Buffalo Dance
About This Book
Originally issued in 2004, this sequence of poems retells the Lewis and Clark expedition through the eyes of York, the man William Clark held in bondage and who became the first African American to cross the continent. Rather than chronicling the explorers' achievements, the verses follow York's inner life in three phases: the years before the journey, the journey itself, and the years after. Together they trace a passage out of servitude, from the plantation to the Northwest, and from a man treated as property to one who longs to be free. This expanded edition draws on extensive historical research, interviews, transcribed oral histories gathered on the Nez Perce Reservation, visual art, and imaginative empathy to give new life to a figure history has largely neglected. It adds a new historical essay, a preface, and sixteen more poems. The book engages with racism, the significance of literacy, the inhumanity of slavery, and the wrongs committed against Native Americans. Its central purpose is to recover York's silenced voice and let him speak for himself.
ISBN: 9780813196459
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