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McLane, Nanette

English

2006

MA

This project looks at the poetry of Wanda Coleman, to me a vastly underrated figure whose "exile" stems from her willingness to look starkly at topics often thought off-limits to orthodoxy. Coleman, like all other artists, has been shaped by the environment in which she grew up, and by both the inner and outer worlds she inhabits. This project explores these various influences (influences she to a certain degree rejects), touching on associated factors such as racism, sexism, class consciousness, and the banishment to the fringes of those voices not considered correct or proper. Tracing the development of Coleman's unique style, which one reviewer of Ostinuto Vumps, her most recently published book of poetry, has described as "situating the blues aesthetic in jazz composition," I conclude with a closer look at a few of her poems.
This project grew out of my curiosity about this artist and my initial frustration that there was so little information about her available, not only to scholars but to the general public as well. Like some of the artists who have influenced her, Coleman is revolutionary for her time (and place). Unfortunately, like many of those same artists whose literary contributions were not fully appreciated during their lifetimes, Coleman has yet to be truly recognized for her accomplishments. It is my hope that Wanda Coleman's true contributions to American literature will one day be recognized and acknowledged-preferably during her lifetime, although the latter does seem unlikely.