James Smethurst is professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance.

• Introduction: The Brick City Vanguard Chapter One: ""That's Where Sarah Vaughn Lives"": Amiri Baraka, Newark, and the Landscape and Soundscape of Black Modernity Chapter Two: ""Formal Renditions"": Revisiting the Baraka-Ellison Debate Chapter Three: ""A Marching Song for Some Strange Uncharted Country"": The Black Future and Amiri Baraka's Liner Notes Chapter Four: ""Soul and Madness"": Baraka's Recorded Music and Poetry from Bohemia to Black Arts Chapter Five: ""I See Him Sometimes"": William Parker Reimagines and Amiri Baraka Glosses Curtis Mayfield Conclusion: Blues People at Symphony Hall

“Once again, with Brick City Vanguard, James Smethurst proves that he is one of the leading scholars of the Black Arts Movement, of New Left literary studies, and of one of its emblematic writers, Amiri Baraka.”- Jean-Philippe Marcoux, cofounder of the Amiri Baraka Society and author of Jazz Griots: Music as History in the 1960s African American Poem;“James Smethurst has read everything on Baraka and produced an original and important book. Brick City Vanguard is a major contribution to the field.”- William J. Harris, author of The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka: The Jazz Aesthetic;“An illuminating work about a central figure in the Black Arts Movement.”- CHOICE.

James Smethurst is professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance.

• Introduction: The Brick City Vanguard Chapter One: ""That's Where Sarah Vaughn Lives"": Amiri Baraka, Newark, and the Landscape and Soundscape of Black Modernity Chapter Two: ""Formal Renditions"": Revisiting the Baraka-Ellison Debate Chapter Three: ""A Marching Song for Some Strange Uncharted Country"": The Black Future and Amiri Baraka's Liner Notes Chapter Four: ""Soul and Madness"": Baraka's Recorded Music and Poetry from Bohemia to Black Arts Chapter Five: ""I See Him Sometimes"": William Parker Reimagines and Amiri Baraka Glosses Curtis Mayfield Conclusion: Blues People at Symphony Hall

“Once again, with Brick City Vanguard, James Smethurst proves that he is one of the leading scholars of the Black Arts Movement, of New Left literary studies, and of one of its emblematic writers, Amiri Baraka.”- Jean-Philippe Marcoux, cofounder of the Amiri Baraka Society and author of Jazz Griots: Music as History in the 1960s African American Poem;“James Smethurst has read everything on Baraka and produced an original and important book. Brick City Vanguard is a major contribution to the field.”- William J. Harris, author of The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka: The Jazz Aesthetic;“An illuminating work about a central figure in the Black Arts Movement.”- CHOICE.

James Smethurst is professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance.

• Introduction: The Brick City Vanguard Chapter One: ""That's Where Sarah Vaughn Lives"": Amiri Baraka, Newark, and the Landscape and Soundscape of Black Modernity Chapter Two: ""Formal Renditions"": Revisiting the Baraka-Ellison Debate Chapter Three: ""A Marching Song for Some Strange Uncharted Country"": The Black Future and Amiri Baraka's Liner Notes Chapter Four: ""Soul and Madness"": Baraka's Recorded Music and Poetry from Bohemia to Black Arts Chapter Five: ""I See Him Sometimes"": William Parker Reimagines and Amiri Baraka Glosses Curtis Mayfield Conclusion: Blues People at Symphony Hall

“Once again, with Brick City Vanguard, James Smethurst proves that he is one of the leading scholars of the Black Arts Movement, of New Left literary studies, and of one of its emblematic writers, Amiri Baraka.”- Jean-Philippe Marcoux, cofounder of the Amiri Baraka Society and author of Jazz Griots: Music as History in the 1960s African American Poem;“James Smethurst has read everything on Baraka and produced an original and important book. Brick City Vanguard is a major contribution to the field.”- William J. Harris, author of The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka: The Jazz Aesthetic;“An illuminating work about a central figure in the Black Arts Movement.”- CHOICE.