Ebook: Get Your Ass in the Water & Swim Like Me: African-American Narrative Poetry from the Oral Tradition

Originally published in 1975 and regarded as one of the great collections of African-American literature and folklore, Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me brings together some of the best examples of the black folk poetry known as 'toasts'. Probably the only surviving form of oral narrative poetry in the US, the 'toasts' collected here tell the myths of African-American culture, from the 'bad man' Stackolee to the black boxer refused a ticket for the Titanic, taking in the African roots tradition and contemporary rap music.