View source for Ishmael Reed

{{Short description|American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, and playwright (born 1938)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name          = Ishmael Reed
| image         = Ishmael Reed in 2019 (cropped).jpg
| caption       = Reed in 2019
| birth_name    = Ishmael Scott Reed
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1938|02|22}}
| birth_place   = [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date    =
| death_place   =
| occupation    = {{hlist|Poet|essayist|novelist|playwright|lyricist}}
| education     = [[University of Buffalo]]
| genre         =
| movement      =
| notable_works = {{plainlist|
* ''[[Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Mumbo Jumbo (novel)|Mumbo Jumbo]]'' (1972)
* ''[[The Last Days of Louisiana Red]]'' (1974)
* ''[[Japanese by Spring]]'' (1993)
}}
| spouse        = Priscilla Thompson<br>({{abbr|m.|married}} 1960; divorced)<br>{{marriage|[[Carla Blank]]<br>|1970}}
| children      = 2
| website       = {{URL|ishmaelreed.org}}
}}
'''Ishmael Scott Reed''' (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his [[Satire|satirical]] works challenging American political culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/reed/reed_ishmael_bio.html|title=Ishmael Reed Biography|work=Math.buffalo.edu|access-date=September 20, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/opinion/trouble-beside-the-bay.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 9, 2011|title=Trouble Beside the Bay|last=Reed |first=Ishmael}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/opinion/12reed.html|work=The New York Times|title=What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama|first=Ishmael|last= Reed|date=December 11, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/opinion/05reed.html|title=Fade to White|last=Reed |first= Ishmael|date=February 4, 2010|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/ishmael-reed-on-the-revolutionary-satanic-origin-of-the-other/|last=Reed|first=Ishmael|title=Ishmael Reed on the Miltonian Origin of The Other|date=January 28, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 29, 2012|archive-date=April 9, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120409201025/http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/ishmael-reed-on-the-revolutionary-satanic-origin-of-the-other/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3731|last=Ludwig|first=Samuel|title=Ishmael Reed|encyclopedia=The Literary Encyclopedia|date=December 18, 2002|access-date=March 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sjuannavarro.com/files/ishmael.reed.pdf|last=Juan-Navarro|first=Santiago|title=Self-Reflexivity and Historical Revisionism in Ishmael Reed's Neo-Hoodoo Aesthetics|work=The Grove: Working Papers on English Studies, 17|date=2010|pages=77–100|access-date=March 25, 2011|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001043/http://www.sjuannavarro.com/files/ishmael.reed.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/09/13/ishmael-reed-on-juice|last=Mitchell|first=J. D.|title=At Work: Ishmael Reed on 'Juice!'|work=The Paris Review|date=September 13, 2011}}</ref> Perhaps his best-known work is ''[[Mumbo Jumbo (novel)|Mumbo Jumbo]]'' (1972), a sprawling and unorthodox novel set in 1920s New York.
Reed's work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives; his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives, irrespective of their cultural origins.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/reed/about.htm|title=About Ishmael Reed's Life and Work|last=Elliot Fox|first=Robert|work=Modern American Poetry website|date=September 20, 2011|access-date=February 6, 2010|archive-date=October 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017105058/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/reed/about.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Life and career==
Reed was born in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]]. His family moved to [[Buffalo, New York]], when he was a child, during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]]. After attending local schools, Reed attended the [[University at Buffalo]]. Reed withdrew from college in his junior year, partly for financial reasons, but mainly because he felt he needed a new atmosphere to support his writing and music. He said of this decision:
<blockquote>This was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time because I was able to continue experimenting along the lines I wanted, influenced by [Nathanael] [[Nathanael West|West]] and others. I didn't want to be a slave to somebody else's reading lists. I kind of regret the decision now because I've gotten some of the most racist and horrible things said to me because of this.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gates, Jr.|first1=Henry Louis|title=The Norton Anthology of African American Literature|publisher=W. W. Norton and Company Inc.|location=New York|pages=798–801|edition=3rd|date=2014}}</ref></blockquote>
In 1995, the college awarded him an honorary doctorate.<ref>Spina, Mary Beth (April 27, 1995), [http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/1995/04/3344.html "UB to Hold Commencement Ceremonies May 12-14"], News Center, University at Buffalo.</ref>
Speaking about his influences, Reed has said:
<blockquote>I've probably been more influenced by poets than by novelists—the [[Harlem Renaissance]] poets, the [[Beat Generation|Beat poets]], the American surrealist [[Ted Joans]]. Poets have to be more attuned to originality, coming up with lines and associations the ordinary prose writer wouldn't think of.<ref>Steiner, Andy. [http://www.utne.com/Media/Media-Diet-Ishmael-Reed-African-American-Critics-Internet.aspx "Media Diet: Ishmael Reed"], ''Utne Reader'' (September/October 1998).</ref></blockquote>
Among writers from the Harlem Renaissance for whose work Reed has expressed admiration are [[Langston Hughes]], [[Zora Neale Hurston]], [[George Schuyler]], [[Bruce Nugent]], [[Countee Cullen]], [[Rudolph Fisher]] and [[Arna Bontemps]].<ref name=TheNorthStar>{{cite web|url=https://www.publicbooks.org/writing-for-a-global-audience-an-interview-with-poet-ishmael-reed/|title=Writing for a Global Audience: An Interview with Poet Ishmael Reed|first=Keisha N.|last=Blain|work=The North Star|date=October 7, 2019|access-date=July 30, 2020}}</ref>
In 1962, Reed moved to [[New York City]] and co-founded with [[Walter Bowart]] the ''[[East Village Other]],'' which became a well-known underground publication. Reed was also a member of the [[Umbra poets|Umbra Writers Workshop]] (he attended his first Umbra meeting in Spring 1963, with others present including [[Lorenzo Thomas (poet)|Lorenzo Thomas]], [[Askia M. Touré|Askia Touré]], Charles Patterson, [[David Henderson (poet)|David Henderson]], Albert Haynes, and [[Calvin Hernton]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/01/14/new-flame-for-black-fire/|title=A New Flame for Black Fire|first=Ishmael|last=Reed|website=[[The New York Review]]|date=January 14, 2023|access-date=January 16, 2024}}</ref> some of whose members helped establish the [[Black Arts Movement]] and promoted a Black Aesthetic. Although Reed never participated in that movement, he has continued to research the history of black Americans. While working on his novel ''[[Flight to Canada (novel)|Flight to Canada]]'' (1976), he coined the term "Neo-Slave narrative", which he used in 1984 in "A Conversation with Ishmael Reed" by Reginald Martin.<ref>[http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/a-conversation-with-ishmael-reed-by-reginald-martin/ "A Conversation with Ishmael Reed By Reginald Martin"] (interview conducted July 1–7, 1983, in [[Emeryville, California]]), ''The Review of Contemporary Fiction'', Summer 1984, Vol. 4.2. At Dalkey Archive Press.</ref> During this time, Reed also made connections with musicians and poets such as [[Sun Ra]], [[Cecil Taylor]], and [[Albert Ayler]], which contributed to Reed's vast experimentation with jazz and his love for music.
In 1970, Reed moved to the West Coast to begin teaching at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he taught for 35 years. Retired from there in 2005, he is serving as a Distinguished Professor at [[California College of the Arts]]. He lives in [[Oakland, California]], with his wife of more than 50 years, [[Carla Blank]], a noted author, choreographer, and director.<ref>Carla Blank's latest publication is ''Storming the Old Boys' Citadel: Two Pioneer Women Architects of Nineteenth Century North America'', Baraka Books, 2014, co-authored with Tania Martin. She is also author of [http://carlablank.com/ ''Rediscovering America: The Making of Multicultural America, 1900–2000''], Three Rivers Press, 2003.</ref>
Reed's archives are held by the Special Collections at the [[University of Delaware]] in [[Newark, Delaware|Newark]]. ''Ishmael Reed: An Exhibition'', curated by Timothy D. Murray, was shown at the University of Delaware Library from August 16 to December 16, 2007.<ref>[http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/reed/index.html Special Collections], University of Delaware Library.</ref>
== Personal life ==
Reed said in a 2022 interview for ''[[World Literature Today]]'': "I come from a family of Tennessee fighters. Like my mother, who was abandoned and had to make do with her skills. She organized two strikes. One of the strikes was of the maids at a hotel in Buffalo. The other was at a department store, where the Black women were assigned to do stock work and the white women were salespersons. She became the first Black salesperson as a result of the strike. She wrote a book I deeply admire called Black Girl from Tannery Flats. But when she died, her achievement was that she became a salesperson. She was a fighter."<ref name="WLT Doyle">{{cite web|url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/interviews/writing-without-permission-conversation-ishmael-reed-emily-doyle|title=Writing Without Permission: A Conversation with Ishmael Reed|date=June 8, 2022|interviewer=Emily Doyle|website=World Literature Today|access-date=July 24, 2024}}</ref>
In 1960, Reed married Priscilla Thompson. Their daughter, Timothy (1960–2021), was born the same year.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Whiting|first=Sam|date=February 14, 2021|title=Timothy Reed, author and daughter of poet Ishmael Reed, dies at 60|work=SF Chronicle Datebook|url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/timothy-reed-author-and-daughter-of-poet-ishmael-reed-dead-at-60|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218224528/https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/timothy-reed-author-and-daughter-of-poet-ishmael-reed-dead-at-60|archive-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref> Timothy dedicated her semi-autobiographical book ''Showing Out'' ([[Thunder's Mouth Press]], 2003) to her father.
Reed and Thompson divorced in 1970.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|last=Lucas|first=Julian|date=July 19, 2021|title=Ishmael Reed Gets the Last Laugh|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/26/ishmael-reed-gets-the-last-laugh}}</ref> Since 1970, he has been married to writer and teacher [[Carla Blank]]. Their daughter, Tennessee, is also an author.<ref name=":0" />
==Published works==
Reed's published works include 12 novels, beginning in 1967 with ''The Freelance Pallbearers'', followed by ''[[Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down]]'' (1969), ''[[Mumbo Jumbo (novel)|Mumbo Jumbo]]'' (1972), ''[[The Last Days of Louisiana Red]]'' (1974), ''[[Flight to Canada (novel)|Flight to Canada]]'' (1976), ''The Terrible Twos'' (1982), ''Reckless Eyeballing'' (1986), ''The Terrible Threes'' (1989), ''[[Japanese by Spring]]'' (1993), ''Juice!'' (2011), ''Conjugating Hindi'' (2018), and most recently ''The Terrible Fours'', third in his "Terribles" series and published by Baraka Books of Montreal in June 2021.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn = 978-1771862431|title = The Terrible Fours|last1 = Reed|first1 = Ishmael|date = June 2020| publisher=Baraka Books }}</ref> To commemorate its 50 years in print, in 2022, [[Scribner's]] released a new edition of his third novel, ''Mumbo Jumbo'', cited by [[Harold Bloom]] as one of 500 great books of the Western canon. It includes a new introduction by Reed.
Among Reed's other books are seven collections of poetry, including ''Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues: Poems 2006–2019'', released by [[Dalkey Archive Press]] in November 2020; 11 collections of essays, with the most recent, ''Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico,'' released by Baraka Books in September 2019; one farce, ''Cab Calloway Stands In for the Moon or The Hexorcism of Noxon D Awful'' (1970); two librettos, ''Gethsemane Park'' and in collaboration with [[Colleen McElroy]] ''The Wild Gardens of the Loop Garoo''; a sampler collection, ''The Reed Reader'' (2000); two travelogues, of which the most recent is ''Blues City: A Walk in Oakland'' (2003); and six plays, collected by Dalkey Archive Press as ''Ishmael Reed, The Plays'' (2009). His seventh play, ''The Final Version,'' premiered at New York City's [[Nuyorican Poets Café]] in December 2013; his eighth, ''Life Among the Aryans'' ("a satire that chronicles the misadventures of two hapless revolutionaries"), had a staged reading in 2017 at the Nuyorican Poets Café<ref>[https://www.nuyorican.org/event/1462483-ishmael-reed-s-life-among-new-york/ "Ishmael Reed's 'Life Among the Aryans{{'"}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225082605/https://www.nuyorican.org/event/1462483-ishmael-reed-s-life-among-new-york/ |date=February 25, 2018 }}, nuyorican.org, June 22, 2017.</ref><ref>[https://donyc.com/events/2017/6/25/ishmael-reed-s-life-among-the-aryans "Ishmael Reed’s Life Among the Aryans"], DoNYC, June 25, 2017. Retrieved June 11, 2022.</ref> and a full production in 2018.<ref>Scott, Ron (June 7, 2018), [http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/jun/07/paradise-blue-ishmael-reeds-play/?page=2 "‘Paradise Blue,’ Ishmael Reed’s Play"], ''Amsterdam News''.</ref><ref>JFondon, [https://unityfirst.com/2018/in-nyc-ishmael-reeds-life-among-the-aryans-directed-by-rome-neal-at-the-nuyorican-poets-cafe-www-nuyorican-org/ "In NYC until June 24: Ishmael Reed’s LIFE AMONG THE ARYANS, directed by Rome Neal at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe"], UnityFirst.com, June 14, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2022.</ref> Reed's ninth play, ''[[The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda]],'' premiered on May 23, 2019, at the Nuyorican Poets Café.<ref>Vincentelli, Elisabeth (June 2, 2019), [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/theater/the-haunting-of-lin-manuel-miranda-review.html "Review: ‘The Haunting’ Has a Big Problem With 'Hamilton{{'"}}], ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>Arjini, Nawal (June 3, 2019), [https://www.thenation.com/article/ishmael-reed-haunting-of-lin-manuel-miranda-hamilton-play-review/ "Ishmael Reed Tries to Undo the Damage 'Hamilton' Has Wrought"], ''[[The Nation]]''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702002701/https://www.thenation.com/article/ishmael-reed-haunting-of-lin-manuel-miranda-hamilton-play-review/ |date=July 2, 2019 }}.</ref> Archway Editions, an imprint of powerHouse Cultural Entertainment, published the script in October 2020.<ref>[https://www.powerhousebookstores.com/book/9781576879245 "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110150847/https://www.powerhousebookstores.com/book/9781576879245 |date=November 10, 2020 }} at Powerhouse Shop.</ref> His tenth play, ''The Slave Who Loved Caviar'',<ref>[https://www.nuyorican.org/the-slave-who-loved-caviar "The Slave Who Loved Caviar - a new play about the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat"], Nuyorican Poets Café.</ref> received a virtual reading premiere in March 2021, and a full production premiered at the Off-Broadway venue [[Theater for the New City]] on December 23, 2021.''The Conductor''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/the-conductor-2023/ | title=The Conductor (2023)|publisher=Theater for the New City | date=January 20, 2023 | access-date=May 9, 2023 | archive-date=May 9, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509164628/https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/the-conductor-2023/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> premiered at Theater for the New City on March 9, 2023. His twelfth and newest play, ''The Shine Challenge 2024'', premiered as a virtual staged reading February 23 through April 15, 2024, sponsored by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.<ref>[https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/regionalshowinfopic.cfm?id=3858263&photoid=27891 "THE SHINE CHALLENGE, 2024 at Nuyorican Poets Cafe Photos]. ''Broadway World''.</ref>
Reed's most recent nonfiction works are ''Malcolm and Me'', an audiobook narrated by Reed and released by [[Audible (service)|Audible]] in 2020, and ''The Complete [[Muhammad Ali]]'', published by Baraka Books of Montreal in 2015. Audible released a new short story by Reed, "The Fool Who Thought Too Much", in November 2020.<ref>[https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Fool-Who-Thought-Too-Much-Audiobook/B08MB63N28?qid=1654945540&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=03VYC8GB9M5S1TT4RQMX "The Fool Who Thought Too Much"], Audible.</ref> In 2022, Audible released Reed's new novella, ''The Man Who Haunted Himself''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Man-Who-Haunted-Himself-Audiobook/B0BMB6MF4R|title=The Man Who Haunted Himself By: Ishmael Reed {{!}} Narrated by: Adam Lazzare White|via=Audible}}</ref>
Reed has also edited 15 anthologies, including the recent ''Bigotry on Broadway'', co-edited with his wife, Carla Blank, and published by Baraka Books of Montreal in September 2021.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Bigotry-Broadway-Baraka-Nonfiction-Ishmael/dp/1771862564/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20154DRIVWCT9&dchild=1&keywords=bigotry+on+broadway&qid=1620408419&s=books&sprefix=bigotry+%2Cstripbooks%2C234&sr=1-1 "Bigotry on Broadway"] at Amazon.</ref> Other anthologies include ''Black Hollywood Unchained'' ([[Third World Press]], 2015) and ''POW WOW, Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience—Short Fiction from Then to Now'' (2009), a collection of works by 63 writers, co-edited with Carla Blank, which spans more than 200 years of American writing. In his foreword, Reed calls it "a gathering of voices from the different American tribes". ''POW WOW'' is the fiction companion anthology to ''From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900–2002'' (2003), in which Reed endorses an open definition of American poetry as an amalgamation, which should include work found in the traditional Western canon of European-influenced American poetry as well as work by immigrants, [[hip hop culture|hip-hop]] artists, and Native Americans.
The 2013 Signet Classic edition of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' and ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' features a new afterword by Reed. In 2019, he contributed forewords to ''The Collected Novels of Charles Wright'', published by [[Harper Perennial]]; [[Charles Fréger]]'s ''Cimarron: Freedom and Masquerade'' ([[Thames & Hudson]]); and Cathy Jackson-Gent's ''Surviving Financially in a Rigged System'' (Third World Press Foundation). Reed's Introduction to ''The Minister Primarily'', a previously unpublished novel by the late [[John Oliver Killens]], was published by [[Amistad (publishing)|Amistad]] in July 2021. In 2023, Forewords by Reed were included in ''Selected Poems of Calvin C. Hernton'',<ref>[https://www.weslpress.org/9780819500366/selected-poems-of-calvin-c-hernton/ "Selected Poems of Calvin C. Hernton"], Wesleyan University Press, 2023.</ref> Library of America's special publication of [[John A. Williams]]' novel, ''[[The Man Who Cried I Am]]'',<ref>[https://www.loa.org/books/781-the-man-who-cried-i-am-paperback/ "John A. Williams: The Man Who Cried I Am"], Library of America.</ref> and photographer [[Awol Erizku]]'s ''Mystic Parallax''.<ref>[https://aperture.org/books/awol-erizku-mystic-parallax/ "Awol Erizku: Mystic Parallax"], Aperture.</ref>
[[File:Ishmael Scott Reed.jpg|thumb|Bob Callahan, Reed, [[Carla Blank]], [[Shawn Wong]] in 1975]]
==Honors and awards==
Two of Reed's books have been nominated for [[National Book Awards]], both in 1973: his poetry collection ''Conjure'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/conjure/|title=Conjure {{!}} Finalist, National Book Awards 1973 for Poetry|website=nationalbook.org/|publisher=National Book Foundation|access-date=February 14, 2023}}</ref> and his 1972 novel ''[[Mumbo Jumbo (novel)|Mumbo Jumbo]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/mumbo-jumbo/|title=Mumbo Jumbo {{!}} Finalist, National Book Awards 1973 for Fiction|website=nationalbook.org/|publisher=National Book Foundation|access-date=February 14, 2023}}</ref> ''Conjure'' was also nominated for a [[Pulitzer Prize]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ishmael-reed|title=Ishmael Reed|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=February 14, 2023}}</ref> His ''New and Collected Poems, 1964–2007'', received the [[Commonwealth Club of California]]'s gold medal. A poem published in [[Seattle]] in 1969, "beware : do not read this poem", has been cited by [[Gale Research Company]] as one of approximately 20 poems that teachers and librarians have ranked as the most frequently studied in literature courses. Reed's novels, poetry and essays have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Dutch, Korean, Chinese and Czech, among other languages.
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| video1 = You can view a C-SPAN interview, in which Ishmael Reed discusses his life, work and career, [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Ishma '''right here'''].}}
The University of California at Berkeley honored Reed as their Distinguished Emeritus Awardee of the Year 2020.<ref>[https://retirement.berkeley.edu/ucbea/awards "Awards for Berkeley Emeriti"], UC Berkeley Retirement Center.</ref> In June 2018, in Detroit, Reed was honored with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Award. On November 20, 2017, Reed received the [[AUDELCO Awards|AUDELCO Pioneer Award]] for the Theater.<ref>[http://www.audelco.org/ AUDELCO Awards], November 2017.</ref> Between 2012 and 2016, Reed served as the first SF Jazz Poet Laureate from [[SFJAZZ Center|SF JAZZ]], the leading non-profit jazz organization on the West Coast. An installation of his poem "When I Die I Will Go to Jazz" appears on the SFJAZZ Center's North Gate in Linden Alley.<ref>[http://www.sfjazz.org/about/laureates "SFJAZZ Laureates - Jim Goldberg & Ishmael Reed"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625142110/http://www.sfjazz.org/about/laureates |date=June 25, 2014 }}, SF Jazz.</ref> In [[Venice, Italy]], in May 2016, he became the first recipient of a new international prize, the Alberto Dubito International, for an individual who has distinguished himself or herself through innovative creativity in musical and linguistic expression.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.premiodubito.it/Ishmael-Reed-Premio-alla-carriera-Alberto-Dubito-International.html| title=Ishmael Reed: Premio alla carriera Alberto Dubito International |publisher= Premio Alberto Dubito di Poesia con Musica|date=March 12, 2016 |access-date=May 7, 2016 }}</ref> His poem, "Just Rollin' Along," about the 1934 encounter between [[Bonnie and Clyde]] and Oakland Blues artist [[L. C. Robinson|L. C. Good Rockin' Robinson]], is included in ''The Best American Poetry 2019''.<ref>[https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Best-American-Poetry-2019/David-Lehman/9781982106560 "The Best American Poetry 2019"] at Simon & Schuster.</ref><ref name=TheNorthStar />
Among Reed's other honors are writing fellowships from the [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|Guggenheim Foundation]]<ref>[http://www.gf.org/fellows/12065-ishmael-reed "Ishmael Reed, 1975 - US & Canada Competition, Creative Arts - Fiction"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181404/http://www.gf.org/fellows/12065-ishmael-reed |date=July 14, 2014}}, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.</ref> and [[National Endowment for the Arts]]. In 1995, he received the [[Langston Hughes Medal]], awarded by [[City College of New York]]. In 1997, he received the [[Lila Wallace#Legacy and awards|Lila Wallace ''Reader's Digest'' Award]], and established a three-year collaboration between the non-profit and Oakland-based Second Start Literacy Project in 1998.<ref name="artsinoakland.org">{{Cite web |title=Ishmael Reed – The Oakland Artists Project |url=https://artsinoakland.org/articles/ishmael-reed/ |first=Eileen|last=Conley|access-date=2024-01-16}}</ref>
In 1998, Reed also received a [[John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation]] Fellowship award (known as a "genius" grant).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zMMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=ishmael+reed+John+D.+and+Catherine+T.+MacArthur+Foundation&pg=PA8 "Two Blacks Named MacArthur Foundation Fellows"], ''[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]'', June 22, 1998, p. 8.</ref><ref>[https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/98legacy/06-01-1998.html "Writer Ishmael Reed, lecturer in UC Berkeley's English Department, wins MacArthur 'genius' fellowship"], News Release, Public Affairs. University of California, Berkeley, June 1, 1998.</ref> In 1999, he received a [[Fred Cody]] Award from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association, and was inducted into [[Chicago State University]]'s National Literary Hall of Fame of Writers of African Descent. Other awards include an [[Otto René Castillo]] Award for Political Theatre<ref>[https://www.theatermania.com/shows/new-york-city-theater/otto-rene-castillo-award-for-political-theatre_120426 "Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theatre"], ''TheaterMania''.</ref> (2002); a [[Phillis Wheatley Award]] from the [[Harlem Book Fair]] (2003); and in 2004, a [[Robert Kirsch Award]], a [[Los Angeles Times Book Prize|''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize]], besides the D.C. Area Writing Project's 2nd Annual Exemplary Writer's Award and the Martin Millennial Writers, Inc. Contribution to Southern Arts Award, in [[Memphis, Tennessee]].
A 1972 manifesto inspired a major visual art exhibit, ''NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith,'' curated by [[Franklin Sirmans]] for the [[Menil Collection]] in [[Houston, Texas]], where it opened on June 27, 2008, and subsequently traveled to [[P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center]] in New York City, and the [[Miami Art Museum]] through 2009. [[Litquake]], the annual San Francisco literary festival, honored him with its 2011 Barbary Coast Award.<ref>[http://www.jmek.net/lq2013b/events/barbary-coast-award-honors-ishmael-re "Barbary Coast Award Honors Ishmael Reed"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117025107/http://www.jmek.net/lq2013b/events/barbary-coast-award-honors-ishmael-re |date=November 17, 2015 }}, Litquake, October 2011. [https://archive.today/20140706195605/http://www.litquake.org/events/barbary-coast-award-honors-ishmael-re Archived] 2014.</ref><ref>[http://www.litquake.org/about/barbary-coast-award "Barbary Coast Award Recipients"], Litquake.</ref> Buffalo, New York, celebrated February 21, 2014, as Ishmael Reed Day, when he received [[Just Buffalo Literary Center]]'s 2014 Literary Legacy Award.<ref>Simon, Jeff (February 20, 2014), [http://blogs.buffalonews.com/gusto/2014/02/in-tribute-to-ishmael-reed.html?ref=brp "In Tribute to Ishmael Reed"], ''The Gusto Blog'', Buffalonews.com. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225165841/http://blogs.buffalonews.com/gusto/2014/02/in-tribute-to-ishmael-reed.html?ref=brp |date=February 25, 2014 }}</ref>
In April 2022, Reed was announced as the recipient of a lifetime achievement [[Anisfield-Wolf Book Award]] in recognition of his contributions to literature.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ishmael-reed-winners-anisfield-wolf-book-awards-83883456|title=Ishmael Reed among winners of Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards|agency=Associated Press|publisher=ABC News|date=April 5, 2022|access-date=April 6, 2022}}</ref> In October 2023, Reed received the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref>[https://hurstonwright.salsalabs.org/2023legacyawardsnominees "Hurston/Wright Foundation Announces 2023 Legacy Award Nominees and Merit Awardees"], Hurston/Wright Foundation, June 28, 2023.</ref>
==Collaborations and influences==
Honoring his experience of first achieving national publication of his poetry in anthologies edited by the senior writers [[Langston Hughes]] and [[Walter Lowenfels]], as a result of his introducing [[Lucille Clifton]]'s poetry to Langston Hughes, Reed was responsible for her first national recognition in Hughes' anthology ''The Poetry of the Negro'' (1967).<ref>[https://www.papermasters.com/lucille-clifton.html "Lucille Clifton"] at Paper Masters.</ref>
Reed has continued to champion the work of other contemporary writers, by founding and serving as editor and publisher of various small presses and journals since the early 1970s. These include ''Yardbird Reader'' (which he edited from 1972 to 1976), and Reed, Cannon and Johnson Communications, an independent publishing house begun with [[Steve Cannon (writer)|Steve Cannon]] and Joe Johnson that focused on multicultural literature in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/t-magazine/art/steve-cannon-david-hammons.html|title=A Blind Publisher, Poet — and Link to the Lower East Side's Cultural History|last=Miller|first=M. H.|date=February 9, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/participants/joe-johnson|title=Joe Johnson|website=The Center for the Humanities|language=en-US|access-date=December 18, 2020}}</ref> Reed's current publishing imprint is '''Ishmael Reed Publishing Company''', and his online literary publication, '''''[https://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/ Konch Magazine]''''', features an international mix of poetry, essays and fiction.<ref>[http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com ''Konch Magazine'']. An Ishmael Reed and Tennessee Reed Publication.</ref>
Among the writers first published by Reed when they were students in his writing workshops are [[Terry McMillan]], [[Mona Simpson]], [[Mitch Berman]], [[Kathryn Trueblood]], Danny Romero, [[Fae Myenne Ng]], Brynn Saito, Mandy Kahn, and [[John Keene (writer)|John Keene]].
Reed is one of the producers of ''[[The Domestic Crusaders]]'', a two-act play about Muslim Pakistani Americans written by his former student, Wajahat Ali.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/theater/09domestic.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=wajahat&st=cse|title=A Pakistani-American Family Is Caught in Some Cultural Cross-Fire|work=The New York Times|last=Goodstein |first= Laurie|date=September 8, 2009}}</ref> Its first act was performed at the [[Kennedy Center]]'s Millennium Hall in Washington, D.C., on November 14, 2010, and remains archived on their website.
Critics have also pointed to Reed's influence on writers [[Percival Everett]], [[Colson Whitehead]], [[Victor LaValle]] and [[Paul Beatty]]. In Chris Jackson's interview of Reed in the Fall 2016 edition of ''[[The Paris Review]]'',<ref>Jackson, Chris (Fall 2016), [https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6806/ishmael-reed-the-art-of-poetry-no-100-ishmael-reed "Ishmael Reed, The Art of Poetry No. 100"], ''The Paris Review'', No. 218.</ref> Reed discusses many literary influences, including [[Dante]], the [[Celtic Revival]] poets, [[James Baldwin]], [[George Schuyler]], [[Nathanael West]], [[Bob Kaufman]], and [[Charles Wright (novelist)|Charles Wright]]. Reed said in a 2011 interview with [[Parul Sehgal]]: "My work holds up the mirror to hypocrisy, which puts me in a tradition of American writing that reaches back to [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]."<ref>Sehgal, Parul (March 14, 2011), [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/46448-native-son-a-profile-of-ishmael-reed.html "Native Son: A Profile of Ishmael Reed"], ''[[Publishers Weekly]]''.</ref> Reed has also been quoted as saying: "So this is what we want: to sabotage history. They won't know whether we're serious or whether we are writing fiction ... Always keep them guessing."<ref>[[Margaret Busby|Busby, Margaret]] (October 21, 2000), [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/21/biography "Do the Harlem shuffle"], ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref>
When discussing influences on his writing style in ''Writin’ is Fightin’'' he attributed much of it to the warrior tradition he feels is inherent in African and African-American culture. Similar contemporary authors that Reed insists deny victim literature with a centralized black male villain are [[Amiri Baraka]] and [[Ed Bullins]].
Looking forward in his writing Reed has stated that he wants to sustain Western values but mix them up a little bit to express a sense of multi-culturalism that represents more than just the African-American voice. Published in 1993 the novel'', Japanese by Spring'', was Reed's first trilingual text. The novel used English, Japanese, and [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]] to better represent his ideas of a more realistic American multi-culturalism.
''Conjugating Hindi'' was deeply compelled by his ideas of depicting a unification of multiple cultures. In this novel Reed explores the congruencies and differences of African-American and South Asian American cultures though political discourse posed by white neo-conservative Americans toward both ethnicities. As described in the ''[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]'', "it is brilliant — the same sort of experimental brilliance observable in the fiction of [[Thomas Pynchon]] or the cut-up technique of [[William S. Burroughs]] — and more accessible. ...''Conjugating Hindi'' is a firebrand’s novel, the crackling, overflowing, pugnacious novel of someone who doesn't care about genre boundaries any more than he cares about historical boundaries, but who does care deeply about innovating."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/satire-and-subversion-in-ishmael-reeds-conjugating-hindi/|title=Satire and Subversion in Ishmael Reed's 'Conjugating Hindi'|first=Anita |last=Felicelli|journal=Los Angeles Review of Books|date=September 8, 2018|access-date= July 30, 2020}}</ref>
==Music==
Ishmael Reed's texts and lyrics have been performed, composed or set to music by [[Albert Ayler]], [[David Murray (saxophonist)|David Murray]], [[Allen Toussaint]], Carman Moore, [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]], [[Olu Dara]], [[Lester Bowie]], [[Carla Bley]], [[Steve Swallow]], [[Ravi Coltrane]], [[Leo Nocentelli]], [[Eddie Harris]], [[Anthony Cox (musician)|Anthony Cox]], [[Don Pullen]], [[Billy Bang]], [[Bobby Womack]], [[Milton Cardona]], [[Omar Sosa]], [[Fernando Saunders]], Yosvanni Terry, [[Jack Bruce]], [[Little Jimmy Scott]], Robert Jason, [[Alvin Youngblood Hart]], [[Mary Wilson (singer)|Mary Wilson]] of [[the Supremes]], [[Cassandra Wilson]], [[Gregory Porter]] and others.
Reed has been the central participant in the longest ongoing music/poetry collaboration, known as Conjure projects,<ref>[[Jon Pareles|Pareles, Jon]] (September 21, 1983), [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/21/arts/jazz-ishmael-reed-songs.html "JAZZ: Ishmael Reed Songs"], ''The New York Times''.</ref> produced by [[Kip Hanrahan]] on American Clavé: ''Conjure I'' (1984) and ''Conjure II'' (1988), which were reissued by [[Rounder Records]] in 1995; and ''Conjure Bad Mouth'' (2005), whose compositions were developed in live Conjure band performances, from 2003 to 2004, including engagements at [[Paris]]'s [[Banlieues Bleues Festival|Banlieues Bleues]], London's [[Barbican Centre]], and the Blue Note Café in Tokyo. The ''[[Village Voice]]'' ranked the 2005 ''Conjure'' CD one of four best spoken-word albums released in 2006.
In 2007, Reed made his debut as a jazz pianist and bandleader with ''For All We Know'' by The Ishmael Reed Quintet. His piano playing was cited by ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' and ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' as he accompanied a 2019 fashion show at the [[Serpentine Gallery]] in London, featuring the work of designer [[Grace Wales Bonner]].<ref>Reed, Ishmael (January 18, 2019), [https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/grace-wales-bonner-ishmael-reed-conversation "Grace Wales Bonner Tells Ishmael Reed About The 'Rhythmicality' Of Her Fashion"], ''[[Interview (magazine)|Interview]]''.</ref><ref>Singer, Olivia (February 17, 2019), [https://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/autumn-winter-2019-ready-to-wear/wales-bonner "Wales Bonner"], ''Vogue''.</ref><ref>[https://ishmaelreed.org/drupal/node/1 "About Ishmael Reed"], Ishmael Reed website.</ref> In 2008, he was honored as Blues Songwriter of the Year from the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame Awards. A David Murray CD released in 2009, ''The Devil Tried to Kill Me'', includes two songs with lyrics by Reed: "Afrika", sung by Taj Mahal, and the title song performed by SF-based rapper Sista Kee. On September 11, 2011, in a Jazz à la Villette concert at the [[Grande halle de la Villette|Grande Halle]] in Paris, the [[Red Bull Music Academy]] World Tour premiered three new songs with lyrics by Ishmael Reed, performed by [[Macy Gray]], [[Tony Allen (musician)|Tony Allen]], members of The Roots, David Murray and his Big Band, [[Amp Fiddler]] and ''[[Fela!]]'' singer/dancers.<ref>[http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/worldtour/paris/ "Paris: Questlove’s Afro-Picks"], Red Bull Music Academy World Tour 2012, September 11, 2011.</ref> In 2013, David Murray, with vocalists Macy Gray and Gregory Porter, released the CD ''Be My Monster Love'', with three new songs with lyrics by Reed: "Army of the Faithful", "Hope is a Thing With Feathers," and the title track, "Be My Monster Love." In 2022, Reed released his first album of original compositions, ''The Hands Of Grace''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/12/08/reviews-ishmael-reed-matthew-shipp/|title=REVIEWS: Ishmael Reed, Matthew Shipp|first=Ron|last=Scott|newspaper=[[New York Amsterdam News]]|date=December 8, 2022}}</ref> In 2023, Konch Records released ''Blues Lyrics by Ishmael Reed'' with Reed reading his poetry with the East Coast Blues Caravan of All Stars featuring Ronnie Stewart, and guest artist David Murray.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ourtimepress.com/playwright-ishmael-reeds-inspired-play-the-conductor-delivers-timely-messages/|title=Playwright Ishmael Reed's inspired play, 'The Conductor,' delivers timely messages|first=Bernice Elizabeth|last=Green|website=Our Time Press|date=March 23, 2023|access-date=September 21, 2023}}</ref>
==Before Columbus Foundation==
Ishmael Reed is the founder of the [[Before Columbus Foundation]], which since 1980 has annually presented the [[American Book Awards]] and the [[PEN Oakland|Oakland chapter of PEN]],<ref name="artsinoakland.org"/> known as the "blue-collar PEN", which also gives annual awards to writers.
==Bibliography==
===Novels and short fiction===
* ''The Freelance Pallbearers'', 1967
* ''[[Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down]]'', 1969
* ''[[Mumbo Jumbo (novel)|Mumbo Jumbo]]'', 1972
* ''[[The Last Days of Louisiana Red]]'', 1974
* ''[[Flight to Canada (novel)|Flight to Canada]]'', 1976
* ''The Terrible Twos'', 1982
* ''Reckless Eyeballing'', 1986
* ''The Terrible Threes'', 1989
* ''[[Japanese by Spring]]'', 1993
* ''Juice!'', 2011
* ''Conjugating Hindi'', 2018
* "The Fool Who Thought Too Much" (short story), 2020
* ''The Terrible Fours'', 2021
* ''The Man Who Haunted Himself'', 2022
===Poetry and other collected works===
* ''catechism of d neoamerican hoodoo church'', 1969
* ''Cab Calloway Stands in for the Moon or D Hexorcism of Noxon D Awful'', 1970
* ''Neo-HooDoo Manifesto'', 1972
* ''Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963–1970'', 1972
* ''Chattanooga: Poems'', 1973
* ''A Secretary to the Spirits'', illustrated by [[Betye Saar]], 1978
* ''New and Collected Poetry'', 1988
* ''The Reed Reader'', 2000
* ''New and Collected Poems, 1964–2006'', 2006 (hardcover); ''New and Collected Poems, 1964–2007'', 2007 (paperback)
* ''Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues'', 2020
===Plays and librettos===
* ''The Wild Gardens of the Loup Garou'', with poetry by Reed and [[Colleen McElroy]] and music by Carman Moore (1981, 1989).
* ''Gethsemane Park'', libretto; Carman Moore, composer (premiere, Berkeley Black Repertory Theater, 1998).
* ''Ishmael Reed, THE PLAYS'', a collection of six plays published by Dalkey Archive Press (2009), as listed with date of premiere: ''Mother Hubbard'' (1979 and revised in 1997 into a musical version); ''Savage Wilds'' (1988 Part I; 1990, Part II); ''Hubba City'' (1989, 1994); ''The Preacher and the Rapper'' (1995); ''C Above C Above High C'' (1997); ''Body Parts'' (2007), a play developed from a work first performed as ''Tough Love'' (2004).
* ''The Final Version'', premiered at the [[Nuyorican Poets Café]] in December 2013. Forthcoming from [[powerHouse Books|Archway Editions]], 2024.
* ''Life Among the Aryans'', premiered in full production at the Nuyorican Poets Café in June 2018. [[powerHouse Books|Archway Editions]], 2022.
* ''[[The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda]]'', premiered in full production at the Nuyorican Poets Café in May 2019, published by [[powerHouse Books|Archway Editions]] in 2020.
* ''The Slave Who Loved Caviar'', premiered in a virtual reading sponsored by the Nuyorican Poets Café in March 2021; a full production premiered December 23, 2021, at Theater for the New City. Forthcoming from [[powerHouse Books|Archway Editions]] in October 2023.
* ''The Conductor'', premiered in a full production at Theater for the New City on March 9, 2023, and returned for a second three-week run August 24–September 10, 2023.<ref>[https://ishmaelreed.org/ "New Play: THE CONDUCTOR"], Ishmael Reed website.</ref><ref>[https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/the-conductor-august-2023/ "The Conductor by Ishmael Reed"] at Theater for the New City.</ref>
* ''The Shine Challenge 2024,'' premiered as a virtual staged reading sponsored by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe through April 15, 2024.<ref>[https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/regional/THE-SHINE-CHALLENGE2024-3858263 "THE SHINE CHALLENGE, 2024 at Nuyorican Poets Cafe | Dates: (2/23/2024 - 4/15/2024)"]. ''Broadway World'', Off-Off-Broadway.</ref>
===Non-fiction===
* ''Shrovetide in Old New Orleans: Essays'', Atheneum, 1978
* ''God Made Alaska for the Indians: Selected Essays'', Garland, 1982
* ''Writin' Is Fightin': Thirty-seven Years of Boxing On Paper''. New York: Atheneum, 1989
* ''Airing Dirty Laundry''. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1993
* ''Oakland Rhapsody, The Secret Soul Of An American Downtown''. Introduction and Commentary by Ishmael Reed and photographs by [[Richard Nagler]]. North Atlantic Books, 1995
* ''Blues City: A Walk in Oakland'', Crown Journeys, 2003
* ''Another Day at the Front: Dispatches from the Race War'', Basic Books, 2003
* ''Mixing It Up: Taking on the Media Bullies and Other Reflections'', [[Da Capo Press]], 2008
* ''Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the "Nigger Breakers"'', Baraka Books, 2010
* ''Going Too Far: Essays About America's Nervous Breakdown'', Baraka Books, 2012
* ''The Complete Muhammad Ali'', Baraka Books, July 2015
* "Jazz Musicians as Pioneer Multi-Culturalists, the Co-Optation of Them, and the Reason Jazz Survives" in ''American Multiculturalism in Context, Views from at Home and Abroad'', edited by Sami Ludwig, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, pp.&nbsp;189–199
* ''Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico'', a collection of new and collected essays, Baraka Books, 2019
* ''Malcolm and Me'', written and narrated by Reed, Audible, 2020
===Anthologies edited by Reed===
* ''19 Necromancers From Now'', Doubleday & Co., 1970
* ''Calafia: The California Poetry'', Yardbird Pub. Co., 1978, {{ISBN|978-0931676031}}
* ''Yardbird Lives!'', co-edited with Al Young, Grove Press, 1978, {{ISBN|978-0394170411}}
* '' QUILT #1'', Ishmael Reed & Al Young, 1981. {{ISBN|0931676053}}
* ''QUILT #2'', A special issue devoted to the stories of students at University of California Berkeley. Ishmael Reed & Al Young, 1981. {{ISBN|9780931676062}}
* ''The Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology, Selections from the American Book Awards 1980–1990'', co-edited with Kathryn Trueblood and Shawn Wong, W. W. Norton, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0393308334}}
* The HarperCollins Literary Mosaic Series, General Editor of four anthologies edited by [[Gerald Vizenor]], [[Shawn Wong]], Nicolas Kanellos and Al Young, 1995–96
* ''MultiAmerica: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace'', Viking/Penguin, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0140259124}}
* ''From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900–2001'', Da Capo Press, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1560254584}}
* ''Pow Wow: 63 Writers Address the Fault Lines in the American Experience'', short fiction anthology, edited with Carla Blank, Da Capo Press, 2009, {{ISBN|1568583400}}
* ''Black Hollywood Unchained'', non-fiction anthology, edited and with an Introduction by Reed, Third World Press, October 2015, {{ISBN|978-0883783535}}
* ''Bigotry on Broadway'', co-edited with Carla Blank, with an Introduction by Reed, Baraka Books, September 2021 {{ISBN|1771862564}}
* ''The Plague Edition of Konch Magazine'', co-edited with Tennessee Reed, Ishmael Reed Publishing Co., 2024
==Discography==
[[Kip Hanrahan]] has released three albums featuring lyrics by Reed:
*''Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed'' (American Clave, 1985)
*''Conjure: Cab Calloway Stands in for the Moon'' (American Clave, 1985)
*''Conjure: Bad Mouth'' (American Clave, 2005)
[[David Murray (saxophonist)|David Murray]] has released several albums featuring lyrics by Reed:
* ''[[Sacred Ground (David Murray album)|Sacred Ground]]'' (Justin Time, 2007) – "Sacred Ground" and "The Prophet of Doom" sung by [[Cassandra Wilson]]
* ''[[The Devil Tried to Kill Me]]'' (Justin Time, 2009) – "The Devil Tried to Kill Me" sung by Sista Kee and "Africa" sung by [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]]
*''[[Be My Monster Love]]'' (Motéma, 2013) – "Be My Monster Love" sung by [[Macy Gray]] and "Army of the Faithful (Joyful Noise)" and "Hope Is a Thing with Feathers" sung by [[Gregory Porter]]
* ''[[blues for memo]]'' ([[Doublemoon Records]], 2016) - "Red Summer" sung by Pervis Evans
Yosvany Terry has released one album including lyrics by Reed:
* ''New Throned Kings'' (SPassion 2014), CD nominated for a 2014 [[Grammy Award]], with Ishmael Reed's lyrics on "Mase Nadodo."
Releases produced by Ishmael Reed
* ''His Bassist'' (Konch Records, Ishmael Reed, producer), featuring Ortiz Walton and including collaborations based on Reed's poetry, 2014
* ''For All We Know'' (Ishmael Reed Publishing, 2007) with the Ishmael Reed quintet, features David Murray (sax, bass clarinet and piano), and Carla Blank (violin), Roger Glenn (flute), Chris Planas (guitar), and Ishmael Reed (piano) on nine jazz standards, and three original collaborations with text by Reed and music composed by David Murray, were first performed by Ishmael Reed on this privately produced CD. David Murray then wrote different compositions for these Reed lyrics for the film and CD ''Sacred Ground''.
Releases with music composed and performed by Ishmael Reed (piano)
* ''The Hands Of Grace'' (Reading Group, 2022), with Roger Glenn (flute and sax), Ray Obiedo (guitar), Carla Blank (violin), Ronnie Stewart (electric guitar) and poet Tennessee Reed.
* ''Blues Lyrics by Ishmael Reed'' (Konch Records, 2023) with the West Coast Blues Caravan of All Stars: Art Hafen (trombone), Gregory "Gman" Simmons (bass), Michael Skinner (drums), Ronnie Stewart (drums and guitar), Michael Robinson (keyboard) with David Murray (saxophone) and Ishmael Reed (vocalist).
==Selected public art installations, film and video collaborations ==
* 2021: ''Bad Attitude: The Art of Spain Rodriguez'', a documentary film written and directed by Susan Stern.
* 2018: ''I Am Richard Pryor'', a documentary directed by Jesse James Miller and produced by Jennifer Lee Pryor for Paramount Network.
* 2018: ''[[Personal Problems]]'' (1980), the experimental soap opera conceived and produced by Reed and directed by [[Bill Gunn (writer)|Bill Gunn]], was re-mastered and featured in ''The Groundbreaking Bill Gunn'' at BAM Cinematek in 2010<ref>[https://www.blackradionetwork.com/pdfstories/1268710806.pdf "BAMcinématek presents The Groundbreaking Bill Gunn, a tribute to the film work of the African American screenwriter and director, April 1-4"], News Release, Brooklyn Academy of Music, March 15, 2010.</ref> and in 2018, was carefully restored by [https://www.kinolorber.com/product/personal-problems-blu-ray Kino Lorber] and is now available in DVD and Blu-ray.
* 2017: LIT CITY banner along Washington Street in Buffalo, New York, as part of a celebration of the city's literary history.
* 2013: SF JAZZ Center, which opened in January 2013, installs Reed's poem "When I Die I Will Go to Jazz" on the center's North Gate in Linden Alley.
* 2013: ''Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic'', a documentary film directed by [[Marina Zenovich]]. Winner of an [[NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary]], TV.
* 2010–13: A collaborative public art installation work, ''Moving Richmond'', for [[Richmond station (California)|Richmond, California's BART station]], incorporates two Reed poems, written for this project after meetings with Richmond residents, into two mounted iron sculptures by [[Mildred Howard]].<ref name=TheNorthStar /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/inventory%20for%20posting.pdf |title=BART Art Collection Inventory |date=June 2019 |page=3 |publisher=San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.proto-inc.com/moving-richmond/ |title=Howard Artwork |publisher=Proto-inc |access-date=July 24, 2024}}</ref>
* 2012: ''United States of HooDoo'', a documentary film by Oliver Hardt and [[Darius James]], was released in Germany and premiered in August at the [[BlackStar Film Festival]] in Philadelphia. Reed is a featured participant.<ref>[http://hoodoo.stokedfilm.com/ ''The United States of Hoodoo''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229171711/http://hoodoo.stokedfilm.com/ |date=December 29, 2018 }} website.</ref>
* 2011: "beware do not read this poem". Included in stone installation and audio recording by [[Rochester Poets#Rochester Poets Walk|Rochester Poets Walk]], [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]], New York.
* 2008: ''Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story'', directed by [[Stefan Forbes]], premiered as a nationally distributed independent film that includes Reed in interview clips.
* 2004: A bronze plaque of Reed's poem "Going East", installed in the Berkeley Poetry Walk in Berkeley, California, designated a National Poetry Landmark by the [[Academy of American Poets]]
* 1990: ''James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket''. Independent film directed by Karin Thorsen, includes Reed in interview clips and reading from Baldwin's work.
* 1972: "from the files of agent 22", Reed's poem, was posted in New York City buses and subways, by Poetry in Public Places, during an American International Sculptors Symposium project.
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
<!--<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gates, Jr.|first1=Henry Louis|title=The Norton Anthology of African American Literature|publisher=W. W. Norton and Company Inc.|location=New York|page=798-801|edition=3rd}}</ref>-->
==Further reading==
{{Further reading cleanup|date=July 2024}}
{{Portal|Literature}}
* Lucas, Julian. "The Yeehaw Papyrus," ''The New York Review of Books,'' May 15, 2022.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2022/05/15/the-yeehaw-papyrus/|title=The Yeehaw Papyrus|first=Julian |last=Lucas|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=May 15, 2022}}</ref>
* Lucas, Julian. "Ishmael Reed Gets The Last Laugh", ''The New Yorker'', online July 18, 2021.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/26/ishmael-reed-gets-the-last-laugh|title=Ishmael Reed Gets The Last Laugh|last=Lucas|first=Julian|magazine=The New Yorker|date=July 26, 2021}}</ref>
* Gilyard, Keith. "Review of Ishmael Reed's 'Conjugating Hindi'." ''Tribes Magazine'', July 9, 2018.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.tribes.org/web/2018/7/9/review-of-ishmael-reeds-conjugating-hindi|title=Review of Ishmael Reed's 'Conjugating Hindi'|last=Gilyard|first=Keith|magazine=Tribes|date=July 9, 2018}}</ref>
* Howell, Patrick A. "Ishmael Reed in Interview", ''Into the Void'' magazine, April 14, 2018.
* Wang, Liya. ''Ishmael Reed and Multiculturalism''. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2018.
* Zeng, Yanyu. "Interview with Ishmael Reed." ''Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures'', [[Hunan Normal University]], Volume 1/No.1/December 2017.
* Ludwig, Sami (ed.) ''American Multiculturalism in Context: Views from at Home and Abroad''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Includes "Jazz Musicians as Pioneer Multi-Culturalists, the Co-Optation of Them, and the Reason Jazz Survives" by Ishmael Reed, pp.&nbsp;189–199.
* Paladin, Nicola, and Giogio Rimondi (eds). ''Una bussola per l'infosfera, con Ishmael Reed tra musica e letteratura''. Milano: Agenzia X, 2017. Includes Reed's address, "Da Willert Park Courts a Palazzo Leoni Montanari," pp.&nbsp;27–39.
* Rimondi, Giorgio (ed.). ''Il grande incantatore per Ishmael Reed''. Milan, Italy: Agenzia X, 2016. (Includes essays on Reed's work by Italian scholars and translations of 10 Reed poems.)
* Lin, Yuqing. ''A Study on Ishmael Reed's Neo-HooDoo Multiculturalism''. Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2015. 《伊什梅尔•里德的"新伏都"多元文化主义研究》，北京：知识产权出版社，2015.
* Lin, Yuqing. "The Writing Politics of Multicultural Literature--An Interview with Ishmael Reed" ''New Perspectives on World Literature'', 2016(1) 《多元文化主义的写作政治——伊什梅尔·里德访谈录》，《外国文学动态研究》
* Lin, Yuqing. "Fight Media Hegemony with a Trickster's Critique: Ishmael Reed's Faction about O.J. and Media Lynching". The Project on the History of Black Writing, September 10, 2014: [http://projectbw.blogspot.com/2014/09/fight-media-hegemony-with-tricksters_65.html]
* Wang, Liya. "Postcolonial Narrative Studies", ''Foreign Literature Study'', no. 4, 2014. 《"后殖民叙事学"》，《外国文学》，2014年第4期。
* Ludwig, Sami (ed.). ''On the Aesthetic Legacy of Ishmael Reed: Contemporary Assessments''. Huntington Beach, California: World Parade Books, 2012.
* Wang, Liya. "Irony and Allegory in Ishmael Reed's ''Japanese by Spring''." ''Foreign Literature Studies'', No. 4. 2010. 论伊什梅尔·里德《春季日语班》中的反讽隐喻， 《外国文学》 2010年第4期。
* Wang, Liya. "History and Allegory in Ishmael Reed's Fiction." ''Foreign Literature Review'', No. 4, 2010. 伊什梅尔·里德的历史叙述及其政治隐喻，外国文学评论，2010年第4期。
* Zeng, Yanyu. "Identity Crisis and the Irony of Political Correctness in Ishmael Reed's ''Japanese by Spring'' and Philip Roth's ''The Human Stain''", ''Contemporary Foreign Literature'', No. 2, pp.&nbsp;79–87, 2012.
*Zeng, Yanyu. "Neo Hoodooism and Historiography in Ishmael Reed's ''Flight to Canada''", ''Contemporary Foreign Literature'', No. 4, pp.&nbsp;92–99, 2010.
* Sirmans, Franklin (ed.). ''NeoHooDoo, Art for a Forgotten Faith''. New Haven and London: The Menil Foundation, Inc., distributed by [[Yale University Press]], 2008. (Includes Sirmans' interview with Reed, pp.&nbsp;74–81.)
* Lin, YuanFu. ''On Ishmael Reed's Postmodernist Fictional Art of Parody''. Xiamen, China: Xiamen University Press, 2008.
* Mvuyekure, Pierre-Damien, with a preface by Jerome Klinkowitz. ''The "Dark Heathenism" of the American Novelist Ishmael Reed: African Voodoo as American Literary Hoodoo''. Lewiston, NY: The [[Edwin Mellen Press]] Ltd, 2007.
* Ross, Kent Chapin. ''Towards Postmodern Multiculturalism: A New Trend of African American and Jewish American Literature Viewed Through Ishmael Reed and Philip Roth'', Purdue University: ''Philip Roth Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2007, pp.&nbsp;70–73.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/386394/pdf|title=Towards Postmodern Multiculturalism: A New Trend of African American and Jewish American Literature Viewed Through Ishmael Reed and Philip Roth|journal=Philip Roth Studies|last=Ross|first=Kent Chapin|publisher=Purdue University Press|volume=3|number=1|date=Spring 2007|pages=70–73}}</ref>
* Williams, Dana A. (ed.), ''African American Humor, Irony and Satire: Ishmael Reed, Satirically Speaking''. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2007.
* Ebbeson, Jeffrey, ''Postmodernism and its Others: the fiction of Ishmael Reed, Kathy Acker and Don DeLillo.'' London and New York: [[Routledge]], 2006.
* Nishikawa, Kinohi. "''Mumbo Jumbo''", in Emmanuel S. Nelson (ed.), ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature''. 5 vols. Westport, CT: [[Greenwood Press]], 2005. pp.&nbsp;1552–53.
* Reed, Ishmael. "My 1960s" in ''Rediscovering America, the Making of Multicultural America, 1900–2000'', written and edited by Carla Blank. [[Three Rivers Press]], 2003, pp.&nbsp;259–265.
* Spaulding, A. Timothy. ''History, the Fantastic, and the Postmodern Slave Narrative.'' Chapter 1: "The Conflation of Time in Ishmael Reed's ''Flight To Canada'' and Octavia Butler's ''Kindred''". Columbia: The [[Ohio State University Press]], 2005, pp.&nbsp;25–60.<ref>Spaulding, A. Timothy (2005), [https://archive.org/details/reformingpasthis0000spau/page/25 <!-- quote=Spaulding, A. Timothy. History, the Fantastic, and the Postmodern Slave Narrative. Chapter 1: “The Conflation of Time in Ishmael Reed’s FLIGHT TO CANADA and Octavia Butler’s KINDRED,". --> "The Conflation of Time in Ishmael Reed's ''Flight To Canada'' and Octavia Butler's ''Kindred''"], in ''History, the Fantastic, and the Postmodern Slave Narrative'', Columbia: Ohio State University Press, pp.&nbsp;25–60.</ref>
* [[Kathryn Hume|Hume, Kathryn]]. ''American Dream, American Nightmare: Fiction Since 1960''. Urbana and Chicago: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2000.
* Dick, Bruce Allen (ed. with the assistance of Pavel Zemliansky). ''The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed''. Westport, Connecticut: [[Greenwood Press]], 1999. (Includes Dick's 1997 telephone interview with Reed, pp.&nbsp;228–250.)
* McGee, Patrick. ''Ishmael Reed and the Ends of Race''. New York: [[St. Martin's Press]], 1997.
* Ludwig, Sämi, ''Concrete Language: Intercultural Communication in Maxine Hong Kingston's ''The Woman Warrior'' and Ishmael Reed's ''Mumbo Jumbo''.'' Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, Cross Cultural Communication Vol. 2, 1996; reissued in 2015.
* Dick, Bruce, and Amritjit Singh (eds). ''Conversations With Ishmael Reed'', Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
* Joyce, Joyce A. "Falling Through the Minefield of Black Feminist Criticism: Ishmael Reed, A Case in Point," ''Warriors, Conjurers and Priests: Defining African-centered Literary Criticism.'' Chicago: [[Third World Press]], 1994.
* [[Peter Nazareth|Nazareth, Peter]]. ''In the Trickster Tradition: The Novels of Andrew Salkey, Francis Ebejer and Ishmael Reed''. London: [[Bogle-L'Ouverture Press]], 1994.
* [[Joe Weixlmann|Weixlmann, Joe]]. "African American Deconstruction of the Novel in the Work of Ishmael Reed and Clarence Major": ''[[MELUS]]'' 17 (Winter 1991): 57–79.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Weixlmann|first= Joe|url= https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-13471996/african-american-deconstruction-of-the-novel-in-the|title= African American Deconstruction of the Novel in the Work of Ishmael Reed and Clarence Major|journal= MELUS|volume= 17|number= 4|date= Winter 1991|pages= 57–79|doi= 10.2307/467268|jstor= 467268|access-date= May 11, 2022|archive-date= October 13, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151013061256/https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-13471996/african-american-deconstruction-of-the-novel-in-the|url-status= bot: unknown}} (excerpt).</ref>
* [[Hortense Spillers|Spillers, Hortense J.]] "Changing the Letter: The Yokes, the Jokes of Discourse, or, Mrs. Stowe, Mr. Reed" in [[Deborah E. McDowell]] and [[Arnold Rampersad]] (eds), ''Slavery and the Literary Imagination''. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, pp.&nbsp;25–61.
* [[Henry Louis Gates, Jr|Gates, Henry Louis, Jr]]. ''The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism'', Oxford and New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 1988.
* Martin, Reginald. ''Ishmael Reed and the New Black Aesthetic Critics''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.
* Nazareth, Peter. "Heading Them Off at the Pass: The Fiction of Ishmael Reed", ''[[The Review of Contemporary Fiction]]'' 4, no. 2, 1984.
* O'Brien, John (ed.), ''The Review of Contemporary Fiction'', Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer, 1984. "Juan Goytisolo and Ishmael Reed Number". (Includes articles and interviews with Reed by Reginald Martin, Franco La Polla, Jerry H. Bryant, W. C. Bamberger, Joe Weixlmann, Peter Nazareth, James R. Lindroth, Geoffrey Green and Jack Byrne.)
* Fabre, Michel. "Postmodernist Rhetoric in Ishmael Reed's ''Yellow Back Radio Broke Down''". In Peter Bruck and Wolfgang Karrer (eds), ''The Afro-American Novel Since 1960'', Amsterdam: B.R. Gruner Publishing Co., 1982, pp.&nbsp;167–88.
* Settle, Elizabeth A., and Thomas A. Settle. ''Ishmael Reed, a primary and secondary bibliography.'' Boston: [[G.K. Hall & Co.]], 1982.
* McConnell, Frank. "Da Hoodoo is Put on America", in A. Robert Lee (ed.), ''Black Fiction, New Studies in the Afro-American Novel Since 1945''. NY: [[Barnes & Noble Books]], 1980.
* Weixlmann, Joe, Robert Fikes, Jr., and Ishmael Reed. "Mapping out the Gumbo Works: An Ishmael Reed Bibliography", ''Black American Literature Forum'', Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 1978), pp.&nbsp;24–29. ''JSTOR'', https://doi.org/10.2307/3041493.
===Notes===
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{official website|http://www.ishmaelreed.org}}
*{{IMDb name|0715460}}
*[http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/ Ishmael Reed Publications]
*{{C-SPAN|34107}}
**[http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Ishma ''In Depth''] interview with Reed, April 3, 2011
* Jonathan McAloon, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/aug/01/mumbo-jumbo-a-penguin-classic-2017-ishmael-reed#img-1 "Mumbo Jumbo: a dazzling classic finally gets the recognition it deserves"], ''[[The Guardian]]'' (London), August 1, 2017.
* [https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Ishmael+Reed "Ishmael Reed"] at [[African American Literature Book Club]] (AALBC).
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Ishmael}}
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