Cirrus@Austlit

'Aboriginal Australian and African American poets of the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and beyond were prominent in the connected struggles of their peoples. The poetry of some of these poets displays common elements that enable a comparative reading of their work. This essay traces the influence of poets from the African American Black Arts movement on the work of Aboriginal Australian poet Lionel Fogarty (born 1958). It proposes that the radical poetic structures of Fogarty’s poems share common features with those of African American poets such as Everett LeRoi Jones (later Amiri Baraka) (1934-2014) and Sonia Sanchez (born 1934). The explicitly militant tone in many of these poems can also be linked to the ideas of Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X). The essay examines the role of poetry in the political struggle of Aboriginal and African American communities and addresses issues of literary sovereignty by placing Aboriginal poetry within a transitional discourse concerning the struggle for civil rights.'  (Publication abstract)