Abiodun Oyewole – författare

In his new collection of poetry, Naked, Abiodun Oyewole unveils his thoughts on self-love, forgiveness, lost love, survival, and cultural identity. Known as a founding member of The Last Poets, a spoken word performance group that arose out of the black nationalism movement in East Harlem in the late 1960’s, Oyewole brings his revolutionary voice to this collection. His writing is straight-forward, engaging, and intense, with the poems taking on the shape of various emotions. Inspired by the “naked poetry” of Juan Ramón Jiménez, Naked is rooted in a striving for freedom, for an essential natural state devoid of all external adornment, turning sensations into concepts that express the concrete realization of nature itself. Written in free form, the brief transcendental poems of Naked convey the character of Oyewole, who has evolved into a master poet of his generation.

BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE is the first comprehensive volume of poems by Abiodun Oyewole, many of them never before published. Oyewole's poems are powerful, often political, always lyrical and profoundly moving. Over the course of his forty-year career and his long affiliation with The Last Poets, Oyewole is one of several poets credited for liberating American poetry by creating open, vocal, spontaneous, energetic and uncensored vernacular verse that paved the way for spoken word and Hip Hop. Using the spiritual, the sacred and the mystical, Oyewole often turns to the tree as a symbol of change and growth. His poetry re-branches into different directions, becoming grandeur in its proportions, and more complexly diversified in its structure. BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE is a living testament to a stunning career that confirms Abiodun Oyewole's place at the forefront of poetic achievement.