All the Songs We Sing: Reviews
North of Oxford
“An accomplishment of a literary mission through the collective voices of the Carolina African American writers.” – John Zheng
The Project on the History of Black Writing
“A reunion of talented Black writers that honors their craft and contributions to American Literature.” – Simone Savannah
Sundress Reads
“Voices from a variety of generations and renown, voices sharing diverse stories and forms that speak of a greater collective Carolina identity.” – Julie Jeanell Leung
North Carolina Literary Review
“The themes of spirituality, history, and loss in the collection All the Songs We Sing…effectively reflect the people and landscapes of North Carolina.” – Reginald Watson
Southern Review of Books
“All The Songs We Sing is a complex, nuanced ballad…the artists of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective have not only brought the noise, they’ve brought the music.” — Monika Dziamka
North Carolina Poet Laureate:
Jaki Shelton Green
“All the Songs We Sing are new lamentations, praise songs, and litanies offering new language inside sonnets, haikus, and stories that bear witness to the juxtaposition of Black existence, Black memory, and all the liminal spaces in-between.”
―Jaki Shelton Green
All the Songs We Sing: Media
University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Accompanying article in the Daily Tar Heel
North Carolina Museum of Art: African American Cultural Celebration
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Reader, Meet Writer
Featuring contributors to ALL THE SONGS WE SING and NC Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green.
Individual Publication Reviews
Review: Literary Shanghai
“Lenard Moore’s poems are innovative… never outrageous or pretentious. They are filled with subtle surprises that are created by the juxtapositions of things, deft handling of nuances…”
―Miho Kinnas, Literary Shanghai
A440 Podcast
In this episode titled “Your Rocking, Clapping Self,” Lenard D. Moore discusses haiku and other forms of poetry and their connection to jazz. Moore also takes the time to read some of his poetry from The Geography of Jazz.
Review: Lambda Literary
“Both oral and oracular, one of Sacrilegion’s most striking achievements is the assertion that in its dexterity, its ever-able capacity for reaching, for repose, for resurrection, language is the body that lasts―and is legion.”
―Jerome Murphy, Lambda Literary
Review: Muzzle
“After reading Sacrilegion, the book beating in my hands like a second heart, I felt alive the way I feel after coming into contact with any source of duende: grateful for the intimacy and grace found in the lines and inspired to be clear-eyed and brave in my own writing…”
―Kendra DeColo, Muzzle Magazine
Review: Poetry Foundation
“There is much to be admired in this collection of poems….It goes without saying that Shockley’s work is political, in language and in content. And this is quite satisfying to me as a reader constantly seeking intelligent, well-crafted, historically relevant poetry which is located in the world, tempered and telling urgently of real human lives.”
―Barbara Jane Reyes, Poetry Foundation
Review: Washington Post
“Sunday Dinner evokes sweet memories and traditions…Lacy encourages readers to continue Sunday dinner traditions―and for new generations to create their own.”
―DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post
Review: Raleigh News & Observer
“…gives us permission to create family and make Sunday dinners special wherever we are.”―Lori D. R. Wiggins, Raleigh News & Observer
Highlighted Archives
In this special issue of Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, view work by CAAWC members.
Obsidian Vol. 10/11, Fall/Winter 2009-Spring/Summer 2010
Vol. 10, no. 2/Vol. 11, no. 1; Aforebo: A Harvest of North Carolina Writers of African Descent
Carolina African American Writers Collective 