Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Invisible Surrealists -- 1. The First Black Surrealists -- Martinique -- Etienne Léro -- Légitime Défense Manifesto -- Civilization -- And the Ramps -- Abandon -- Put -- Simone Yoyotte -- Pyjama-Speed -- Pierre Yoyotte -- Theory of the Fountain -- Antifascist Significance of Surrealism -- Maurice-Sabas Quitman -- Paradise on Earth -- Jules Monnerot -- On Certain Traits Particular to the Civilized Mentality -- Indispensable Poetry: Response to an Inquiry -- Yva Léro -- Little Black Divers -- Aimé Césaire -- Négreries -- Jamaica -- Claude McKay -- Down to the Roots -- Cuba -- Juan Breá -- My Life is a Sunday -- Thoughts -- Juan Breá and Mary Low -- Notes on the Economic Causes of Humor -- Trinidad -- C.L.R. James -- Introduction to Red Spanish Notebook -- 2. Tropiques: Surrealism in the Caribbean: Cuba, Martinique, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Puerto Rico -- Martinique -- Aimé Césaire -- Panorama -- Introduction to Black American Poetry -- In the Guise of a Literary Manifesto -- Keeping Poetry Alive -- Isidore Ducasse, "Comte de Lautréamont" -- Suzanne Césaire -- Poverty of a Poetry -- Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire et al. -- Voice of the Oracle -- René Ménil -- Introduction to the Marvelous -- The Orientation of Poetry -- What Does Africa Mean to Us? -- Poetry, Jazz & Freedom -- Lucie Thésée -- Preference -- Georges Gratiant -- Extinct Volcano -- Aristide Maugée -- Aimé Césaire, Poet -- Review of Reviews -- Georgette Anderson -- Symbolism, Maeterlinck & the Marvelous -- Stéphane Jean-Alexis -- A Note on Chance -- Cuba -- Wifredo Lam -- Picasso -- Arrows in Rapid Flight -- Agustin Cárdenas -- One, Two, Three -- Jacques Roumain -- When the Tom-Tom Beats -- Haiti -- Clément Magloire-Saint-Aude -- Utterances -- Talismans -- Not the Legend -- Three Poems.

The Surrealist Record -- On Poetry -- René Bélance -- Awareness -- Noise -- Encounter With Life -- Hervé Télémaque -- Why Are You Performing, Jean? -- Dominican Republic -- Aída Cartagena Portalatín -- Moon and Marble -- Trinidad -- John Jacob Thomas -- Creole Proverbs -- John La Rose -- Connecting Link -- Puerto Rico -- Luis A. Maisonet -- Freedom of Expression for Young Children -- 3. South America: Brazil, Guyana, Colombia -- Brazil -- João da Cruz e Souza -- Black Rose -- Tenebrous -- Rosário Fusco -- Wind in the Woods -- Sosígenes Costa -- The Golden Papyrus -- The Red Peacock -- Fernando Mendes de Almeida -- Phantom Carrousel -- Jorge de Lima -- Howling Dogs -- Guyana -- Léon-Gontran Damas -- For Sure -- Good Breeding -- A Carribean View on Sterling A. Brown -- A Single Instant of Belief -- Negritude and Surrealism -- Wilson Harris -- Voodoo, Trance, Poetry and Dance -- Colombia -- Heriberto Cogollo -- The World of a Nohor -- 4. Africa: Cairo, North Africa, the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar -- Egypt -- Long Live Degenerate Art! -- Georges Henein -- Manifesto -- Art and Freedom -- Hot Jazz -- Between the Eagle's Nest and the Mouse-Trap -- Perspectives -- Jacques Vaché -- The Plain Truth -- A Tribute to André Breton -- Ikbal El Alailly -- Portrait of the Author as a Young Rabbit -- Post-Scriptum -- Anwar Kamel -- The Propagandists of Reaction and Us -- Ramses Younane -- What Comes After the Logic of Reason? -- Victor Musgrave -- Voices in the Twilight -- Albert Cossery -- The House of Certain Death -- Joyce Mansour -- Floating Islands -- Fresh Cream -- Forthwith to S -- North Express -- Response to an Inquiry on Magic Art -- Morocco -- Robert Benayoun -- No Rhyme for Reason! -- The Obscure Protests -- Letter to Chicago -- The Phoenix of Animation -- Too Much Is Too Much -- Comic Sounds -- Abdellatif Laabi -- Rue du Retour -- Tunisia.

Farid Lariby -- Pome Brut -- Algeria -- Henri Kréa -- Never Forever Once More -- Oh Yes -- Jean-Michel Atlan -- The Time Has Come to Call Up a World -- Baya -- The Big Bird -- Habib Tengour -- Maghrebian Surrealism -- Senegal -- Cheikh Tidiane Sylla -- Surrealism and Black African Art -- The Spirit of Unity - For Freedom -- Congo -- Tchicaya U Tam'si -- Against Destiny -- Mozambique -- Inácio Matsinhe -- Painting as a Contribution to Consciousness -- I Became a Tortoise to Resist Torture -- The Snake -- Angola -- Malangatana Valente Ngwenya -- Survivor Among Millions -- Amílcar Cabral -- National Liberation and Culture -- Antonio Domingues -- The Influence of Aimé Césaire in Portuguese-Speaking Africa -- Madagascar -- Jean-Joseph Rabéarivelo -- A Purple Star -- South Africa -- Dennis Brutus -- The Sun on This Rubble -- Poet Against Apartheid -- 5. Surrealist Beginnings in the United States, 1930s-1950s -- Fenton Johnson -- The Phantom Rabbit -- Tired -- George Herriman -- Positivilly Marvillis -- Jean Toomer -- Essentials -- Zora Neale Hurston -- How the Gods Behave -- Richard Wright -- Lawd Today -- Ralph Ellison -- The Poetry Of It -- Bearden & the Destruction of the Accepted World -- Russell Atkins -- Upstood Upstaffed -- 6. The 1950s Surrealist Underground in the United States -- Ted Joans -- Ted Joans Speaks -- Bob Kaufman -- Abomunist Manifesto -- Abomunus Craxioms -- Abomunist Election Manifesto -- Tom Postell -- Gertrude Stein Rides the Torn Down El to NYC -- Harmony -- Percy Edward Johnston -- Variations on a Theme -- 7. Surrealism, Black Power, Black Arts -- Ted Joans -- Proposition for a Black Power Manifesto -- Hart Leroy Bibbs -- Hurricane -- Black Spring -- Jayne Cortez -- National Security -- Making It -- St. Clair Drake -- Negritude and Pan-Africanism -- Edward A. Jones -- The Birth of Black Awareness -- Ishmael Reed.

Boxing on Paper: Thirty-Seven Years Later -- Katherine Dunham -- Ballet Nègre -- Notes on the Dance -- Melvin Edwards -- Lynch Fragments -- Joseph Jarman -- Odawalla -- Oliver Pitcher -- Jean-Jacques -- Frank London Brown -- Jazz -- Pony Poindexter -- Jazz is More French than American -- Anthony Braxton -- Earth Music -- Thelonious Monk -- Three Score - A Quiz for Jazz Musicians -- Cecil Taylor -- The Musician -- Ornette Coleman -- Harmolodic = Highest Instinct -- Sun Ra -- Cosmic Equation -- The Endless Realm -- Babs Gonzalez -- I Paid My Dues -- A.B. Spellman -- The New Thing In Jazz -- Dizzy Gillespie -- Gertrude Abercrombie -- Amiri Baraka -- The Changing Same -- 8. Toward the New Millennium: The Mid-1970s through the 1990s -- Aimé Césaire -- My Joyful Acceptance of Surrealism -- Homage to Frantz Fanon -- Jayne Cortez -- There It Is -- What's Ugly -- Poetry Music Technology -- Everything Can Be Transformed -- Taking the Blues Back Home -- Léon Damas -- Mainstream Statement -- Larry's Time -- James G. Spady -- Larry Neal Never Forgot Philly -- Charlotte Carter -- On Film -- Robin D. G. Kelley -- Reflections on Malcolm X -- Norman Calmese -- My Discovery of Surrealism -- Ted Joans -- Kaufman Is a Bird Called Bob -- Cogollo -- 9. Looking Ahead: Surrealism Today and Tomorrow -- Aimé Césaire -- I Do Not Agree to Receive the Minister -- Robin D. G. Kelley -- Surrealism -- Ayana Karanja -- Contemplation -- Melvin Edwards -- Thinking About Surrealism -- T. J. Anderson III -- At Last Roundup -- Vaudeville 1951 -- Michael Stone-Richards -- Surrealist Subversion in Everyday Life -- Ron Allen -- Revelation -- Conversation Between Eye and Mouth -- Anthony Joseph -- How Surrealism Found Me -- Extending Out to Brightness -- Patrick Turner -- Unrestricted Images -- Adrienne Kennedy -- People Who Led Me to My Plays -- Tyree Guyton -- There Is a True Magic Here.

Henry Dumas -- Will the Circle Be Unbroken? -- Deusdedit de Morais -- Café de Cherbourg -- Jayne Cortez -- Poetry Coming as Blue and Blues Coming as Poetry -- Free Time Friction -- Afterword: Surrealism and the Creation of a Desirable Future -- Bibliography -- Index.