POET PROFILE

CLAUDE MCKAY (1890-1948) was a Jamaican poet and writer. He was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He published four volumes of poetry: Songs of Jamaica (1912), Constab Ballads (1912), Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920), and Harlem Shadows (1922).

POET PROFILE

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON (1866-1966)- was a poet,lyricist, and short story writer. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, she was one of the earliest Black female playwrights. She published four volumes of poetry: The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems (1918), Bronze: A Book of Poems (1922), An Autumn Love Cycle (1928), and Share My World (1962)

POET PROFILE

ANNE SPENCER BANNISTER (1882-1975) poet, teacher, civil rights activist, and gardener, was born Annie Bethel Bannister on February 6, 1882, the only child of Joel Cephus Bannister and Sarah Louise Scales, in Henry County,Virginia.

Her development as a poet began in early childhood where she enjoyed a great amount of freedom and solitude to explore the natural world. During this time she did not attend school because her mother felt that the local schools were unsuitable for her daughter. She read catalogs like Sears and Roebuck and wrote independently in her many moments alone.

 Anne was eventually enrolled in the Virginia Theological Seminary, in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1893 at the age of 11, where, despite having a mostly illiterate  childhood, she graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1899. After graduation she became a teacher and taught school throughout Virginia until 1901.

Her literary life began at the seminary where she wrote her first poem. She continued to write poetry to record her thoughts and feelings.

In 1919, while working to establish a branch of the NAACP in Lynchburg, Anne met and worked with the poet and activist James Weldon Johnson, who discovered her poetry. Using Johnson's editor, she published her first poem in 1920 in the "Crisis" magazine.

The themes of her poetry were religion, race (though rarely explicit), and the natural world. Although she did not write "protest" poetry, she was obviously well aware of White oppression. Many of her poems convey a romantic concern with the human search for beauty and meaning in a disgusting world. According to "The Vintage Book of African American Poetry"..."Her most rigorous poems engage the reader through piercing images and chiseled, precise language..."

Anne did not publish any volumes of poetry during her lifetime, but she was published extensively during the 20's in the most prestigious periodicals,collections, literary journals, and anthologies. She won national attention for her poetry, and as a result,  friendship of some of the most prominent Black writers of that era. Anne resided exclusively in Virginia,  where she worked for almost two decades as the librarian of Dunbar High School, but she maintained close friendships with many writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois included among them.

Anne was poetically active until her death in 1975. She will be remembered as one of the most significant poets of all time.

           

POET PROFILE

WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT BRAITHWAITE  (1878-1962)
was born into a well-to-do, family  in  Boston, Massachusetts.

Braithwaite was largely tutored at home by his father, William Smith Braithwaite, who had spent time in England studying medicine. The younger Braithwaite studied the usual subjects, plus French and literature. His father died when Braithwaite  was the age of  7, his death plunging the entire family into poverty.

Braithwaite's mother, Emma Dewolfe Braithwaite began working as a domestic to support her growing family.

Braithwaite had to quit school at the age of 13 to help his mother support the family. He worked as an errand boy for various proprietors for a few years. Finally, at the age of 15 he was apprenticed to a typesetter for a publisher, Ginn & Company. It was here that he developed an affinity for books, writing and poetry, and where he began writing  his own poems.

Braithwaite eventually published 3 volumes of poetry.

His first book, "Lyrics of Life," was self-published in 1904.  His 2nd volume, "The House of Falling Leaves," was similarly published in 1908. His third volume, "Selected Poems," was published in 1948.  Braithwaite's poems reflects  his love  of the universal theme of  loneliness and passion.

During his career, Braithwaite compiled and edited numerous poetry anthologies from poems collected from various periodicals. These yearly anthologies helped to launch the careers of many American poets.

Braithwaite died at his home in Harlem, New York in 1962.

POET PROFILE

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906)

was born in Dayton, Ohio, and attended the public schools of that city.

The son of two former slaves, JOSHUA DUNBAR, who escaped enslavement in Kentucky and fought  in the Civil War, and MATILDA MURPHY DUNBAR, who taught the young Paul how to read, Dunbar himself, was never enslaved.

Dunbar published his first volume of poetry, "Oak and Ivy," in 1893.

He was steep in the oral tradition, and would go on to become a powerful interpreter of the Black experience in literature, essays, and poetry. These writings were militant by the standards of his day.

Dunbar gained international renown and popularized Black literature by lecturing and reading his poetry.

Dunbar published prolifically, over 400 poems, 4 novels, 4 collections of short stories,dozens of articles in magazines, song lyrics, musical plays and sketches.

His death in 1906 at the age of 35 followed years of declining health, including alcohol abuse and tuberculosis.

Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the greatest poets in the Black tradition

POET PROFILE

PRISCILLA JANE THOMPSON (1871-1942)



Was born in Rossmoyne, Ohio. She was the daughter of John Henry Thompson and Clara Jane Gray, former slaves from Virginia.

Priscilla attended school in her home town, which was near Cincinnati, Ohio. She considered a career in teaching, however, ill health prevented her from pursuing this vocation. Instead, she devoted her energies to writing, publishing, and giving readings of her poetry.

Thompson's first book of poems, ETHIOPE LAYS, was published in 1900. In the introduction to this volume, Thompson says that she aims "as nearly as possible to picture the real side of my race, bringing in the foreground, their patience, fortitude and forbearance, devoid of that undertone of sarcasm, generally courted."

 Her second volume, GLEANINGS OF QUIET HOURS, was published in 1907. She self-published and sold both volumes.

Thompson's poems deal with the themes of romantic love, death, religion, and race.

POET profile

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON  1871-1938


James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871. He grew up in a middle-class household. His mother was a school teacher, and his father headwaiter at a luxury hotel.

He was a versatile man of letters: a poet, a librettist and songwriter, novelist, historian, anthologist, and autobiographer.

JOHNSON is best known for his 1901 poem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," as set to music by J. Rosamond Johnson. It is often referred to as the "Black National Anthem,". His true maturity as a poet, however, was reached with "Fifty Years and Other Poems published in 1917.

A graduate of Atlanta University. Johnson began his distinguished  and wide-ranging
 professional life simply enough, as a Jacksonville school teacher. Simultaneously pursuing studies in the law, Johnson embarked  on a law career after passing the Florida bar , then moved to New York City to write for Broadway.

JOHNSON died  in 1938.

poet PROFILE

James David Corrothers was born in Michigan in 1869. He was raised by his grandfather until he passed away in 1885 ,when Corrothers was 16.

Two years later in 1887, Corrothers moved to Chicago, where through the persuasion of journalist, Henry Demarest Lloyd, who had read some of his poetry, he was hired by the Chicago Tribune as a writer.

In 1902 , Corrothers collected his most important poems and articles and published them in an anthology called The Black Cat Club. This publication established him as a major literary figure.

When he died in 1917, James David Corrothers was considered one of the leading Black literary figures in the nation.

To read a more detailed bio and sample his work GOOGLE his name

celebrate BLACK POETRY

Today we celebrate Black Poetry Day in honor of Jupiter Hammon, who is believed to be the first African American to publish poetry in the United States. He was born into slavery in Long Island, New York on October 17, 1711.

His poem “An Evening Thought” was first published on Christmas Day at the age of 49. Hammon is considered one of the founders of African-American literature.

In honor of Hammon’s birth, we celebrate the contributions of all African Americans to the world of poetry. Some of the most notable are Langston Hughes, Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou.

It’s no surprise that many of the early poems by African Americans spoke of overcoming struggles and hardship, often with encouragement and a look to a brighter future.

One of my favorites is by Langston Hughes, “I Too Am America.” 

I, Too

by Langston Hughes
written in 1932

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

How will you celebrate this day?

1. Look up and reflect on the meaning of poems written by African Americans. See a list of a few athttp://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets_african_american.html and at http://www.ehow.com/list_5842906_famous-black-poets-authors.html

2. You don’t have to be an African American to write a poem of encouragement, telling how you overcame something in your life or celebrating freedom. Try your hand at a poem now. 

3. Learn about the Harlem Renaissance, a period after World War I when many Blacks migrated North. During this period,  Black poet and writers openly celebrated their history and contributions and opened the doors for many other Black writers to share and be recognized for their work.      

-By FLORA-

                                                      JUPITER HAMMON

poetic BIRTHDAY

CLAUDE MCKAY was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica on September 15, 1889.  His love for his island home inspired his first two books of poetry which were published in 1912. Most of these poems were in Jamaican dialect.

MCKAY'S best-known poems are militant and angry sonnets which urges people to fight against injustice.

In 1922 MCKAY published his most important collection of poems, Harlem Shadows. These poems express Black America's mood of desperation and defiance.

MCKAY was also a writer who wrote novels. His novel Home to Harlem, published in 1928, was the first best-seller by a Black author and won the Harmon Foundation Gold Medal Award for Literature.

MCKAY died in 1948.

For a bio and a sampling of his poetry and writings GOOGLE his name

POET PROFILE

James Edwin Campbell (1867-1896) was born in Pomeroy, Ohio.

He was a poet, educator and journalist. Campbell created dynamic verses in "Gullah" dialect that were praised for their originality, realism, authentic voice, and spirit.

Although Paul Laurence Dunbar is credited with popularizing verse in dialect, Campbell had been publishing poetry of this type years before Dunbar became successful.


Near the close of the 19th century, Campbell moved to Chicago and was a staff writer for the Times-Herald. He also wrote articles and poems for other periodicals.  Like his predecessor, Dunbar, Campbell died of pneumonia at an early age. He was  28.


Campbell wrote two volumes of poetry.  "Driftings and Gleanings" (1887) and "Echoes from the Cabin and Elsewhere" (1895).



To read more about this early Black poet and sample his poetry GOOGLE his name

POETIC BIRTHDAYS IN AUGUST

8/28/1952 - RITA DOVE - was born in Akron, Ohio.

She is a highly acclaimed poet, author and college professor, who served as the Poet Laureate of the U.S. from 1993-95.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987 for her collection "Thomas and Beulah."  She also served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-06.

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8/30/1852 - Henrietta Cordelia Ray was born in New York City.

She was a  poet, writer, teacher, and activist.

 She received national acclaim when her poem "Lincoln" was read at a dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. in 1876. The event was attended by Frederick Douglas.

See "POET PROFILE" this blog dated 1/3/15 for further biographical info on Henietta Cordelia Ray.



*** SPECIAL NOTE:  These two poets were born almost exactly 100 years apart.



To read their bios and sample their poetry GOOGLE their names

POET PROFILE

MARY WESTON FORDHAM (1844-1905) was a poet, educator writer and teacher. Very little is known of her.

She is best known for her collection of poetry MAGNOLIA LEAVES, published in 1897.

To read a brief bio and sample her poetry GOOGLE her name.

POET PROFILE

DANIEL WEBSTER DAVIS was born the son of slaves on March 25,1862, in Virginia's Caroline County. His parents John and Charlotte Ann (Christian) Davis had been born and were slaves until emancipation. 

Soon after the civil war Davis moved to Richmond, Virginia with his widowed mother and sister. He attended local schools , and at 16, was graduated from Richmond High and Normal School. For two years he worked at odd jobs until he was old enough to teach. He began teaching in 1880. His teaching career spanned over three decades. During that time he also conducted summer normal school throughout Virginia, and taught summer school in West Virginia and the Carolina's.

Davis was ordained a Baptist minister in 1896, after attending the Lynchburg Baptist Seminary. He later became the pastor of Second Baptist Church of South Richmond, where he served until his death.

Davis was a poet,  educator, Baptist minister, popular orator, historian, and a leader of Richmond, Virginia's Black community for over three decades.

He died in 1913.


To read a comprehensive bio and sample his poetry GOOGLE his name.

POET PROFILE

JOSEPHINE DELPHINE HENDERSON HEARD was born the daughter of North Carolina slaves, on October 11, 1861.  

Heard received a good education, taught school and married Bishop William Henry Heard, with whom she traveled throughout the world.

She showed great promise in education especially for reading and writing. As a result she was encouraged to pursue poetry and in 1890 published a collection of poems entitled "Morning Glories."

Heard died in the early 1920's.

READ THIS POEM OUT LOUD

On Virtue   Phillis Wheatley

O Thou bright jewel in my aim I strive To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach. I cease to wonder, and no more attempt Thine height t’explore, or fathom thy profound. But, O my soul, sink not into despair, Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand Would now embrace thee, hovers o’er thine head. Fain would the heav’n-born soul with her converse, Then seek, then court her for her promis’d bliss. Auspicious queen, thine heav’nly pinions spread, And lead celestial Chastity along; Lo! now her sacred retinue descends, Array’d in glory from the orbs above. Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years! O leave me not to the false joys of time! But guide my steps to endless life and bliss. Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee, To give an higher appellation still, Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay, O thou, enthron’d with Cherubs in the realms of day!

READ THIS POEM OUT LOUD

"Learning to Read"
by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 - 1911)

Very soon the Yankee teachers
            Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,—
            It was agin’ their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
            Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge didn’t agree with slavery—
            ‘Twould make us all too wise.

But some of us would try to steal
            A little from the book,
And put the words together,
            And learn by hook or crook.

I remember Uncle Caldwell,
            Who took pot-liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
            And hid it in his hat.

And had his master ever seen
            The leaves upon his head,
He’d have thought them greasy papers,
            But nothing to be read.

And there was Mr. Turner’s Ben,
            Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
             And learned to read ‘em well.

Well, the Northern folks kept sending
            The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
            Though Rebs did sneer and frown.

And, I longed to read my Bible,
            For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
            Folks just shook their heads,

And said there is no use trying,
            Oh! Chloe, you’re too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
            I had no time to wait.

So I got a pair of glasses,
            And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
            The hymns and Testament.

Then I got a little cabin—
            A place to call my own—
And I felt as independent
            As the queen upon her throne.

  

POETIC BIRTHDAY

A REMEMBRANCE CELEBRATION FOR APRIL'S POETIC  BIRTHDAYS




4/3/1826 - JAMES MADISON BELL - 1826 - 1902

4/4/1928 -MAYA ANGELOU -1928-2014






For a bio, and sampling of their verse, Google-search their names.

POET PROFILE

JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER, SR, was a poet and writer who was one of the first Black playwrights to be published in this country.

Born in Bardstown, Kentucky, on February 2, 1861, at the start of the American civil war, Cotter Sr. was also an educator and community leader, who was a worker for racial progress.

Cotter Sr. began his teaching career in 1889, and went on to become a teacher and an administrator with the Louisville, Kentucky public school system for more than fifty years.

In 1891 Cotter married his fellow educator Maria F. Cox, with whom he had three children, including the important poet, and playwright in his own right, JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER,

JR, who was born on September 2, 1895 in Louisville. Cotter Jr. died of tuberculosis in 1919. Cotter Sr. went on  to promote Cotter Jr's writings many years after this untimely death.

Although Cotter Sr.  was a prominent educator and Black civic leader, he is remembered primarily for his poetry. Cotter  Sr. published his first volume of poetry in 1895 and went on to publish nine books of poetry, plays and fiction on wide-ranging historical, philosophical and social themes. 

During his lifetime Cotter Sr. became known as "Kentucky's first Black poet with real creative ability."

He died in 1949.

To read the bios and sample the poetry and other writings of this father-son duo Google-search their names.

POET PROFILE

George Marion McClellan was born on September 29, 1860, in Belfast, Tennessee. He was a poet, writer, minister, and educator.

Although very little is known about his early life, in 1885 at the age of 25, he got his degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and two years later he received his master's degree, also from Fisk.

During the beginning of the 1880s, McClellan composed poetry and in 1895 published "Poems," a collection of his works. He republished this volume in 1896 under the title "Songs of a Southener," and in 1916 he published his second collection of poetry, "The Path of Dreams."

Although his poetry and other writings were not considered protest poetry, like a lot of the early Black poets before him, his works did express some consciousness of race and the struggle for equality.

In 1891, McClellan received a bachelor of divinity degree from the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut and later served as a Congregational Minister back in Nashville.  

Between 1894 and 1896 he worked as a chaplain and teacher at the State Normal School for Colored Persons in Normal, Alabama.

In 1901 his poetry appeared in an exhibit at the Pan American Exposition, and a subsequent review in the New York Times compared his work to that of the renowned poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Throughout the remainder of his life, McClellan continued to fight for racial justice, dignity, and equality for Black people. He died in 1934 at the age of 73. 

TO READ A COMPREHENSIVE BIO AND SAMPLE HIS POETRY GOOGLE-SEARCH HIS NAME. NOTE: To avoid confusion with someone of the same, name please Google-search George M. McClellan, poet