The Civil War divides the United States. Millions, including the president, wish to maintain monuments to generals like Robert E. Lee. Referred to as âKnightsâ in Gone with the Wind,â some generals earned their bona fides by murdering blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans During the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847, Robert E. Lee fought children, Los niĂąos heroes. Refusing to surrender, they were slaughtered.
Ishmael Reedâs reach is vast and varied. His take down of the billion-dollar show Hamilton and its designer Lin-Manuel Miranda is priceless, as are his searing critiques of the âBlack Bogeymanâ scam and the one-at-a-time tokenism of an elite who chooses winners and losers among minority artists.
Reed âsays whatâs on his mind,â be it about Quentin Tarantino and Django, white nationalism or Donald Trump. At the same time his portraits of Amiri Baraka/LeRoy Jones and actor Oliver Clark are touching and many-layered.
About Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico
"Ishmael Reed is the purest literary troublemaker we currently haveâ â The Buffalo News
About Ishmael Reed and his Work
Thatâs what I loved about Baldwin, something that I am inspired by about Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Gwendolyn Brooksâthey were all darlings of the liberal establishment, and they rejected that status, which meant they were pushed to the margins.â Cornell West
âEven nearer to [Colson] Whiteheadâs derailment of antebellum history is Ishmael Reedâs Flight to Canada (1976).â Julian Lucas, New York Review of Books
âIt was a ceremonial rite of some magnitude when the great American writer, cultural theorist, and musician Ishmael Reed played a jazz composition on the piano.ââVogue, 17 Feb. 2019, coverage of Grace Wales Bonnerâs London fashion show.