The creative impulse of Michele D Gibbs comes from many sources: her Chicago childhood as the daughter of Communist parents, her academic training, her political development during the Civil Rights struggle, her career as a Movement analyst and teacher, and her self-taught artistry in charcoal, painting, murals and sculpture. She has produced four volumes of poetry, including two early collections in the famed Broadside Press series edited by Dudley Randall in Detroit, and several critical essays, three of which are collected here. In recent years she has combined her energies with those of...