In the following essay, which was originally presented as a panel discussion among Young, Kart, and Harper at the annual meeting of the Associated Writing Programs in Chicago, Young, Kart, and Harper—all writers with a great interest in jazz—comment on the interrelationship among the arts, especially focusing on how jazz has shaped their creative process, the style and content of their works, their self-identity, and their response to other art forms.
In the following essay, Harding discusses the jazz criticism and theories of Theodor Adorno, which he then applies to Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man.
In the following essay, Werner details the social and cultural background of Chicago contributing to the Chicago Renaissance and the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
In the following essay, Lucas provides a historical account of popular and literary reaction to the growth and development of jazz music in England from the 1920s to the 1950s, also comparing poems by Kingsley Amis, Phillip Larkin, John Wain, and Roy Fisher on the basis of their insight into the roots and evolution of jazz.
In the following essay, which focuses on the controversy among writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance over the morality, history, and aesthetics of jazz music, Ogren studies the works of several authors who celebrate jazz performance for its rich folk heritage and power to evoke audience participation. Ogren's essay was first presented as a paper at a conference entitled "Heritage: A Reappraisal of the Harlem Renaissance," in 1985.
In the following discussion, moderated by Robert Kelly, Komunyakaa and Matthews discuss the relationship between jazz music and their respective poetry.
In the following essay, Szwed first discusses American jazz fiction dealing with race relations and then turns his attention to the jazz fiction of the Czechoslovakian writer Josef Skvoreckf, illustrating how Skvoreckj' uses jazz as a metaphor for revolution.
In the following two-part essay, the author of the first section, Christopher Logue, calls for more innovations in the field of poetry in terms of style, experimentation with which brought about the technique of reading poetry against a background of jazz music; the author of the second section, Charles Fox, identifies three separate traditions in the jazz-and-poetry movement.
