Ahmos Zu-Bolton

Ahmos Zu-Bolton II (October 21, 1948 – March 8, 2005

Zu-Bolton's work was associated with the Black Arts Movement and with African-American literary activity in Louisiana, Washington, D.C., and Texas. He founded the literary magazine HooDoo and then HooDoo Festivals that gathered writers from across the South.

Life Born in Poplarville, Mississippi, Zu-Bolton grew up in DeRidder, Louisiana, near the Texas border. In 1965 he was one of several black students who integrated Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Zu-Bolton founded Hoo-Doo, a magazine devoted to African-American activism and arts, published A Niggered Amen: Poems, and coedited Synergy D.C. Anthology, in 1975. Zu-Bolton participated in the first Southern Black Poetry Festival at Southern University in Baton Rouge on May 3, 1972, along with poets including Haki R. Madhubuti, Margaret Danner, Jerry W. Ward Jr., Pinkie Gordon Lane and Kalamu ya Salaam. He also opened the Copestetic Bookstore on Marigny Street in New Orleans, LA.

Writing and literary work

Zu-Bolton's poetry and storytelling was about African-American oral traditions in Louisiana. He attributes it to the learned stories from his family members during front porch storytelling sessions.

His books include A Niggered Amen: Poems, Ain't No Spring Chicken and 1946: A Poem. He also wrote plays, including The Widow Paris: A Folklore of Marie Laveau, The Funeral, Family Reunion and The Break-In.

Death Ahmos Zu-Bolton died of cancer on March 8, 2005 in Washington, D.C..

Archives and papers

Materials related to Zu-Bolton are held in the Jerry Washington Ward Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The collection includes manuscripts, poems, an interview of Zu-Bolton by Ward, flyers, newsletters and pamphlets dated from 1976 to 1995.

A 1990 letter from Zu-Bolton to Storyteller is also listed in the Augusta Baker papers, held by the University of South Carolina Libraries and indexed through the Civil Rights Digital Library.