Before today I didn't even know who Etheridge Knight was—which is embarrassing to say as a former doctoral candidate in English and American Literature. Yet another reason to be glad for the blogosphere. I was zipping through my rss feeds this morning and saw one of my newest favorites, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, had posted Knight's "The Idea of Ancestry" along with some personal commentary. Follow Yvette's link to the poets.org site and you can also listen to Knight read his poem.
Knight seems like a figure who belongs in the mix at HungryBlues. The bio says he was a native of Mississippi and a participant in the Black Arts Movement. He therefore overlaps and intersects with all sorts of things over here.
I'm still meaning to write about this other post from Six Impossible Things, but now you've got advance notice to check it out.
Now I've gotta get me a volume of Knight's poems. Thanks, Yvette . . .