African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Get Your Ass in the Water

I'm starting a new week of African Diaspora folklore with a really cool book: Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me! Narrative Poetry From the Black Oral Tradition by Bruce Jackson, originally published in 1974.

This is a book of "toasts," which are a wild and wonderful part of the African American oral tradition, a kind of rhythmic rhyming storytelling that has now evolved into rap. The book starts with a 40-page introduction, and there then follow 200 pages of toasts in the following categories: Badmen, Crime, and Jail (you'll find Stackolee here); Pimps, Whores, and Other Lovers and Friends (including Cocaine Nell); Freaks and Supersex (Casey Jones is here); Signifying and Poolshooting Monkey (and Partytime Monkey too); The Titanic Toasts (which is where the book's title comes from); Miscellaneous Narratives; and Short Versus and Drinking Toasts (like Hophead Willie).

There was an audiobook version released by Rounder Records, and I found this audio excerpt at YouTube, which starts with the signifying monkey:

Jackson is a profesor at SUNY Buffalo; you can read more about him at his university webpage.

So, jump in and enjoy; the book is just a click away at the Internet Archive:

Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me!

Narrative Poetry From the Black Oral Tradition

by Bruce Jackson