The Last Poets’ Umar Bin Hassan’s Comic, ‘Up South In Akron,’ Gets a Reboot

"The title alone, Up South In Akron: Summer 1959, is enough to stoke the flames of curiosity: How can Akron — a modest Ohio metropolis up north known as the 'Rubber Capital of the World' — be 'Up South' when the South is, well, south? But Umar Bin Hassan, born in 1948 and one of three living members of the iconic spoken-word group The Last Poets, faced just as much racism growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and ’60s as he would have in Alabama or Georgia. Up South In Akron, Hassan’s recently reissued comic book, paints, in just a handful of meticulously detailed pages, a vivid portrait of what life was like for a young Black kid roaming the Akron streets. Edited by former Def Jam Recordings publicist and journalist Bill Adler and illustrated by Nate McDonough, the comic was originally published in 2013 but found new life when Music Arkives volunteered to spruce it up with an updated cover, bios, the story behind the original publication, a hip-hop family tree, and photos of Hassan as a young Akronite. ..."

Voice

Genius: Cover art for Introduction to “Up South in Akron 1959” (by Bill Adler) by Umar Bin Hassan