Joe Johnson is a professor of Literature at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He was a principal in Reed, Cannon and Johnson publishers with Ishmael Reed and Steve Cannon. His books of poetry include Heat and Hot. He wrote the introduction to Calvin Hernton’s collected poems: Medicine Man and also has published in the Neworld Review, and in the popular anthology, The Poetry of Black America, among other publications. Johnson performs his very popular poem, “If I Ride This Train,” in the Smithsonian-Folkways CD New Jazz Poets USA.