Frank Marshall Davis: The Fire and the Phoenix (A Critical
Biography) is a compelling historical biography about Frank
Marshall Davis (1907-1987), journalist, editor, poet, labor
activist, and Renaissance man of the Black Chicago Renaissance. He
wrote expansively about social relations of his times and the
failures of democracy, recorded his observations on race relations,
African American culture and community, and critiqued economic
disparities in the USA and imperialism in Hawaii. Kathryn Waddell
Takara writes with an uncanny ability to dissect the humanity of
Frank Marshall Davis and to explore the myths and legacy that Davis
left to the world, applicable to the 21st century. Waddell Takara
met, visited, befriended, and interviewed Davis in Hawaii during
the last 15 years of his life. She felt a special affinity for and
understanding of Davis due to certain shared situations: the Jim
Crow South, poetry and politics, activism, and interracial marriage
and life as an African American in Hawaii. Between the pages of
this critical biography, Waddell Takara reveals Davis's efforts to
establish connective marginalities between the black and white
worlds, both conventional and nonconventional, in the first half of
the 20th century. His personal aim to acquire power, status, and
dignity like any white citizen and the methods he utilized were
often unusual, unconventional, and challenging: journalism,
editorials, poetry, music, American and African history, politics,
and activism. Davis's aesthetic perceptions, sociopolitical
analysis, and rigorous interpretive thought are valuable today in
understanding (current issues). He documented the racial climate,
the black psyche, identity issues, migrations of blacks to urban
areas, struggles with poverty, lack of education and training,
tattered dreams, sexual politics, and conflicts based on
stereotypes alternately using lyricism and satire to educate,
empower and push for social reform. His writings, especially his
editorials, show how the black intellectual's voice has been forged
in response to political and cultural movements as a
confrontational force connecting the black and white worlds. Davis
documents the geopolitics of race and class from Kansas to Hawaii.
The Fire and the Phoenix highlights Davis's journey from where he
was born, raised, and educated in Kansas to his professional work
as a journalist and poet in Chicago, Gary, Atlanta, and finally the
territory of Hawaii in 1948. Throughout his long life, Davis wrote
about social, political and economic events and served as a witness
and critic of racism, economic disparities, imperialism, and
colonialism long before those concepts were part of the social
science jargon and studies. Davis remained in Hawaii until he died
in 1987.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
