| Reviews:
"York is no longer silent. If York could have chosen the
'vessel' for his voice, he surely could have not selected a more capable voice
than that of Frank X Walker. Kentucky native
Walker, a founder of the Affrilachian Poets and the 2005 recipient of the Lannan
Literary Fellowship for Poetry, gives elegant, wise, and reverent voice to
York."
-- Big Muddy, Serena Beam
"An ardently imagined and gloriously vivid first-person account of York's awe over the munificent and daunting wilderness, and instant rapport with the Indians he meets." --Booklist (starred review)
"And now York, finally, has a voice. The man who made the voyage, the man with
all the hopes and dreams of freedom has a voice, raises a song to his freedom,
understands that his life was not his best self, only the best that he could
do. Let us all raise a praise song to Frank X Walker, for giving voice to York.
What a magnificent achievement." --Nikki Giovanni
"Fills a void in the great pantheon of the imagined American historical voice.
This is an important luminous new collection." --Nikky Finney
"Buffalo Dance has great power and beauty. This is
poetry and storytelling of a high order." --Gurney Norman
"This imaginary interpretation of York's life into freedom and struggle
against oppression is the very stuff of life and it is just as important that
the stories be told not only for those of Affrilachian descent, but also for all
of us who face the daily threat of homogenization by impersonal forces whose
only intent is power over others."--Vox
"York's persona and the depth of Walker's insight reveal the slave's noble character
and produce a powerful book." --Lexington Herald-Leader
"Narrates the physical and spiritual journey from a plantation servant to a man
yearning for fulfillment and freedom." --Kentucky Living
"Walker's rare blend of history and art breathes life into an important but overlooked
historical figure." --Frankfort (KY) State Journal
"Walker presents his poetry as if York is another voice entirely. Walker is responsible
for the historical epigraphs and titles; York writes the poetry. The two
voices form a dialogue that enriches the poems. The titles and epigraphs often
force the reader to think harder and reinterpret the subsequent poems."
--Louisville Cardinal
"In 57 quietly moving poems, Frank X Walker speaks in the voice he has imagined
for York, the slave of William Clark, and the only black man who participated
in the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery up the Missouri, across
the country to the Pacific and back to St. Louis." --St. Louis
Post-Dispatch
"Walker fictionalizes York's thoughts and dreams and delivers a realism to a
black man revered by the Native Americans as 'Big Medicine.'"--Kentucky
Monthly
"A brave collection of poems. . . . Brims with the rich complexity of York’s
condition in a way that will appeal to a wide audience."--Louisville
Courier-Journal
"Walker's York embodies incredible strength, reveres the outdoors, and possesses
a remarkable combination of pathos, compassion, and heroism." --Union
Co. (KY) Advocate
"Frank X Walker's Buffalo Dance is a remarkable
achievement, a work of historic fiction to be sure, but one which is so richly
evocative, so finely drawn, and so keenly nuanced that it convinces us of the
validity of its premise: It succeeds in giving a living voice to the voiceless
dead. In these poems, Walker has created a poetic character of such depth,
power, wit, and vitality, a character alive to the enriching, and personally
liberating, possibilities of experience, who is, at the same time, never
forgetful of the painfully abundant limitations imposed by his circumstances,
that the long dead, very human York would surely be proud to claim him as his
own."—George P. Weick, Director, Institute for Liberal Studies, Kentucky State
University
"Using historical research, Walker eerily channels York, chronicling his growth
into a free(d) man within himself." --North American Review
"Walker's York embodies incredible inner strength, reveres the outdoors, and possesses
a remarkable combination of pathos, compassion, and heroism." --Modern
Mountain Magazine
"This soulful collection transverses York's personal expedition."
--Sojourners
"Walker brilliantly liberates the spirit of York, the historically unrecognized
member of the Louis and Clark Expedition." --Key
Newsjournal
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