The poems in this collection address the cultural and spiritual needs of Black people. In Dawnsong! Toure successfully develops a heroic poetry that creates its own artistic matrix. In these poems Toure takes the reader back to ancient Egypt and, at the same time, demonstrates the relevance of Egyptian history and, at the same time, demonstrates the relevance of Egyptian history and mythology to the lives of contemporary Africans on the continent and in the diaspora.
Askia Muhammad Touré (Roland Snellings) (born October 13, 1938 in Raleigh, North Carolina) is an African American poet, essayist, political editor, and leading voice of the Black Arts Movement.