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AN AUDACIOUS NOVEL ABOUT NEW YORK’S LEGENDARY HIP-HOP PIONEERS
Harlem, 1969. The air is charged with hope and revolution; the Black Panthers are in their prime. This is the backdrop against which The Last Poets wrote their passionate, self-critical poetry.
Widely known as the progenitors of hip hop, this legendary collective fought, strayed, and ultimately found each other again through the legacy of their own work. Christine Otten describes their youth in the ghetto, their love lives, and their triumphs and struggles in this beautifully written, sensuously swinging, biopic-style novel.
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Praise for The Last Poets
‘Christine Otten’s book does for The Last Poets what their modesty has never allowed these revolutionary icons to do for themselves – it humanizes them. The author writes at length about all nine of the men who have performed as Last Poets over the decades, recounting the wildly disparate personal details and historical pressures that led each member of the crew to decide to dedicate his life to poetry, community, and justice. The result is a tour de force of research and empathy. In effect, The Last Poets is like The Autobiography of Malcolm X times nine. It stands as an essential complement to the recorded work of The Last Poets themselves’
BILL ADLER, hip-hop music journalist
‘Christine is a real Whitegirl. A SERIOUS DUTCH WHITEGIRL! But she’s our Whitegirl!’
UMAR BIN HASSAN, one of The Last Poets
‘In The Last Poets, Christine Otten paints shimmering and compelling portraits of these brilliant legends’
BERNICE L. MCFADDEN, author of The Book of Harlan
‘Otten’s book is more than just a straight-forward novel. It charts the complex past of one of the most exciting and influential acts in the history of music’
The Wee Review, Edinburgh International Book Festival
‘The debut spoken-word album by The Last Poets is one of my all-time favorite albums’
DAVID BOWIE
‘Next to The Last Poets’ magnificent, terrifying, rococo This is Madness, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl feels as reserved as TS Eliot. The Last Poets’ fierce performance poetry inspired generations of musicians, even as they destroyed themselves. Now they’re back – and as relevant as ever’
The Guardian
‘Christine Otten dives in the middle of their world and describes it from the inside’
HERMAN KOCH, author of The Dinner
‘With this audacious book Otten has succeeded in delivering a literary work that resembles the ingenuity of a well-composed piece of music. The book throbs through your body long after you have finished reading it. The Last Poets runs with incredible pace, and yet every sentence is to be savoured’
DUTCH FOUNDATION FOR LITERATURE
‘Otten has succeeded remarkably well: the poets have body and soul and a unique voice in her novel. Her portrayal of Umar is especially lively and moving’
Trouw
‘A piercing and touching story: Otten has developed a unique form for telling a breath-taking saga. Play it again, Christine!’
NRC Handelsblad
‘The Last Poets moves at breakneck speed. Otten’s empathy for the characters and her power of imagination mean she can easily hold her own alongside native American authors such as Lisa Alther and Alice Walker’
De Groene Amsterdammer
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CHRISTINE OTTEN (Netherlands), writer, performer and theater maker, is driven by a commitment to social issues; her novels are always inspired by real people or actual events. The Last Poets, her much-deserved literary breakthrough, was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize and has been adapted for the stage. The multifaceted Otten regularly performs at literary festivals and in theaters, is the co-founder and presenter of a literary variety show, and creator of the theater-project Prison Monologues. She teaches creative writing to prisoners.
JONATHAN REEDER, a native of New York and longtime resident of Amsterdam, enjoys a dual career as a literary translator and performing musician. Alongside his work as a professional bassoonist he translates opera libretti and essays on classical music, as well as contemporary Dutch fiction by authors including Peter Buwalda, Adri van der Heijden and the forthcoming How I Found the Talent for Living by Rodaan Al-Galidi. His recent translations include Rivers by Martin Michael Driessen (winner of the 2016 ECI Literature Prize) and The Lonely Funeral by Maarten Inghels and F. Starik.
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AUTHOR
‘“When I look at you, I see myself,” Umar Bin Hassan, one of the founding members of The Last Poets, said to me one day. Although I was a woman, 15 years younger than Umar, and from the Netherlands, I felt the same about him. Somehow that mutual identification, which I didn’t completely understand at the time, became the catalyst for writing this novel.’
TRANSLATOR
‘One of the great pleasures of reading The Last Poets was that it opened my eyes to the vibrant and invaluable world of music, African-American society, and civil rights. And one of the great pleasures of translating it ‘back’ into English was to experience the Poets’ passion, humor, optimism, and hardiness—literally in their own words.’
PUBLISHER
‘Christine Otten is one of the most devoted and passionate authors I know. The love and respect she shows toward the people she writes about is heartwarming and contagious. She is a writer one cannot help but love.’
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Christine Otten
THE LAST POETS
Translated from the Dutch
by Jonathan Reeder
WORLD EDITIONS
New York, London, Amsterdam
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Published in the USA in 2018 by World Editions LLC, New York
Published in the UK in 2015 by World Editions LTD, London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Christine Otten, 2004
English translation copyright © Jonathan Reeder, 2016
Cover image © Redferns/GAB/Getty Images
Author’s portrait © Liselore Chevalier
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data is available
ISBN Trade paperback 978-1-64286-003-0
ISBN E-book 978-1-64286-023-8
First published as De laatste dichters in the Netherlands in 2004 by Atlas Contact, Amsterdam.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.
This book was published with the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature