- Argued that the true African American renaissance occurred during the last quarter of the 20th century
- Greater impact on African American production (American and world culture) film, television, music (explosion of rap, gospel, and jazz)
- Acknowledgment of the multiplicity of African American identities
- Renewed interest in history, as writers image the psychological and spiritual lives of African American during slavery and segregation
- Emergence of a community of black women writing
- Continuous exploration of music and other forms of vernacular culture as springboards for literary innovation and theoretical analysis
- Influence of African American literary scholarship(s)
- Set in motion by civil rights movement of the 1950s-1960s literary and cultural renaissance
The Outcast
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/3/4/20345609/7201131.jpg)
Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.
Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer;
Let them look askance at you
And you askance reply.
Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or line the crowded
River beds
With other impetuous
Fools.
Make a merry gathering
On the bank
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said.
But be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.
Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer;
Let them look askance at you
And you askance reply.
Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or line the crowded
River beds
With other impetuous
Fools.
Make a merry gathering
On the bank
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said.
But be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.