publish a book, but is also the first to obtain international recognition as a writer. A genius child, within four years of her enslavement in Boston (at about age 11), she had learned English and Latin and begun writing, publishing her first verses in a Rhode...
This week’s post is a continuation of last week where we examined the current sea shanty trend and began to situate it in relation to popular poetry as defined in Dana Gioia’s 2004 book Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture? Gioia identifies four ways that popular poetry differs from literary poetry: it is predominately oral, driven by innovation from marginalized demographics...
Unless you’ve been lost at sea, you’re likely familiar with the tidal wave of popularity that sea shanties have garnered since the beginning of the year. Shanty performances sailed to the top of the charts in the UK, netting three billion views on TikTok alongside a 7000% increase in Spotify listens by the end of January 2021.[1] Widescale coverage of the videos by mainstream news outlets may...