"The time
cracks into furious flower. Lifts its face
all unashamed. And sways in wicked grace."
Gwendolyn Brooks, Second Sermon on the Warpland

Furious Flower: The Complete Edition is a compilation of three separate conference recording series on African American Poetry. These series can be licensed individually or as part of the complete editon:

• Furious Flower I: Conversations with African American Poets (1994)
• Furious Flower II: The Black Poetic Tradition (2004)
• Furious Flower III: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (2014)   

In 1994, 2004 and 2014 the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University organized historic conferences on African American poetry. Leading poets and critics gathered for readings and compelling discussions on the importance of the art form and the state of the field. The organizers had the forethought and insight to document each of the gatherings on video in Furious Flower I, Furious Flower II and Furious Flower III. Now all of these multiple volume videos – nearly fourteen hours of once-in-a-lifetime encounters - are brought together for the first time in Furious Flower – The Complete Edition.

This essential collection represents more than 50 years of artistic movement covering the post World War II era to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s as well as contemporary hip hop spoken word. It explores the trends and theoretical underpinnings which influence the work, the culture of mutual support among the poets and the desire to engage with a community of readers.

We come to appreciate the transformative power of African American poetry and its efforts to engender social and cultural change. Among those featured are Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Alexander, Nikki Finney members of the Dark Room and Affrilachian Poets collectives and so many more. Furious Flower – The Complete Edition is a valuable resource for teachers of English, Creative Writing, African American and American Studies.

Furious Flower I

• Elders
• Warriors
• Seers
• Initiates
• Gwendolyn Brooks Tribute

Furious Flower II – The Black Poetic Tradition

• Roots and First Fruits
• Cross-Pollination in the Diaspora
• Blooming in the Whirlwind

Furious Flower III – Seeding the Future of African American Poetry

• Cultivating Form, Creating the Black Aesthetic
• Cultivating a Poetry for Social Change, Resistance and Truth Telling
• Pollinating and Dispersing – Black Poetry Collectives and the Diaspora
• The Flowering of African American Poetry Today

The Furious Flower: The Complete Edition series includes the following titles:

Furious Flower I

An invaluable reference work offering intimate portraits of twenty-five leading poets, each reading and discussing their own work during the 1994 Furious Flower conference. It offers concise introductions to such important contemporary African American writers as U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez , Nikki Giovanni and Michael Harper.

California Newsreel | 1998 | 396 minutes

Furious Flower II

Presents critical scholarship on Black contemporary poetry's origins and trends, its conflicts and consonances

California Newsreel | 2005 | 180 minutes

Furious Flower III

Set during the 2014 Furious Flower conference, Furious Flower III: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry offers the unprecedented opportunity to watch thirty-two of today’s leading African American poets reading from their work and discussing the critical issues shaping this vibrant poetic tradition.

California Newsreel | 2015 | 281 minutes

Visit the title page to preview any of the titles above.