I was a sophomore at Wright Junior College in Chicago in 1981, quite determined to be a professional broadcaster, listening to the progressive FM station that shaped my whole cosmology when a song so compelling came on, that when I had arrived at my parking spot, I could not stop listening to the radio and go to class. The song was B-Movie, a stinging critique of recently elected Ronald the Raygun, as described by the vocalist, alluding to the fact that Reagan was a former B-Movie actor.

Gil Scott-Heron, really more a poet, than singer, but with a baritone voice that’s as compelling as it is unmistakable. This experience led (it pains me to say this) to 41 years and counting of appreciation for the music of Gil Scott-Heron. Aldon Lynn Nielsen says the time is right to say it straight, Gil Scott-Heron should be recognized as an important writer.

As the George and Barbara Kelly Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Penn State University, specializing in — among other things – African American poetry and poetics, Aldon Lynn Nielsen has published several books of his own poetry, along with scholarly books and anthologies such as Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism.” Today we talk about his essay: Choruses for Gil Scott-Heron. Aldon, what’s the word?