Requiem for Bluesville
Worcester, MA: Shield Press, 1971. [3] 20 pp., printed on rectos only. Six drawings by Stephen Jenkins. INSCRIBED on the title page by the author in the year following publication: “Best wishes To Mr. & Mrs. [ ] Corrine E. Bostic -1971-.” VG+ (edgewear, light creasing to bottom edge, lightly rubbed) in yellow illustrated wraps, in red plastic comb binding.
Poems of place, faith, protest, and the black experience, with evocative lines including: “Dream Killers, / You can’t kill this dream. / It’s growing like a snowball / Rolling down the side of white America/ … / Not this dream / That has ridden from Africa / In the guts of blackmen” and “Out of a land of slaves / I see my blackman / Afro-crowned; dashiki bound; / The low riders; backsliders; / And Sleek dark Panthers / With their shiny-booted queens / United.”
Bostic (1927-1981) was a poet and teacher from Worcester, MA, and a founding member of the Worcester County Poetry Association. Requiem was her first book. No copies in commerce as of April 2020 and five located in OCLC (Brown, Worcester Public Library, WPI, Stanford, UC Berkeley). Item #650
Price: $250.00