Shape-Shifting: The Urban Geographies of Wanda Coleman’s Jazz Poetry

Abstract

In an interview with Tony Magistrale and Patricia Ferreira, Wanda Coleman commented on her experiences editing Players, a softcore pornography magazine that published black men’s writing in the 1970s: “Players was a job. It was a job that I came to realize was based on the importance of image. Although the magazine featured tits and ass, it was black tits and ass. … The idealization of the female form along Caucasian lines has been very detrimental to the black female” (Magistrale and Ferreira 494, 495). Coleman often pursues subjects, like the ideological implications of pornography, that many writers would not consider tackling; she does not confine her views on such topics to interviews but engages them in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry alike. As a prolific writer who has published many essays and more than fifteen books to date, including ten books of poetry, she readily expresses views that contradict popular perspectives on literature and society. Her work issues from a belief that politically committed writing can help to resist social discrimination.