Following the Attica prison uprising in September 1971, Celes Tisdale—a poet and then professor at Buffalo State College—began leading poetry workshops with those incarcerated at Attica. Tisdale’s workshop created a space of radical Black creativity and solidarity, in which poets who lived through the uprising were able to turn their experiences into poetry. The poems written by Tisdale’s students were published as Betcha Ain’t: Poems from Attica in 1974. When the Smoke Cleared contains the entirety of Betcha Ain’t, Tisdale’s own poems and journal entries from the three years he taught at Attica, a previously unpublished collection of poems by Attica poets, and a critical introduction by poet Mark Nowak. In addition to the poetry, Tisdale’s journal entries give readers a unique opportunity to experience what it was like to enter Attica as an educator and return week after week to discuss poetry. When the Smoke Cleared showcases these poets’ achievements, their desire for self-determination, and their historical role as storytellers of Black life in a prison monitored exclusively by white guards and administrators.
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Celes Tisdale’s Poetry Workshop at Attica, Mark Nowak
- Introduction to the Original Printing of Betcha Ain’t: Poems from Attica (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1974), Celes Tisdale
- Betcha Ain’t: Poems from Attica
- Brother Amar
- Hersey Boyer
- The Autumn Song
- Speed
- Attica Reflections
- L. Alexander Brooks
- Daniel Brown
- 1st Page
- Tears
- Sleep
- People
- Chico
- Bill Dabney
- Isaiah Hawkins
- Jamail (Robert Sims)
- Dainty-Stepping Peaches
- Brown-Eyed Devil
- Revolution Is
- Buffalo
- Pre-sentence Report
- Quit Dreaming
- The Cure
- Jamal (Joseph Kitt)
- Charles Johnson
- Polarization
- Today
- Nature
- Good Old Days
- A Thought
- Harvey A. Marcelin
- Solidarity and/or the More with the United Merrier
- Theodore McCain Jr.
- Marvin McQueen
- Mshaka (Willie Monroe)
- Formula for Attica Repeats
- John Lee Norris
- Betcha Ain’t
- Just Another Page
- Harold E. Packwood
- The Red-Neck Coke Machine
- Black Dolphin
- Out of Black Love
- Haiku
- Cinquain
- Potato Chip Song Lady
- Hop-Sing, Lesson No. 1
- Little Girl
- Night Flight to Hanoi
- Clarence Phillips
- Sanford X
- Extremist!
- Guess Who
- Ain’t It the Truth
- A Humble Muslim
- Christopher Sutherland
- At Last
- Age
- Black Women!!
- Sept. 13
- Sam Washington
- Raymond X. Webster
- Celes Tisdale’s Attica Poem and Journal
- When the Smoke Cleared: More Poems from Attica
- Hersey Boyer
- L. Alexander Brooks
- The Hermit’s Ghost
- The Odyssey of Louie Fats
- Chico (Ronald Williams)
- Joseph Hardy
- Synopsis of a Hummingbird
- Jamal Ali Bey Hassan
- Leonard C. Mackey
- Mercy Killing
- City Interlude
- John Lee Norris
- /PRISON POETS/
- A Stretch-Sketch
- Harold E. Packwood
- Weekend in a Springhill Mine
- The Battle of Joe Meek
- Sounds of Silence
- “The Death of Bang-Bang Charlie”
- Shadows
- Palm Sunday
- “Olé,”
- Christopher Sutherland
- Applause to Archie Shepp & Co.
- The End of Summer
- Twelve Past the Hour of Forty-Three: Attica—Sept. 13, 1971
- Epilogue: Remember This
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix: Workshop Documents
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