Description
Release Date: 2024
Publisher: MBW Press
ISBN: 9798989919710
Softcover, 299 pages
WALKIN’ BLUES, the new novel by Kalamu ya Salaam, is a speculation and meditation on the life and legend of bluesman Robert Johnson. It is a hero’s journey, largely set in 1930’s Mississippi. Johnson takes his sweet time rambling across the state and singing for his supper in jukes as he encounters curious women, jealous men, ugly racism of the time, the aftermath of the 1927 flood, and much more. He’s a man who is walking to think and walking to forget. WALKIN’ BLUES is ruminating as revolution by a writer who, for over 40 years, has had one eye on the telescope, the other on the microscope, and the forthrightness to speak on it as strongly as anyone in our era. WALKIN’ BLUES is the first of two books featuring Robert Johnson and is the first published novel by Salaam.
“Through a blend of rhythmic lyrical diction, the most vivid imagery, and sharp wit combining to disseminate communal wisdom, Kalamu ya Salaam lays bare the blues artist as shaman—a swirling concoction of poet, storyteller, shapeshifter, scoundrel, rolling stone, preacher, agitator, trickster, heel, and healer. This fictional text is the brainchild of creative imagination and research prowess. At the core, Salaam uses Robert Johnson to remind us that the blues is the manifestation of African-American genius from a people who, despite being forced to live in the bowels of hell, never forgot that they were human and divine and used their music and culture to maintain their sanity and their spirituality, because they understood that, one day, what’s wrong will be righted, what’s crooked will be made straight, and that the Sun will shine on my porch.” – C Liegh McInnis, Poet, short story writer, Prince scholar, and Clarksdale, Mississippi, literary bluesmane
Kalamu ya Salaam is a writer, editor, photographer, and retired educator. He was born Vallery Ferdinand III in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes and the civil rights movement, Salaam became interested in writing and organizing for social change. He was a founder of BLACKARTSOUTH and changed his name to Kalamu ya Salaam, which is Kishwahili for “pen of peace.” Salaam was also a founder of NOMMO Literary Society and Runagate press. Among many things, he has been Executive Director of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a DJ on WWOZ, administrator of the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Health Center, and the editor of The Black Collegian magazine.
