As a retired white woman, I’m aware that my reading is narrow and I’m determined to widen it through reading more work in translation and more work by non-white writers. This book totally fits that bill. It is made up of interviews with artists, poets, writers; these are poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times Best Sellers, TED speakers. This is a prestigious group of people!

Mr Howell has a light touch as an interviewer and allows each subject to tell their story and talk about their inspirations, their way of working, their background and I learned so much along the way. The thing I liked best is being introduced to people I would likely never have met without this book and researching them and buying some of their work. An example of a poet I’d not come across (my fault as this is prize winning stuff) is Tyehimba Jess and I’ve now bought “Olio” and it is introducing me to a lot more about Black culture.

This is a great book if, like me, you are aware of the gaps in your knowledge and need somewhere to start filling those gaps. Recommended regardless of your age, colour, or creed. There is a lot of gold here.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Unfortunately not one for me.

Quite heavy going and quite dry. I thought I would enjoy it more than I actually did. Heavily essay based.

An insightful and thought
-provoking look at the all-encompassing racial firestorm that’s still engulfing America today. This is definitely one to pick up if you’re interested in civil rights and want to do better. I highly recommend.

A very informative deep-dive into the Global International African Arts Movement, with powerful interviews and takeaways. Unfortunately, I just found it too detailed as well as being a bit muddled in its composition. This quote really resonated with me though; "Artists are the timeless gatekeepers of humanity" and it gave me a lot to think about as I read it, and afterwards.

Patrick A Howell has interviewed a number of people involved in the Global International African Arts Movement. These people range from artists to poets, musicians and more. In each entry in this book we hear the author and interviewee's thoughts on Black arts. It is always good to read the opinion and views of others in order to be more open minded especially in regards to the diversity in the world. I enjoyed many of the chapters in this book.

Some of the chapters fell a bit flat for me and that could be in part since they were presented in an interview format, which isn't my favorite kind of reading experience. However, I found the book to be an insightful peek into the minds of Black artists from around the world.

<i>What to listen to while reading...</i>
Planet Rock by Afrika Bambataa
Doo Wop by Ms. Lauryn Hill
Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest
Yesterday by J Dilla
Human Nature by Michael Jackson
I Say a Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin
Sign O the Times by Prince
Still I Rise by 2Pac
Door of the Cosmos by Sun Ra
Pynk by Janelle Monae

Dispatches from the Vanguard is a literary scrapbook pulling together in one place a selection of thoughts, messages, interviews, pieces of art, essays and poetry from dozens of contributors. The book's subtitle "The Global International African Arts Movement vs Donald J Trump' sets out the aim of this work which seeks to demonstrate that out of chaos can come beautiful art and a renewed energy for achieving liberty for all American citizens.

It's an ambitious work, there are many many contributors, and I think this was what I struggled with most when reading the book. There was far too much to digest, just as I was getting a feel for one contributor's way of speaking and thinking I was reading a description of the next contributor listing all of their accomplishments. I also wasn't always clear what the book was trying to achieve, some of the interviews were clearly designed to address race relations in the US and what the election of Trump could mean for the future of black people in the country. Other interviews, however, had a broader scope covering whatever issues were of interest to the contributor and some just seemed to be an opportunity to promote the artist's work. That's not to say that I didn't get a lot out of this book, I highlighted several passages but, overall, I found it too unfocused to truly have an impact or be memorable.

I would still recommend this work though. I think flicking through it over a longer period would be more rewarding than reading it from cover to cover over a few days as I did. I would suggest picking out pieces from the book that speak to you at the time and concentrating on those, giving them time to marinate. While initially slightly overwhelming, what's great about introducing so many artists, writers and poets in one place is that readers can then, in their own time, look up the work of anyone whose words especially resonate with them and, in doing so, broaden and enrich the art they consume.

Thank you to Repeater Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available August 11 2020

Led by an extraordinary leader himself, Patrick Howell's "Dispatches from the Vanguard" builds on a tradition of oral excellence in the Global International African Arts Movement through a series of interviews, works of art and descriptions of artists including poet extraordinaire Nikki Giovanni, science fiction author Nnedi Okorafor, designer Rich Fresh among others. It's conversational and quite sensational. I greatly enjoyed reading the samples of poetry, pondering the gorgeous works of art and reading. What somewhat limits the book, due to the nature of the pandemic, is that the interviews seem to have been all conducted virtually. This makes the reading somewhat staid instead of the more dynamic and lively version I know the author has the potential to be.

This was an interesting idea for a book. Unfortunately, it fell victim to feeling a bit repetitive and being less than the sum of its parts. It's not a useless book by any means, but perhaps dividing it up into volumes with more in-depth conversations with each people would have led to something more satisfying.

I am not American so I may not have certain perspectives necessary to appreciate this in its fullness. Similarly, my disgust with politicians must needs be largely confined to the current bunch of muppets in charge of the UK. With that caveat aside, Dispatches from the Vanguard contains plenty of observations and critiques which are highly applicable to regimes other than Trump's. I found this an interesting, informative read and where I didn't entirely agree, it made me think. Well worth reading.