THE LAST POETS : FIRST COMING

This is a story of eight young men (7 Poets and one percussionist) who were physically, spiritually and artistically responsible for one of the most powerfull poetic ensembles during the late sixties and early seventies.

David Nelson, Gylan Kain, Charles Davis a.k.a Abiodun, Felipe Luciano, Raymond Hurrey a.k.a. Nilija Obabi, Umar Bin Hassan, Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (Jalal) and Sulieman El-Hadi, are the young men (at that time) who were known as The Last Poets.

This dynamic poetic ensemble was born on May 19,1968, in Mount Morris Park (122nd and Fifth Avenue) Harlem, New York.

David Nelson had invited Charles Davis and Gylan Kain to a celebration of Malcolm X's birthday, which was held in the park.
David and Charles had known each other for awhile. Kain and David had met at a poetry reading at Columbia University, a week before. With that ever happy smile on his face, David shared his ideas about reading poety as a group, instead of as individuals. The idea was great, and almost instantly the idea began to take form. Thoughts of "the Tempations", "The Miracles and the Impressions", were mentioned as examples as to where David was coming from.

The only problem was that the poets couldn't sing that well together. It is also important to mention the Len Chandler, a guitarist and a singer, was present at this first meeting, however he did not join the three poets on stage. It was decided that they would walk on chanting: "Are you ready Nigger? You got to be ready"

This was a chant Charles had heard while watching (on T.V.) a student demonstration at Howard University. Since it was more or less a chant rather than a song, it was easy for the three poets to blend their voices and create an atmosphere that soon inspired the audience to join in.

Malcolm must have been smiling in his grave, to see how jubilantly Black folks were celebrating his birthday. After the chanting died down, David did a poem entitled "Are you ready Black people?" Charles followed with his original poem: "What is your thing brother? "The Conga Drums, played staccato rythms behind the poets, and served as background to the poetry. Kain ended this debut with a poem entitled: "Nigger's are very untogether people" The response from the crowd of afro's gelees, and dashiki's, was a confirmation that the group idea was successful.

David knew that history had been made on this 19th day of May 1968, and he knew that he was helping to shape the style and content of future Black Poetry.