Doubiago, Sharon

Broadside: Hip Hop Hopi Hope

San Francisco, CA: Sore Dove Press, 2007. Limited Edition. Folded Sheet in Wrappers. Signed by Sharon Doubiago. "The Hopi believe | the Revolution will happen | when there are many homeless people on the roads. | The Beats believed this too, Snyder and Kerouac in "Dharma Bums." | These people will be known | by a name that sounds like Hopi." (first stanza). Offerred today is Hip Hop Hopi Hope, published by Iranian-American Soheyl Dahi 's (b. 1954) Sore Dove Press and written by American essayist, educator & Second San Francisco poet Sharon Doubiago (b. 1941). Doubiago has been writing with a strong, consistent voice for decades, with her work ranging across political geography, personal history & American mythology. Her signature epic Hard Country (See Item No. 7181) is considered a major response to the male epic consciousness of twentieth-century American poetry. Hip Hop Hopi Hope is very characteristic of her style: punning on sound (hip/hop/Hopi/hope), bringing together Black urban culture, Indigenous southwestern culture, the Beat Generation (specifically Gary Snyder [b. 1930] & Jack Kerouac [1922-1969], as well as Kerouac's Dharma Bums) & homelessness in a way that would be thematically consistent with her work on race, land & American identity. It references a Hopi belief about a revolution occurring when many homeless people are on the roads, framing diverse groups as part of a single, evolving lineage of seekers. Doubiago plays with the sounds & origins of words like "Hobo," "Beatnik" & "Hippie," linking them through a shared sense of searching, movement & spirituality. She is essentially asking: what do these cultures of resistance share? All survived dispossession, erasure & colonial violence. All produced art & spiritual practice as survival. The sonic echo between the words hip hop & Hopi suggests they rhyme not just phonetically but historically. Dahi was inspired by John Martin's (1930-2025) model for Black Sparrow Press and adapted the Black Sparrow Press model to focus his output goals to limited & boxed editions, broadsides & artwork. The press has been in continuous operation since 2003, and has published works by Beat Generation associates Jack Hirschman (1933-2021), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), Michael McClure (1932-2020), Harold Norse (1916-2009), Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), Diane di Prima (1934-2020), ruth weiss (1928-2020), David Meltzer (1937-2016) & many others. "Hip Hop Hopi Hope" can also be found in Doubiago's "Love on the Streets" (See Item No. 7584). For even more from Doubiago see Item No.s 7344, 7400 & 7455 et al.! See also Starting From San Francisco (item No. 3071), published by TMB, wherein Thomas Rain Crowe provides a complete anecdotal history-memoir of the BBG/SSFR & its critical collaborations/mentorships with key members of the original Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance. At title page, underneath printed title, Doubiago has signed her name in tuxedo black ink: "Sharon Doubiago." Smaller Broadside folded into four panels, with printing on five sides, affixed to stiff wrappers. One of 26 copies signed & lettered, this being copy "Y." Published as the twenty-eighth number in the Sore Dove Press Broadside Series per colophon. An exceptionally scarce Doubiago collectible, in its rarest (& only (barely) available that we're aware of) contemporary form. In very fine condition, appearing substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #8910]

Price: $250.00