| Collen
McElroy (1935– )
|
|
| While Poets Are Watching |
475 |
| Cutting a Road from Manaus to Belém |
477 |
| Why Tu Fu Does Not Speak of the Nubian |
478 |
|
|
| Sybil
Kein (1939– )
|
|
| Fragments
from the Diary of Amelie Patiné |
|
| Quadroon Mistress of Monsieur
JacquesR |
479 |
| Letter to Madame Lindé from Justine, Her
Creole Servant |
480 |
| Cofaire? |
482 |
| Jelly Roll Morton |
483 |
|
|
| Virgia
Brocks-Shedd (1943–1992)
|
|
| Southern Roads/City Pavement |
484 |
|
|
| Houston
A. Baker, Jr. (1943– )
|
|
| No matter where you travel |
490 |
| Late-Winter Blues and Promises of Love |
490 |
| This Is Not a Poem |
491 |
|
|
| Wanda
Coleman (1946– )
|
|
| Doing Battle with the Wolf |
492 |
| Word Game |
492 |
| Las
turistas negras grande |
495 |
|
|
| Julius
E. Thompson (1946– )
|
|
| Song of Innocence |
496 |
| In My Mind’s Eye |
496 |
| The Devil’s Music in Hell |
499 |
|
|
| Yusef Komunyakaa
(1947– )
|
|
| Lost Wax |
500 |
| Villon /
Leadbelly |
501 |
| Tunnels |
502 |
| Tu Do Street |
503 |
|
|
| Kiarri
T-H. Cheatwood
|
|
| Visions of the Sea |
504 |
| Bloodstorm |
507 |
| Swamp Rat |
511 |
|
|
| E.
Ethelbert Miller (1950–
)
|
|
| Moses |
513 |
| Spanish Conversation |
513 |
| Sweet Honey in the Rock |
514 |
| grenada |
515 |
| a walk in the daytime is just as dangerous as
a walk in the night |
517 |
|
|
| Quo
Vadis Gex-Breaux (1950– )
|
|
| Willie Note 9/28/91 |
519 |
| Blue Deep |
520 |
|
|
| Angela
Jackson (1951– )
|
|
| a beginning for a new beginnings |
251 |
| Why I Must Make Language |
522 |
|
|
| Rita
Dove (1952– )
|
|
| Geometry |
524 |
| Parsley |
524 |
| Daystar |
526 |
|
|
| Lenard
D. Moore (1958– )
|
|
| A Poem for Langston Hughes |
528 |
| Message to Etheridge Knight |
529 |
| Haiku “Sipping the new tea” |
529 |
| “Summer evening sun” |
529 |
| “a black woman” |
530 |
| “Winter stillness” |
530 |
|
|
| Harryette
Mullen (1960– )
|
|
| Momma Sayings |
531 |
| Floorwax Mother |
532 |
| Bête Noire |
533 |
| Pineapple |
534 |
|
|
| Charlie
R. Braxton (1961– )
|
|
| Jazzy St. Walk |
535 |
| Say Hey Homeboy |
537 |
|
|
| Contributors’
Notes |
539 |
| Acknowledgments |
561 |
Contributor's Notes
Allen, Samuel (1917- )
Allen, who spent many years abroad, published
some of his early poetry in Presence Africaine, and his
collection Effenbein Zähne
(1956) was published in Germany. He has served as an associate
professor of law at Texas Southern University,
writer-in-residence at Tuskegee, and professor of English and
Afro-American Literature at Boston University. Allen's books
include Ivory Tusks and Other Poems (1968), Paul
Vesey's Ledger (1975), and Every Round and Other Poems
(1987).
Angelou, Maya (1928- )
The first Reynolds Professor of American
Studies at Wake Forest University. Angelou gained national
attention with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings (1970). Her substantial body of work in poetry and
prose includes Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I
Diiie (1971), And Still I Rise (1978), The Heart
of a Woman (1981), I Shall Not Be Moved (1990),
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), and
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (1995).
Aubert, Alvin (1930- )
Founder of the magazine OBSIDIAN, Aubert
served for many years as Professor of English at Wayne State
University. His first collection, Against the Blues, was
published by Broadside Press in 1972. His most recent
collections of poems are If Winter Comes: Collected Poems,
1967-1992 (1994) and Harlem Wrestler and Other Poems
(1995).
Baker Houston A., Jr. (1943-
)
professor of English and Albert M. Greenfield
Professor of Human Relations at the University of Pennsylvania,
Baker is a leading theorist of African-American literature and
culture. Among his many publications are Blues, Ideology, and
Afro-American Literature (1984), Afro-American Poetics
(1988), and Rap and the Academy (1993), and three volumes
of poetry: No Matter Where You Travel, You Shall Be Black
(1979), Spirit Run (1982), and Blues Journey Home
(1985).
Baraka, Amiri [LeRoi Jones] (1934-
)
One of the chief proponents of the Black Arts
Movement in the 1960s. Baraka is a poet, essayist, playwright,
music and social critic, and fiction writer whose work continues
to influence the production of African-American literature. In
1968 he co-edited the groundbreaking anthology Black Fire
with Larry Neal. He has written seven nonfiction books and
fifteen volumes of poetry, the most recent being Transbluency:
The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995).
Barlow, George (1948- )
A professor of English and American Studies
at Grinnell. Barlow is the author of Gumbo (1981), a
volume chosen for publication in the National Poetry Series. His
first collection, Gabriel, was published by Broadside
Press in 1974.
Barrax, Gerald (1933- )
A professor of English at North Carolina
State University and editor of OBSIDIAN II: Black Literature
in Review. Barrax is the recipient of a Callaloo Creative
Writing Award in Nonfiction Prose. He has written Another
Kind of Rain (1970), An Audience of One (1980),
The Death of Animals and Lesser Gods (1984), and Leaning
Against the Sun (1992)
Bennett, Gwendolyn (1902-
)
Though she never published a collection of
her own work, Bennett's poems have appeared in several prominent
anthologies: Caroling Dusk (1927), Singers in the Dawn
(1934), The Poetry of the Negro, 1946-1970): An Anthology
(1970), and The Poetry of Black America: Anthology of the
Twentieth Century (1973).
Bontemps, Arna (1902-1973)
Poet, biographer, novelist, editor, and
librarian, Bontemps, like Langston Hughes, devoted much of his
time to shaping how African-American poetry would be discussed
in the future. Bontemps's early poems appeared in Crisis
and Opportunity. "Golgotha Is a Mountain" won the
Alexander Pushkin Award for Poetry in 1926. The following year,
"Nocturne at Bethesda" won first prize in the Crisis
poetry competition. Bontemps did not publish his book of poems,
Personals, until 1963.
Braithwaite, William Stanley (1878-1962)
The founder of the B.J. Brimmer Publishing
Co., Braithwaite is better known as an editor than as a poet. He
edited the Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of
American Poetry from 1913 to 1929. Braithwaite's books
include The House of Falling Leaves (1902), Sandy Star
(1926), Selected Poems (1948), and The Bewitched
Parsonage: The Story of the Brontes (19500. The William
Stanley Braithwaite Reader was published in 1972.
Braxton, Charlie R. (1961-
)
A poet, playwright, and freelance journalist
who lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Braxton's first poetry
collection is ascension from the ashes (19900. His work appears
in numerous magazines and in the anthologies In the Tradition
(1992), and Soulfires (1996).
Brocks-Shedd, Virgia (1943-1992)
A librarian, Brocks-Shedd was strongly
influenced by Margaret walker, her teacher at Jackson State
College, and later by Alice Walker and Audre Lorde. Her poetry
appeared in the chapbooks Mississippi Woods (1980) and
Mississippi Earthworks (1982), and in Mississippi Writers,
Vol. III (1988)
Brooks, Gwendolyn (1917-
)
A Street in Bronzeville (1945), her
first book of poems, brought Brooks's works to national
attention. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen
(1949). Brooks is respected for her precise language, technical
facility, and special perspectives on everyday life. In 1968,
she was named Poet Laureate of Illinois. She received an award
for outstanding achievement in literature from the Black Academy
of Arts and letters in 1976, and was named Poetry Consultant to
the Library of Congress (1985-1986). Among her many books of
poetry are The Bean Eaters (1960), Selected Poems
(1963), In the Mecca (1968), Riot (19690,
Family Pictures (1970, To Disembark (1981), Blacks
(1987), The Near Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1987),
Children Coming Home (1991).
Brooks, Jonathan Henderson (1904-1945)
Born near Lexington, Mississippi, brooks was
a 1930 graduate of Tougaloo College and a minister. Some of his
poems were anthologized in Caroling Dusk (1927) edited by
Countee Cullen, and in The Negro Caravan (1941). During
his college years and in the three years he served as assistant
to Tougaloo's president, Brooks encouraged students to engage in
dramatic activities and writing. His collection The
Resurrection and Other Poems was published posthumously in
1948
Brown, Sterling Allen (1901-1989)
A native of Washington, D.C., Brown taught
for many years at Howard University. His first book of poems,
Southern Road, was published in 1932, and his poems were
featured in many anthologies. As a poet, Brown gave careful
attention to the nuances of speech and reproduced them superbly
in his poems. His second collection, The Last ride of Wild
Bill, was published in 1975. He won the Lenore Marshall
Poetry Prize for The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown
(1980). Brown's other works include The Negro in American
Fiction (1937) and Negro Poetry and Drama (1937). he
was also co-editor of the landmark anthology The Negro
Caravan (1941).
Campbell, James Edwin (1867-1896)
The first president of the West Virginia
Colored Institute (now West Virginia State University), Campbell
served on the staff of the Pioneer (a887), a black
newspaper. A contributor to The Book of American Negro Poetry
(1922) and The Negro Caravan (1941), Campbell's own books
include Driftings and Gleanings (1887) and Echoes from
the Cabin and Elsewhere (1895).
Cheatwood, Kiarria T-H
A poet, novelist, and critic, Cheatwood lives
in Richmond, Virginia. He is the author of the poetry collection
Valley of the Anointers (1979), Psalms of Redemption
(1983), Elegies for Patrice (1984), and Bloodstorm
(1986), and the novels Seeds of Consistency, Fruits of Life
(1990) and A Life on an April Canvas (1992).
Christian, Marcus B. (1900-1976)
A native of Louisiana, Christian served as
supervisor of the Dillard University Negro History Unit of the
Federal Writers' Project, worked for a time in the Dillard
Library, and as poetry editor for the Louisiana Weekly.
Christian's most important books are The Common People's
Manifesto of World War II (1948) and Negro Iron Workers
of Louisiana (1972).
Clifton, Lucille (1936-
)
Clifton is the recipient of several NEA
grants and the Juniper Prize, as well as honorary degrees from
the University of Maryland and Towson State University. her
books include Good Times (1969), An Ordinary Woman
(1974), Generations (1976), Good Woman: Poems and
Memoir, 1969-1980 (1987), Quilting: Poems, 1987-1990
(1991), and Book of Light (1993). Clifton has written
many books for young readers.
Coleman, Wanda (1946- )
The recipient of fellowships from the
National Endowment of the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation,
Coleman is the author of Mad Dog Black Lady (1979), A
War of Eyes and Other Stories (1988), African Sleeping
Sickness: Stories and Poems (1990), American Sonnets
(1994), and other works. In the late 1960s, she was
writer-in-residence at Studio Watts; she has also written for
television and hosted interview programs for Pacific Radio.
Corrothers, James David (1869-1917)
Corrothers worked at a lumber mill,
factories, a steamboat, and a hotel before he began publishing
poetry, articles, and fiction in the mid-1880s. In 1898, he
became a Methodist minister and then a Baptist minister.
Corrothers published one book of verse, The Black Cat Club
(1902), and the autobiography, In Spite of the Handicap
(1926).
Cortez, Jayne (1936- )
The recipient of an NEA fellowship in
creative writing and a New York Foundation for the Arts Award,
Cortez has lectured and read her work throughout the United
States, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Her
Published works include Festivals and Funerals (1971),
Scarifications (1973), Firespitter (1982),
Coagulations: New and Selected Poems (1984), and Poetic
Magnetic (1991).
Cotter, Joseph Seaman, Sr. (1861-1949)
The founder and principal of the Paul
Lawrence Dunbar School, and later the principal of the Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor School. Cotter published several books such as
A Rhyming (1895), A White Song and a Black One
(1909), Collected Poems of Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. (1938),
and Negroes and Others at work and Play (1947).
Cotter, Joseph Seaman, Jr. (1895-1919)
Cotter's one book of poems, The Band of
Gideon and Other Lyrics (1918), identified him as a writer
of great promise in the New Negro period. His one-act play On
the Fields of France appeared in the Crisis (June
1920) and two series of poems were published in 1920 and 1921
issues of A.M.E. Zion Quarterly Review.
Cullen, Countee (1903-1946)
One of the most gifted of the Harlem
Renaissance poets, Cullen taught French, English, and creative
writing in New York until 1945. His first collection, Color,
was published in 1925. Two years later, he published Copper
Sun and edited the anthology Caroling Dusk. Among his
other books of poetry are The Ballad of the Brown Girl: An
Old Ballad Retold (1927), The Black Christ, and Other
Poems (1929), The Medea and Some Poems (1935), The
Lost Zoo (1940), and a selection of his best poems in On
These I Stand.
Danner, Margaret Ease (1915-1984)
The recipient of many awards for her poetry,
Danner was an assistant editor of Poetry magazine
(1951-57). During her tenure as writer-in-residence at Wayne
State University, Danner founded Boone House, a center for
writers and artists. Her books include To Flower: Poems
(1963), Poem Counterpoem (1966), Iron Lace (1968),
and The Down of a Thistle: Selected Poems, Prose Poems, and
Songs (1976)
Davis Frank Marshall (1905-1987)
A former editor of the Atlanta Daily World,
Davis also served as the executive editor of the Associated
Negro Press. In 1937, he was awarded a Julius Rosenwald
Foundation grant. Davis's books include Black Man's Verse
(1935), I Am the American Negro (1937), Through Sepia
Eyes (1938), 47th Street: Poems (1948), and
Awakening , and Other Poems (1978). Livin' the Blues:
Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet, his autobiography
was published in 1993.
Delany, Clarissa Scott (1901-1927)
Delany, daughter of Emmett J. Scott, the
noted secretary of Booker T. Washington, spent her early years
at Tuskegee Institute and attended Wellesley College. She taught
for three years at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.,
before her death. Some of her poems were anthologized in The
Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949.
Dent Thomas (1932- )
A member of the legendary Umbra Workshop in
the early 1960s, Dent served as assistant and executive director
of the Free Southern Theater and later as executive director of
the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. He is a poet,
essayist, playwright, and oral historian. His writing has
appeared in such magazines as Southern Exposure,
Callaloo, OBSIDIAN, Freedomways, and
African American Review. He was one of the editors of
Free Southern Theater by the Free Southern Theater (1969)
His two poetry collections are Magnolia Street (1976) and
Blue Lights and River Songs (1982). His most recent book
is the historical study Southern Journey: My Return to the
Civil Rights Movement (1996).
Dodson, Owen (1914-1983)
Best known for his work as professor of Drama
and department chair at Howard University, Dodson also served as
the drama director of Spelman College and a consultant to
community theater at the Harlem School of arts. The recipient of
Rosenwald, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships,
Dodson was the author of the plays Divine Comedy (1938)
and New World A-Coming: An Original Pageant of Hope
(1944); the novels Boy at the Window (1951) and Come
Home Early, Child (1977), and the poetry collection
Powerful Long Ladder (1946).
Dove, Rita (1952- )
Professor of English at the University of
Virginia, Dove was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the volume
Thomas and Beulah (1986). Among her many books of poetry are
Museum (1983), Grace Notes (1989), and Mother
Love: Poems (1995). Her novel Through the Ivory Gates
(1992) is a fine example of how poetic sensibility might inform
fiction. In 1993, Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United
States, a post she held for two years.
Dumas, Henry L., (1934-1968)
The former teacher and director of language
workshops for Southern Illinois University's Experiment in
Higher Education, Dumas was a poet and fiction writer of
extraordinary imagination. His books have been published
posthumously. He was the author of Poetry for My People
(1970); reprinted in 1974 as Play Ebony, Play Ivory),
Ark of Bones, and Other Stories (1970), Jonoah and the
Green Stone (1976), Ropes of Wind (1979), Goodbye,
Sweetwater (1988), and Knees of a Natural Man (1989).
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence (1872-1906)
Dunbar was the most popular African-American
poet of the late nineteenth century, lauded for the "humor and
pathos" of his dialect poems and underappreciated for the
quality of his work in Standard English. James Weldon Johnson
gave special attention to Dunbar's dilemma in The Book of
American Negro Poetry (19210. Among Dunbar's numerous
collections of poems are Oak and Ivy (1893), Majors
and Minors (1896), Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), and
Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1903).
Evans, Mari (1923- )
Evans, who lives in Indianapolis, has taught
at Cornell University, Spelman College, and other schools. She
won a Black Academy of Arts and Letters award for I Am a
Black Woman (1970). Evans has written a number of books for
children and edited Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A
Critical Evaluation (1985). Among her poetry collections are
Night Star: Poems (1973-1978) and A Dark & Splendid
Mass (1992).
Fabio, Sarah Webster (1928-1979)
A pioneer in efforts to institutionalize
Black Studies in higher education. fabio was the author of the
poety volumes A Mirror: A Soul (1969) and Black IS a Panther
Caged (1972). In 1974, she collected all of her poems in seven
volumes under the general title Rainbow Signs. Her work appeared
in such anthologies as
The Black Aesthetic (1971) and
Understanding the New Black Poetry (1972).
Fields, Julia (1938- )
The recipient of the seventh Conrad Kent
Rivers Memorial Fund Award, Fields contributed her work to such
magazines as Massachusetts Review, Callaloo, and
First World. Her books include I Heard A Young Man
Saying (1967). A Summoning (1976), Slow Coins
(1981), and The Green Lion of Zion Street (1988). Fields
has served as poet-in-residence, lecturer, or instructor at
several universities and colleges, including St. Augustine
College, Howard University, and the University of the District
of Columbia.
Gex-Breaux, Quo Vadis (1950-
)
A poet and essayist who lives and writes in
New Orleans, Gex-Breaux works in development at Dillard
University. Her work has appeared in local and national journals
and in the anthology Life Notes (1994).
Giovanni, Nikki (1943- )
A professor of English at the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, Giovanni has published several books of
poetry and essays, such as Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black
Judgment (1968), Ego Tripping and Other Poems for Young
People (1973), Those Who Ride the Night Wind (1983),
and Racism 101 (1994). National Book Award nominee for
the autobiography Gemini (1971) and Ohioana Book Award
recipient for Sacred Cows . . . and Other Edibles (1988),
she has conducted poetry readings throughout the United States
and abroad. Her important conversations with other writers are
A Dialogue: James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni (1973) and
A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and
Margaret Walker (1974).
Grimké,
Angelina Weld (1880-1958)
Grimké was an
active participant in the Harlem Renaissance. Though she
published no collection of poems in her lifetime, Grimké
did contribute her work to several anthologies, including
Caroling Dusk (1927), The Negro Caravan (1941), and
The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949 (1949).
Hammon, Jupiter (1711-1806)
A deeply religious slave, Hammon is better
known for his suggestion that slavery was endurable in "An
Address to the Negroes in the State of New York" (1786) than for
his Christian verse. His poems "An Evening Thought: Salvation by
Christ with Penetential Cries" (1761) was the first poem
published by a black man in North America.
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins (1825-1911)
A tireless worker for the Underground
Railroad and lecturer for the cause of abolition. Harper used
her talents to write poetry and fiction that reveal much about
how literacy functions to achieve social and aesthetic ends. Her
books of poetry include Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects
(1854), Poems (1871), and Sketches of Southern Life
(1872).
Harper, Michael S. (1938-
)
The director of the writing program and the
I. J. Kapstein Professor of English at Brown University, Harper
is the recipient of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters award
for History Is Your Own Heartbreak (1971) and a
Guggenheim fellowship. He has published a large body of poetry.
Among them are Song: I Want a Witness (1972), Images
of Kin: New and Selected Poems (1977), Healing Song for
the Inner Ear (1985), and Honorable Amendments: Poems
(1995).
Haydn, Robert E. (1913-1980)
One of the most accomplished poets of the
twentieth century, Haydn taught at Fisk University for more than
twenty years, and served as Consultant in Poetry for the Library
of Congress (1976-78). He received the World Festival of Negro
Artists grand prize in 1966 for A Ballad of Remembrance
(1962). Haydn's collections include Heart Shape in the Dust
(19400, Figure of Time (1955), Selected Poems
(1966), Words in the Mourning Time (1970), The
Night-blooming Cereus (1972), Angle of Ascent (1975),
and American Journal (1978). Robert Haydn: Collected
Poems was published in 1985.
Henderson, David (1942-
)
The author of such books as Felix of the
Silent Forest (1967), The Low East Side (1980), and
'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Life of Jimi Hendrix
(1983), Henderson was a member of the Umbra Group. He has
conducted poetry readings and workshops at various colleges and
universities, and his work has appeared in the Paris Review,
Evergreen Review, and Journal of Black Poetry.
Hernton, Calvin (1932- )
A professor of Black Studies and Creative
Writing at Oberlin College, Hernton was the cofounder of Umbra
magazine. Hernton's books include Sex and Racism in America
(1965), Coming Together: Black Power, White Hatred, and
Social Hang-Ups (1971, Medicine Man (1976), and
The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers: Adventures in Sex,
Literature, and Real Life (1987).
Horton, George Moses (c.1797-c.1883)
To call Horton the first black professional
man of letter is indeed to signify. A slave in North Carolina,
Horton was a gifted poet who wrote on demand for undergraduates
at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Two of Horton's
volumes, The Hope of Liberty (1829) and The Poetical
Works of George Moses Horton, The Colored Bard of North Carolina
(1845), enabled him to publicize his antislavery sentiments in a
small degree. Naked Genius (1865), published by the newly
freed Horton, contains the largest body of his work; it
represents the range of his experiments with poetic techniques
and his outrage regarding the "peculiar institution."
Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
From the Harlem Renaissance until the early
stages of the Black Arts Movement, Hughes was one of the most
prolific African-American writers, and one of the most popular.
He wrote fifteen collections of poetry, two novels, two
autobiographies, and seven collections of short stories, as well
as several juvenile books and translations. Among the many
anthologies he edited or co-edited is The Poetry of the
Negro, 1746-1949. Among Hughes's best known works are The
Weary Blues (1926), Fine Clothes of the Jew (1927),
The Dream Keeper, and Other Poems (1932), Montage of a
Dream Deferred (1951), Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz
(1961), and The Panther and the Lash (1967).
Jackson, Angela (1951- )
The winner of the Hoyt W. Fuller award for
Literary Excellence and the American Book Award for Solo in
the Boxcar Third Floor E., Jackson lives in Chicago. In
addition to writing several plays, she is the author of
VooDoo/Love Magic (1974). The Man with the White Liver
(1987), and Dark Legs and Silk Kisses: The Beatitudes of the
Spinners (1993).
Jeffers, Lance (1919-1985)
An assistant professor of English at North
Carolina State University at the time of his death, Jeffers was
widely regarded as the Negritude poet of his generation. Jeffers
was the author of the volumes My Blackness Is the Beauty of
This Land (1970), When I Know the Power of My Black Hand
(1974), O Africa, Where I know Baked My Bread (1977),
Grandsire (1979), and the novel Witherspoon (1983).
Joans, Ted (1928- )
A painter, travel writer, jazz musician, and
poet, Joans was one of the leading figures in the Beat Movement.
His books include Black Pow Wow (1969), A Black Manifesto in
Jazz Poetry and Prose (1971), Afrodisia (1976),
The Aardvark-Watcher: Der Erdfkelforscher (1980), and
Sure, Really I Is (1982).
Johnson, Fenton (188-1958)
The founder of Favorite magazine and
the founder of the Reconciliation Movement (to promote
cooperation between the races), Johnson served as a writer for
the Chicago W.P.A. in the 1930s, and for the Easter Press
Association in New York City. A former English teacher at the
State University in Louisville, Kentucky, Johnson was the author
of A Little Dreaming (1914), Visions of the Dusk
(1915), Songs of the Soil (1916), and Tales of the
Darkest America (1920), a book of short fiction.
Johnson, Georgia Douglass (1886-1966)
Johnson taught school in the South before she
moved to Washington, D.C. She worked in government agencies and
served as the Commissioner of Conciliation in the Department of
Labor (1925-34). Johnson's books include The Heart of a
Woman, and Other Poems (1918), Bronze (1922), An
Autumn Love Cycle (1928), and Share My World: A Book of
Poems (1962).
Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
A professor of creative literature and
writing at Fisk University at the time of his death, Johnson
received a Rosenwald, the W.E.B. Du Bois prize for Negro
literature, and the Harmon Gold award for God's Trombones
(1927). Johnson was the author of the novel The Autobiography
of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912) and Sainted Peter Relates an
Incident: Selected Poems (1935). Johnson also edited the
Book of American Negro Poets (1921).
Jordan, June (1936- )
A poet and essayist whose work is informed by
a sense that poetry should give voice tot he deepest personal
and political concerns. Jordan teaches at the University of
California (Berkeley). She has received many awards, among them
the Nancy Bloch Award for The Voice of the Children
(1971). Her books of poetry include New Days: Poems of Exile
and Return (1973), Things That I Do in the Dark
(1977), Passion (1980), Living Room (1985),
Naming Our Destiny: New & Selected Poems (1989), and
Harukol Love Poems (1994).
Kaufman, Bob (1925-1986)
A nominee for the Guinness Poetry Award and
the recipient of an NEA grant, Kaufman was the founder and
co-editor, along with Allen Ginsberg, William Margolis, and John
Kelley, of the poetry magazine Beatitude, and a legendary
figure in the San Francisco poetry scene. His books include
Does the Secret Mind Whisper (1959), Solitude Crowded
with Loneliness (1965) Golden Sardine (1966), and
The Ancient Rain, 1956-1978 (1981), Cranial Guitar:
Selected Poems of Bob Kaufman was published in 1996.
Kein, Sybil (1939- )
Kein, the author of Gombo People
(1981) and Delia Dancer (1984), is a poet, dramatist, and
scholar who was born in New Orleans and who speaks through her
work to preserve the Creole language and culture.
Knight, Etheridge (1931-1991)
Knight was noted for excellence in blending
oral and literary poetic traditions. His works include Black
Voices from Prison (1968), Belly Song and Other Poems
(1973), Born of a Woman: New and Selected Poems (1980),
and The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986)
Komunyakaa, Yusef (1947-
)
A professor of English at Indiana
University-Bloomington, Komunyakaa won both the Pulitzer Prize
and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Neon Vernacular: New
and Selected Poems (1993). His poetry collections include
Lost in the Bonewheel Factory (1979), I Apologize for the
Eyes in My Head (1986) Dien Cai Dau (1988), and
Magic City (1992).
Lane, Pinkie Gordon (1923-
)
Professor Emeritus of English at Southern
University (Baton Rouge) and Poet Laureate of Louisiana from
1989 to 1992, Lane has won widespread recognition for her lyric
forms. Her collections of poetry include Wind Thoughts
(1972), The Mystic Female (1978) I Never Scream: New
and Selected Poems (1985), and Girl at the Window
(1991).
Les Cenelles (New Orleans, 1845)
Publicized as "the first published anthology
of Negro verse in America," Les Cenelles is seldom
mentioned in discussions of African-American poetry.
nevertheless, what this volume might suggest about a tradition
that is continued in the work of Sybil Kein and other poets from
New Orleans is of critical importance.
Lorde, Audre (1934-1992)
The founder of the Kitchen Table: Women of
Color Press, Lorde served as both a professor of English at John
Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Thomas Hunter Professor
of English at Hunter College. She was a National Book Award
nominee for poetry for From a Land Where Other People Live
(1973), and the American Book Award recipient for A Burst of
Light (1988). Lorde published numerous books of poetry and
prose, including The First Cities (1968), Coal
(1976), The Black Unicorn (1978), The Cancer Journals
(1980) Zami, A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography
(1982), Sister Outsider (1984), Our Dead Behind Us
(1986), Hell God's Orders (1990), and The Marvelous
Arithmetics of Distance (1993).
Madgett, Naomi Long (1923-
)
Professor Emeritus at Eastern Michigan
University, Madgett is the founder of Lotus Press. The recipient
of the Ester R. Bear Poetry Award and the National Coalition
Black Women citation, Madgett was awarded the Creative
Achievement Award from the College Language Association for
Octavia and Other Poems (1988). Her books include Pink Ladies
in the Afternoon (1972), Exits and Entrances (1978),
A Student's Guide to Creative Writing (1980), and
Remembrances of Spring: Collected Early Poems (1993)
Madhubuti, Haki R. (Don L. Lee (1942-
)
The publisher of Third World press and the
founder of Black Books Bulletin. Madhubuti has served as
writer-in-residence at such universities as Cornell,
Northeastern Illinois State, and Howard; he now teaches at
Chicago State University. His books include Earthquakes and
Sunrise Missions: Poetry and Essays of Black Renewal, 1973-1983
(1984), Killing Memory, Seeking Ancestors (1987), and
Claiming the Earth: Race, Rape, Ritual, Richness in America &
the Search for Enlightened Empowerment (1994). Books
published under the name Don. L. Lee include Don't Cry,
Scream (1969), We Walk the Way of the New World
(1970), and Directionscore: Selected and New Poems
(1971).
Major, Clarence (1936- )
Poet, novelist, editor, and winner of the
National Council of the Arts award and the western States Book
Award for his novel My Amputations (1986). Major is well known
for his work with the Fiction Collective. His books include
Symptoms and Madness (1971), The Syncopated Cakewalk
(1974), Inside Diameter: The France Poems (1985),
Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar (1988), and Surfaces and
Masks (1989). major's most recent anthologies are Calling the
Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories
(1993), and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century
African-American Poetry (1996).
McClane, Kenneth A. (1951-
)
An associate professor of English and the
director of the creative writing center at Cornell University,
McClane was awarded the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award in
1983. His books include Moons and Low Times (1978), A
Tree Beyond Telling: Poems, Selected and New (1983),
These Halves Are Whole (1983), and Walls: Essays,
1985-1990 (1991).
McElroy, Colleen (1935-
)
The winner of the American Book Award for
Queen of the Ebony Isles (1985), McElroy is currently a
professor of English at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She is the author of such books as Music from Home
(1976), Winters Without Snow (1980), Driving Under the
Cardboard Pines: And Other Stories (1989), and What
Madness Brought Me Here: New and Selected Poems, 1968-88
(1990).
McKay, Claude (1889-1948)
Jamaican by birth, McKay established himself
as an important participant in the Harlem renaissance with his
famous poem "If We Must Die" (Liberator, 1919) and such
books as Spring in New Hampshire (1920), Harlem Shadows
(1922), and Home to Harlem (1928). McKay's autobiography
A Long Way from Home (1937) and his social study,
Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940) are important sources for
understanding early twentieth-century African-American literary
and intellectual concerns.
Miller, E. Ethelbert (1950-
)
The director of the African-American Resource
Center at Howard University, Miller is the founder and organizer
of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series, Washington, D.C. The
recipient of the Columbia Merit Award. Miller has written and
edited several books, including Season of Hunger/Cry of Rain:
Poems 1975-1980 (1982), Where Are the Love Poems for
Dictators? (1986), First Light: New and Selected Poems
(1993), and the anthology In Search of Color Everywhere
(1994).
Miller, May (1899-1995)
The former chair of the Literature Division
of the Commission on the Arts of D.C. Miller also served as a
reader, lecturer, or writer-in-residence for such institutions
as Monmouth College and the University of Wisconsin. Miller
published nine volumes of poetry, including Into the Clearing
(1959), the Clearing and Beyond (1973), Dust of an
Uncertain Journey (1975), The Ransomed Wait (1983),
and Collected Poems (1989).
Moore, Leonard D. (1958-
)
Internationally recognized for his haiku,
Moore has published three volumes of poetry, the most recent
being Desert Storm: A brief History (1993). His poetry
has appeared in several anthologies, including Soulfires
(1996) and The Garden Thrives. (1996).
Mullen, Harryette (1960-
)
A professor of English at UCLA, Mullen is the
author of four books of poetry: Tree Tall Woman (1981),
Trimmings (1991), S*PeRM**K*T (1992), and Muse
& Drudge (1995). Her poetry has been included in Washing
the Cow's Skull (1982). The Jazz Poetry Anthology
(1991) and O Two (1991). Her short stories have been
anthologized in Her Work (1982), South by Southwest
(1986), and Common Bonds (1990).
Neal Larry (Lawrence P.) (1937-1981)
The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in
1971, Neal co-edited the groundbreaking anthology Black Fire
(1968) with leroi Jones. Within his lifetime, Neal published
Black Boogaloo (1969), Trippin' A Need for Change
(with Imamu Amiri Baraka and A.B. Spelman (1969), and Hoodoo
Hollerin' Bebop Ghosts (1974). His selected works were
published in visions of a
Liberated Future: Black Arts Movement Writings (1989).
Patterson, R. Raymond (1929-
)
Patterson, a former professor of English at
the City College of the City University of New York, is the
author of Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Black Man
(1969) and Elemental Blues (1983).
Payne, Daniel A. (1811-1893)
Born in South Carolina, Payne moved north in
the 1830s, became an ordained African Methodist Episcopal
minister and later served as president of Wilberforce
University. His collection Pleasures and Other Miscellaneous
Poems (1850) is strongly marked by his religious
sensibility. Among his other writings are The History of the
A.M.E. Church (1866) and Recollections of Seventy Years
(1888).
Plato, Ann (c.1820-?)
Little is known of Plato's life aside from
her teaching in Hartford, Connecticut, and her publication in
1841 of Essays: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous
Pieces in prose and Poetry.
Plumpp, Sterling D. (1940-
)
professor in Black Studies at the University
of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Plumpp received the Carl Sandburg
Literary Award for Poetry for The Mojo Hands Call, I Must Go
(1982). He has written many books of poetry, including Half
Black, Half Blacker,(1970), Steps to Break the Circle
(1974), Clinton (1976), Blues: The Story Always Untold
(1989), Johannesburg & Other Poems (1993), and Hornman
(1995). Plump is the major blues poet of his generation.
Prince, Lucy Terry (1730-1821)
Prince's account of an Indian raid in
Deerfield, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1746 ("Bars Fight") is
the single extant example of her work. Although it was written
in 1746, the poem was transmitted orally until it was printed in
Holland's History of Western Massachusetts in 1855.
Randall, Dudley (1914- )
The founder of an presently the consultant in
Broadside Press, Randall has been the recipient of the Kuumba
Liberation Award, NEA fellowships, and the Tompkins Award from
Wayne State University. Randall played a major role in providing
a forum for American poetry in the 1960s and 1970s. His books
include More to Remember: Poems of Four Decades (1971),
After the Killing (1973). A Litany of Friends: New and
Selected Poems (1983), and Homage to Hoyt Fuller
(1984).
Ray, Henrietta Cordelia (1849-1916)
Earning a Masters in Pedagogy from New York
University (1891), Ray taught in the New York public school
system for thirty years. Ray published four books in her
lifetime: Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Charles B. Ray (1887),
Lincoln: Written for the Occasion of the Unveiling of the
Freedmen's Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1893),
Sonnets (1893) and Poems (1910).
Redmond, Eugene (1937- )
Poet, editor, historian, essayist, and
playwright, Redmond has dedicated much of his work to preserving
and enhancing oral poetic traditions. His Drumvoices: The
Mission of Afro-American Poetry (976) is the most
comprehensive literary history of the genre to date. Redmond is
founder and publisher of Drumvoices Revue. His many books
include River of Bones and Fresh and Blood (1971),
Consider Loneliness as These Things (1973), A Confluence
of Colors (1984), and The Eye in the Ceiling (1991).
Reed Ishmael (1938- )
A novelist, poet, essayist, dramatist, and
social critic, Reed teaches at the University of California
(Berkeley) and continues his project to reshape the
multicultural sensibilities of his audiences. Reed is the
co-founder of The Before Columbus Foundation and of the
magazines Yardbird, Y'Bird and Quilt. He is
the proponent of multiculturalism. His books of poetry
include catechism of neoamerican hoodoo church (1970)
Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963-1970 (1972), Chattanooga
(1973), A Secretary of the Spirits (1977), and New and
Collected Poems (1988).
Rodgers, Carolyn (1945-
)
The recipient of an NEA grant, the Carnegie
Award, PEN Awards, and the National Book Award nomination for
how I got ovah: New and Selected Poems (1975), Rodgers is
the author of Now Ain't That Love (1970),
The Heart as Ever Green:
Poems(1978), A Little Lower Than Angels
(1984), and Finite Forms: Poems (1985).
Salaam, Kalamu ya (1947-
)
Poet, playwright, essayist, music critic, and
former editor of The Black collegian, ya Salaam lives in New
Orleans. His plays have been anthologized in Black Theatre,
USA (1974), New Plays for the Black Theater (1989),
and Black Southern Voices (1992). His collection of
poetry include Ibura (1976), Revolutionary Love
(1978), Iron Flowers (1979), and A Nation of Poets
(1990). His most recent collection of essays and poetry is
What Is Life? (1994).
Sanchez, Sonia (1934- )
The Laura H. Carnell professor of English at
Temple University. Sanchez received the American Book award for
Homegirls & Handgrenades (1984). The recipient of a PEN
Writing Award, NEA Awards, the Lucretia Mott Award, and the Oni
Award from the International Black women's Congress, Sanchez
continues to define the womanist dimensions of culturally
informed poetry. Among her more than twenty books are
Homecoming (1969), I've Been a Woman: New and Selected
Poems (1980), Under a Soprano Sky (1987), and
Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995).
Shange, Ntozake (1948- )
Shange won national acclaim for her
choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When
the Rainbow is Enuf (1975). Among her many works are the
novels Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo (1982), Betsy
Brown (1985), and Liliane (1994); the poetry
collections Nappy Edges (1978), A Daughter's Geography
(1983), and From Okra to Greens: Poems (1984); and the
prose volumes See No Evil (1984) and Riding the Moon
in Texas: Word Paintings (1988).
Spencer, Anne (1882-1975)
A former public school teacher at Bramwell,
West Virgnia, Spencer later taught at the Virginia Seminary,
Lynchburg, Virginia, and worked toward the establishment of an
NAACP chapter in that city. Though Spencer published no
collections of her own poetry, she'd contribute to such
anthologies as The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922),
Caroling Dusk (1927), and The Poetry of the Negro
1746-1949 (1949).
Stuckey, Elma (1907-1988)
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Stuckey moved to
Chicago in 1945 and worked for the Department of Labor of the
State of Illinois. She later became a full-time writer and
lecturer, publishing two books in her lifetime, The Big Gate
(1976) and The Collected Poems of Elma Stuckey (1987),
both of which are strongly marked by the black oral tradition
and historical memory. She gave readings for high schools and
community organizations as well as at such universities as
Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford, reaffirming the importance of
oral presentation.
Thomas, Lorenzo (1944- )
Thomas, who teaches at the University of
Houston, Downtown, was a member of the legendary Umbra Group.
His books include Fit Music (1972), Framing the
Sunrise (1975), The Bathers: Selected Poems (1978),
and Chances Are Few (1979)
Thompson, Julius E. (1946-
)
Director of the Black Studies program at the
University of Missouri-Columbia, Thompson is a historian and
poet. He has published two volumes of poetry, Hopes Tied Up
in Promises (1970) and Blues Said: Walk On (1977),
and four historical studies, including The Black Press in
Mississippi, 1865-1985 (1993). His major study, Dudley
Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in
Detroit, 1960-1995, is scheduled for publication in 1997.
Tolson, Melvin B. (1898-1966)
A former Avalon professor of the Humanities
at Tuskegee Institute, Tolson before that was a professor of
creative literature and the director of the dust Bowl Theatre at
Langston University. the poet laureate of Liberia, Tolson
published the poetry collections Rendezvous With America
(1944) and Libretto for the Republic of Liberia (1953),
A Gallery of Harlem Portraits (1979) and Caviar and
Cabbage (1982), a collection of prose, were published
posthumously. Tolson was a leading American Modernist poet.
Toomer, Jean (1894-1967)
Toomer's reputation, until recently, was
based mainly on cane (19230, an avant-garde work of the Harlem
Renaissance. After the appearance of Essentials (1931),
he found it difficult to get his works published. Toomer was
given slight notice until more of his writing was made available
in The Wayward and the Seeking: A Miscellany of Writings
(1980) and
The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer (1988).
Touré,
Askia Muhammad (1938- )
One of the earliest and forceful voices in
the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic Movement, Touré
has also been a member of the legendary Umbra group. Touré's
books include Earth (1968), JuJu: Magic Songs for the
Black Nation (with Ben Caldwell) (1970), Songhai!
(1972), and From the Pyramids to the Projects (1990),
which won the American Book Award.
Troupe,
Quincy (1943- )
Troupe is the
author of ten books, including give volumes of poetry, the
latest of which is Avalanche (1996). He edited James
Baldwin: The Legacy and co-authored Miles: The
Autobiography, both published in 1989. He is the recipient
of two American Book Awards and a Peabody Award for the Miles
Davis Radio Project which he wrote and co-produced. Troupe is
professor of Creative Writing and American and Caribbean
Literature at the University of California, San Diego.
Walker, Alice
(1944- )
The recipient of
the Pulitzer prize and the American Book Award for The Color
Purple (1982), Walker also received a Lillian Smith Award for
Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973). Her other
books of poetry are Once (1968), Good Night, Willie
Lee, I'll See You in the Morning (1979), Horses Make a
Landscape Look More Beautiful (1984), and Her Blue Body
Everything We Know: Earthling Poems, 1965-1990 (1991).
Walker,
Margaret (1915- )
Walker's first
book, For My People, was published in 1942 as a result of
her winning the Yale Younger Poets contest, and the title poem
has acquired a very special status within African-American
culture. She received a Houghton-Mifflin Fellowship for her
acclaimed Jubilee (1966). Critical interest in the full
body of her poetry has been revitalized since the publication of
This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems (1989), which
includes her earlier volumes Prophets for a New Day
(1970) and October Journey (1973).
Watkins, Nayo
Barbara Malcolm (1940- )
Watkins, a poet,
playwright, and essayist, published her first book of poems,
I Want Me a Home, in 1969 as part of the BLKARTSOUTH
workshop in New Orleans. Her work has appeared in numerous
magazines and anthologies, including New Black Voices
(1972) and Black Southern Voices (1992).
Wheatley,
Phillis (c.1753-1784)
Despite the fact
that her single volume, Poems on Various Subjects Religious
and Moral (1773), was first issued in London, Wheatley has
the honor of being the first African writer in North America to
publish a collection of poems. Sold into slavery from her native
West Africa, Wheatley was brought to Boston in 1761. She
mastered English and its poetic forms rapidly, publishing her
first poem in 1770. Among the Colonial poets who were influenced
by English neo-classical verse, Wheatley must be judged one of
the best.
Whitfield,
James M. (1822-1871)
Whitfield became
involved in the American Colonization Society in 1858, five
years after the publication of his only book of verse,
America and Other Poems. Whitfield's poetry is at once
romantic and militant.
Whitman,
Albery A. (1851-1901)
The pastor of
several A.M.E. churches in Ohio, Kansas, Texas, and Georgia,
Whitman served as general financial agent at Wilberforce
University. The protégé of Daniel A. Payne, Whitman published
several books, including Essay on the Ten Plagues and
Miscellaneous Poems (c.1871), Not a Man and Yet a Man,
Miscellaneous Poems (1877), and An Idyll of the South, an
Epic Poem in Two Parts (1901).
Wright,
Richard (1908-1960)
In addition to
writing such powerful works of fiction as Uncle Tom's Children
(1938), Native Son (1940), and The Long Dream (1958), Wright
published poetry in left-wing journals during the 1930s; toward
the end of his life, Wright became very interested in haiku
poems and wrote approximately 4,000 of them.
Young, Al
(1939- )
Young, who lives
in California, is a poet, novelist, and musician. he has
published many books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His
works include Ask Me Now (1980), Heaven: Collected
Poems (1988), Straight No Chaser (1994), and
Drowning in the Sea of Love: Essays on Music (1995).
Zu-Bolton II,
Ahmos (1935- )
Born in
Poplarville, Mississippi, Zu-Bolton was the founder and editor
of HooDoo magazine and coeditor of Synergy: D.C.
Anthology. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and
in the anthologies Giant Talk (1975), Mississippi
Writers, Vol. III (1988), and Black Southern Voices
(1992) Zu-Bolton, who currently lives in New Orleans, is the
author of A Niggered Amen.
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