Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art

In this marvelous collection, the words in Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove's "Primer" find wings in Jacob Lawrence's stylized painting, "The Library." Elizabeth Catlett's stunning print, "The Sharecropper," brings even more depth to Langston Hughes's softly sad poem, "Aunt Sue's Stories," and it's almost as if Emilio Cruz's swirling, colorful painting, "Figurative Composition #1," was created for Maya Angelou's poem, "Human Family": "I note the obvious differences / between each sort and type, / but we are more alike, my friends, / than we are unalike."

Editor Belinda Rochelle imaginatively pairs 20 poems by African American poets with 20 works of art by African American artists. Each poem and piece of art evokes the history, identity, and pride of African American people, whether it addresses slavery, family, childhood joy and woes, or racism. In Alice Walker's poem "How Poems Are Made: A Discredited View," she writes: "I know how poems are made. / There is a place the loss must go / There is a place the gain must go. / The leftover love." Readers will pore over this extraordinary compilation for hours, weeks, and years, as it becomes a permanent treasure in their collections. Artists and poets also include William H. Johnson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Nikki Giovanni. --Emilie Coulter