ABSTRACT
The twenty-first-century black poet is caught in what might be regarded as an existential crisis evocative of the psychological dilemma typified in double consciousness. The contemporary protest elegy, emblematized by Tracy K. Smith and descended from Countee Cullen, performs the transformative cultural work of raising consciousness and defining a generational agenda. Countee Cullen emerged on the cultural scene at a time ideally suited to enable him to achieve a degree of influence and prominence that would have been unlikely in an earlier era. The diversity of the collection in and of itself frames the multifarious stages upon which man’s inhumanity to man is continually enacted. Smith engages in a fascinating refraction of artistic form with “Theatrical Improvisation,” as the poem takes as its subject the description of an experimental dramatic performance.
