This is the first in a continuing series of reminders that the past
informs the present as it infuses the future. As Benj DeMott notes,
the aim of First of the Year is to define "the democratic
imperatives and demotic tones that make our ongoing politics of
culture matter." This annual publication is grounded in the needs
of "dissed" people: disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disinherited,
discomfited, and dismissed. But the concept has been sharpened to
acknowledge that though the underdog is owed sympathy, the mad dog
is owed a bullet. In short, First of the Year is very much an
effort of the twenty-first century. The publication aims to be more
than a launching pad for writers. It attempts to bridge the gap
between radical perspectives without losing focus on the centrality
of African-American culture to the national conversation. The
coming together of figures like Armond White, Kate Millett, Lorenzo
Thomas, Russell Jacoby, Adolph Reed, and Amiri Baraka is quite
unlike what can be found in standard literary and social
publications. They treat the African-American condition as a policy
issue or an executive summary report--not as a touchstone for the
state of the nation as a whole. The initial volume also deals
extensively and seriously with the issue of humanism and terror,
the nature of social movements, electoral and urban politics, and
the musical trends of our time. It does so with a sense of urgency
often denied in mainstream literary reviews. Issues of "standards"
are addressed from the angle of African-American cultural
traditions, and the mind-body problem as a matter of race not just
of metaphysics. In a nutshell, this volume intends to open a new
chapter in the Harlem Renaissance; or better, an American
renaissance with a Harlem lilt. First of the Year is an attempt to
make political arguments breathe through cultural voices.
Contributors include Sheldon Wolin, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Kurt
Vonnegut, Paul Berman, Charles Keil, and Philip Levine, among
others, ensuring its ability to entertain.
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