Ascending and Other Poems

Best known for his anthologies on Black literature and his scholarship on Black life and culture, Richard A. Long’s own creative writing would have remained obscure and under represented had it not been for Eleanor Traylor, Sterling Brown Professor and Graduate Professor of English at Howard University, who asked Third World Press to produce a commemorative edition of Ascending and Other Poems. As a tribute to Long and to his legacy, this slim volume of verse introduces this poet to an entirely new audience. Ascending and Other Poems originally produced through the DuSable Museum of African American History under the guidance of Margaret Burroughs engaged his followers in the mid 1970s. Today almost thirty years later, it still engages and challenges readers with profound revelations and alluring language.

Richard A. Long—a celebrated author, lecturer, cultural historian, and the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus, at Emory University—began his career in academia teaching English at West Virginia State College and Morgan State College. While completing his doctoral work, he also worked as a lecturer at the University of Poitiers. Upon returning to the United States, he taught English and French for the Hampton Institute and directed its College Museum. In addition, he has worked as a visiting lecturer to universities in West, Central and South Africa, and India.He founded the Triennial Symposium on African Art, Atlanta University's Annual Conference at the Center for African and African American Studies, and the New World Festivals of the African Diaspora. He was a U.S. committee member at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, from 1971 to 1977 and has acted as a consultant for both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.He lectured widely on a variety of topics and has served as a consultant to many cultural organizations and institutions.