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I have always shied away from the vibe of Black Arts Movement righteous self-importance that can never laugh at itself and don’t you dare, either. Not because I disagreed with its politics—far from it—but because of the possibilities it tends to exclude. In fact, the aspects of life it excludes ironically turn out to be exactly the things most valuable to me about Essex Hemphill’s poems: humor, fearless bawdiness, a critique of religion, and relentless trashiness. —James Hannaham on Essex Hemphill. (fb)