{"product_id":"black-surrealist-the-legend-of-ted-joans-9781501379543","title":"Black Surrealist: The Legend of Ted Joans","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlack Surrealist. Poet. Collage artist. Jazz trumpeter. Painter. Member of the Beat Generation. Life-long wanderer. Pan-Africanist. Black Power agitator. Author of his own \"poem-life.\" Ted Joans (1928-2003) was all of these things, and yet none of these labels adequately capture the beauty and complexity of his life and work. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe proportions of Ted Joans's life are legendary. Born in Cairo, Illinois in 1928, as a young man he distinguished himself as a Surrealist painter. In the early 1950s, he moved to New York's Greenwich Village, where he opened the first Black-owned art gallery in the city, developed new styles of painting, and began reading his poetry in coffeehouses just as the Beat Generation was coalescing. A well-known raconteur and bon vivant on the Village scene, he threw elaborate parties (art events that prefigured the Happenings of the later 1950s), exhibited his \"jazz action\" paintings, and published poetry and collage books to acclaim. But at the height of his success, Joans left the States for Europe and Africa, and set up bases of operation in places such as Paris, Copenhagen, Tangier, and Timbuktu. He would spend the subsequent decades in constant movement around the globe, an itinerant poet, interdisciplinary artist, and self-styled \"Surrealist griot\" who was especially attuned to the magnetic power of chance encounters. He published some 40 books and booklets, and wrote much more that is still unpublished, including novels, autobiographies, and a comprehensive guide to Africa-all the while cultivating what he thought of as his greatest artwork, his own \"poem-life.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on interviews and deep archival research, including discussions of Joans's vast body of unpublished-and previously-unseen-work, \u003ci\u003eBlack Surrealist\u003c\/i\u003e explores how he swam in streams of literary and artistic thought seldom discussed together: Surrealism, the Beats, Négritude, and Black Power, among them, while always remaining a true original. Ted Joans's poem-life and body of work are unlike any other in the 20th Century, and \u003ci\u003eBlack Surrealist\u003c\/i\u003e, illustrated with over 70 images, many never before published, is the first book to reckon with this singularly important poet-artist, and to show how and why his creative spirit lives on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-17353232\"\u003eSteven Belletto\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Academic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/29\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 496\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.88h x 6.30w x 1.16d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501379543\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1501379542\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-LIT\"\u003eLiterary Criticism\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-LIT014000\"\u003ePoetry\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-POE\"\u003ePoetry\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-POE005050\"\u003eAmerican | African American \u0026amp; Black\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO002010\"\u003eAfrican American \u0026amp; Black\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteven Belletto \u003c\/b\u003eis Professor of English at Lafayette College, USA. He is author of \u003ci\u003eThe Beats: A Literary History\u003c\/i\u003e (2020) and \u003ci\u003eNo Accident, Comrade: Chance and Design in Cold War American Narratives\u003c\/i\u003e (2012). He is the editor of four books, including \u003ci\u003eAmerican Literature in Transition, 1950-1960\u003c\/i\u003e (2018) and \u003ci\u003eThe Cambridge Companion to the Beats\u003c\/i\u003e (2017). He is the Editor of \u003ci\u003eContemporary Literature\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48459276943597,"sku":"9781501379543","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/files\/img_564dae5f-3966-4cfb-aba1-83a762a828e2.jpg?v=1753631980","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/black-surrealist-the-legend-of-ted-joans-9781501379543","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}