SAFARI WEST (1998)

Safari West is my second collection of poetry and was published by Hochelaga Press in Montreal, Canada, but given the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for poetry in 1998. (My first BCF award was in 1983 for !Click Song.) Poems, my first collection of poetry, was self-published in 1953.

CLIFFORD'S BLUES (1999)

Clifford's Blues, once titled Trio: Clifford's Blues, began its march around 1988 with three, not one, major characters. It was submitted no less then 40 times and was not published as a complete novel until 1999. Excerpts from it had been published in Another Chicago Magazine, Syracuse University Magazine, Love (a Babcock & Koontz broadside), Black American Literature Forum, and Rutgers University Magazine. It was finally published in a paperback edition by Coffee House Press in 1999.

"Chapter 21" of CLIFFORD'S BLUES published in Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 23, Number 2 (Summer 1989).

"THE VISITORS," Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3 (June 1988).

I had done considerable research on this novel, including two trips to Germany to visit Dachau, several interviews with survivors, a lot of diary readings, histories, and reports. In the Dachau museum there was a picture of a black inmate who looked just like me. In another photo, to the far left, there is an entire column of black prisoners marching down a road inside the camp. Oxford Film & Television of London in 1998 released a video on Channel Four that dealt with African-Germans and other blacks unlucky enough to be in Germany at the time who were "camped."

All around, Clifford got very good reviews, but not in the major press. One review in a prominent book review publication identified me as a "young, new writer."

COLLEAGUES

Colleagues has traveled much since 1994 and remains unpublished despite several revisions and refinements of plot and character.

The novel is based on more than 25 years of college teaching, of perceptions gained during my association with faculties at several universities, and on my friendships with students at some of those institutions.

COLLEAGUES. Original typescript for the unpublished novel.

VANQUI (1999)

In the early 1980s, Leslie Burrs, a master wind instrument musician and composer, contacted me from his home near Philadelphia. He proposed that he and I collaborate on an opera called Queenie Pie, which was based on a work that Duke Ellington had begun but never completed. His son, Mercer, seemed amenable to the project, but it was difficult to determine who owned the rights, so nothing ever came of it.

A few years later, when Leslie was commissioned by Opera Columbus in Ohio to write the music for an opera, he brought me on board. As with Queenie, he wished to compose from the libretto, which I wrote in verse. The opera, Vanqui - named after an African village I found on a very old map dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton - opened in Columbus on 15 October 1999 and ran for six performances. Rodrick Dixon, Benita Valente, Marietta Simpson, and Carmen Balthrop were the leading lights. Gary Sheldon conducted. Several of the lyrics also appear in Safari West.

ASSESS THE MESS (2003)

Williams has entered the pop music world as well as the operatic, collaborating with son Adam of Powerman 5000 on their latest CD, "Transform." Williams has also written some verses for Walter Salas-Humara (The Silos) for a CD yet to be released.

Williams with Lori and Adam Williams, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1999.