Ishmael Reed | Author

Ishmael Reed
Revered African-American novelist, poet, playwright, educator, activist, and music

Latest News & Events

“A Sampler of The Theater of Ishmael Reed”: Staged Readings from Ishmael Reed’s Plays

Apr.13.2012

“A Sampler of The Theater of Ishmael Reed”: Staged Readings from Ishmael Reed’s Plays

Please join us when California College of the Arts (CCA) presents “A Sampler of The Theater of Ishmael Reed”: Staged Readings from Ishmael Reed’s Plays

“Genius…a modern day Moliere.” Backstage

Saturday, April 28, 2:30 pm: Nahl Hall, on CCA’s Oakland Campus
5212 Broadway, at the intersection of Broadway and College Avenue
and
Sunday April 29, 2:30 pm: Timken Hall, on CCA’s San Francisco campus
1111 Eighth Street, between Hooper & Irwin

Performed by Boadiba, Seth Corr, Sherry Davis, Michael Lange, Genny Lim, and Alex Maynard
with Tennessee Reed as narrator
Directed by Carla Blank
Free and Open to the Public
Supported in part by grants from the Zellerbach Family Fund and the Clorox Foundation
Directions to CCA campuses at: http://www.cca.edu/about/directions
More Information: Teresa Walsh, Program Manager, MFA in Writing at CCA
415-551-9237 or twalsh@cca.edu

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Apr.05.2011

Juice!: A Novel

A new novel from the most outspoken African-American writer of our time. In 2010, the Newseum in Washington D.C. finally obtained the suit O. J. Simpson wore in court the day he was acquitted, and it now stands as both an artifact in their "Trial of the Century" exhibit and a symbol of the American media's endless hunger for the criminal and the celebrity. This event...

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PUBLISHED: Jul.08.2008

Mixing It Up: Taking On the Media Bullies and Other Reflections

A new collection of essays first published in The New York Times and Playboy. Reed tackles subjects including Oakland, eugenics, and domestic violence.

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PUBLISHED: Jul.05.2007

New and Collected Poems 1964-2006

First poetry collection in nearly twenty years. In language that is pointed, innovative and profoundly optimistic, Reed weaves politics and war with Nigerian poetry and jazz all in the service of his continual redefinition of American culture.

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PUBLISHED: Jan.06.2005

Another Day at the Front

Despite the rabble-rousing subtitle, remarkable novelist and critic Reed offers far more than the erudite, colloquial confrontationalism with which he is often pigeon-holed. Essays sometimes focus on the virtues of crucial cultural figures, like Quincy Troupe, or contest divisive works by black intellectuals, such as Nigger. But the book, communicative and direct, remains at every...

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PUBLISHED: Dec.10.2002

From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas 1900-2002

Celebrated novelist, poet, and MacArthur fellow Ishmael Reed pushes the boundaries once again in the publication of From Totems to Hip-Hop—a truly all-inclusive multicultural anthology—a literary event which will finally even the playing field. This important collection synthesizes and presents broad swaths of work from poets of all races and backgrounds, as only Reed can, ranging...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.24.2001

The Reed Reader

Essays, poems, two plays, and excerpts from novels sample the witty satire and politically charged storytelling and cultural criticism that has made Reed one of the best known U.S. writers. His settings include the Harlem Renaissance, antebellum plantations, the mythical never-never land of the American west, and fantastic kingdoms of the future.

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PUBLISHED: Jul.01.2000

Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down

In this duo from 1974 and 1969, respectively, Reed takes on two great American genres—the private detective story and the Western. A satiric look at 1960s politics, Louisiana Red follows private eye Papa LaBas as he investigates the murder of the owner of a gumbo joint. Yellow Back is more of a parody of a Western than a true white hat/black hat shoot-’em-up; it is presented in an...

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PUBLISHED: Sep.01.1999

The Freelance Pallbearers

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PUBLISHED: Aug.01.1996

Japanese by Spring

Reed’s satire of academia as cultural battleground takes on targets ranging from Eurocentrism to antiporn feminists. – Publishers Weekly

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PUBLISHED: Jun.11.1996

Mumbo Jumbo

Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed’s brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our pre-eminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of...

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PUBLISHED: May.22.1995

Oakland Rhapsody: The Secret Soul of an American Downtown

Oakland Rhapsody unites the talents of Richard Nagler, an award-winning photographer, and Ishmael Reed, a respected American novelist, essayist, and poet. Through photography and prose, they focus on downtown Oakland and create a compelling visual and literary portrait of a major American city as it nears the turn of the century. Downtown Oakland is special. Within a walk of just a...

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PUBLISHED: Dec.01.1991

Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards, 1980-1990

Since 1976 the Before Columbus Foundation has been devoted to the task of redefining our notion of “mainstream” American literature to reflect this country’s multicultural, multiethnic richness and diversity. Since 1980 it has sponsored the American Book Awards. This anthology, edited by Ishmael Reed, includes thirty selections from a decade of award-winning fiction.

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PUBLISHED: Aug.12.1976

Flight to Canada

Ishmael Reed proves he's a formidable historical novelist in this sharp, wildly funny slave's-eye-view of the Civil War. Three slaves infected with Dysaethesia Aethipica (a term coined in the nineteenth century for the disease that makes black people run away) escape from Virginia.

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Ishmael's Latest Blogs

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Aug.02.2011 - 11:18 am

The Peralta House

Kit Carson is described as a mountain man, an explorer, a scout, a soldier, a transcontinental courier and a general. He is the hero of movies like 1933's Fighting with Kit Carson...

Nov.29.2007 - 4:53 pm

Attached at the Roots

I’ve known people who have had some success, and the next thing you know, you can’t reach them. It’s like they drop off the map, at least socially. I still live in North Oakland;...

Writing

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Article: What Progressives Don’t Understand About Obama

Published Reviews

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Apr.07.2011

Published by The St. Louis American

It says a lot about the new Ishmael Reed novel, Juice!, that the first thing I wanted to do after finishing it was to do a news search for “O.J. Simpson.” Reed finished writing...

Audio & Video

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Video: Al Young Reads "When I Die, I Will Go to Jazz" by Ishmael Reed

Video: Ishmael Reed Plays Tadd Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now"

Video: The Commonwealth Club Panel on redroom.com - Ishmael Reed

About Ishmael

Author of twenty-eight published books to date, Ishmael Reed is a novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist. He is also a publisher, editor of thirteen anthologies and numerous magazines, television producer, public media commentator, teacher and...

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Ishmael ReedRevered African-American novelist, poet, playwright, educator, activist, and music

Latest News & Events

“A Sampler of The Theater of Ishmael Reed”: Staged Readings from Ishmael Reed’s Plays

Featured Works

Ishmael's Latest Blogs

Writing

Published Reviews

Audio & Video

About Ishmael

Ishmael Reed
Revered African-American novelist, poet, playwright, educator, activist, and music