Exposure to overlooked, under-appreciated, and forgotten voices produces a radically transformed perspective of the scope of recent African American poetry. These developments are an invitation to reexamine the canon, to speculate on why such dynamic, even difficult, writing has been systematically excluded, and to redraw the picture for a more accurate and richer view of the full range of African American poetry. Rather than signaling a departure or new direction, such exploratory and diverse practices are based on long-present trends, goals, and characteristics. This expanding body of new poetic styles equally builds on the genre's origins. The period from the end of WWII to the present has been an explosive time of poetic experimentation that extends the innovations of Modernism into the twenty-first century.
In the past and present, a persistent bind for this genre has been the criterion of 'authenticity', which has relegated it to narrow stereotypes of how African American poetry should look, sound, and operate. 1 From its origins, African American poetry has been more diverse and innovative than is commonly realized. Rita Dove raised the concern: 'We all understand the dangers of being put into one little box'.
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