#african american poet

[ausetkmt]

[100gayicons]

Thanks to @rstabbert for his post about Countee Cullen. Cullen was a poet who was a part of the African American cultural revival of the 1920s and 1930s called the Harlem Renaissance.

Cullen attended New York University and won an award for his book of poems "The Ballad of the Brown Girl". When he graduated from NYU in 1925, he was one of eleven students selected to Phi Beta Kappa.

He continued on to Harvard towards a Masters Degree and published “Color”, his book of poetry that “celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism.”

Although Cullen was married twice, like other men of his era, he had to hide his true feelings about men. His friend Alain Locke introduced Cullen to the works of British poet Edward Carpenter who was an early advocate for Gay Rights. (Carpenter had maintain a same sex relationship for nearly 40 years.)

Cullen wrote about the impact Carpenter’s work had on him:

“It opened up for me soul windows which had been closed; it threw a noble and evident light on what I had begun to believe, because of what the world believes, ignoble and unnatural"

Of course some historians deny Cullen was homosexual, as is usually the case of straight society trying to deny Gay men exist.

For more about Cullen, read Rstabbert’s post.

To read about Edward Carpenter, check my post about him here:

[zadry]

and if ever i touched a life i hope that life knows

that i know that touching was and still is and will always

be the true

revolution

- excerpt from When I Die by Nikki Giovanni

[yourdailyqueer]

Alice Dunbar Nelson (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 19 July 1875

RIP: 18 September 1935

Ethnicity: African American

Occupation: Poet, journalist, activist

[inmyperfectworld]

A painful past, a history we will never forget. This haiku from the 'Soulful Heritage' section of Soul Sessions reflects the resilience and struggles of our ancestors and family members—those who toiled in the fields, with their hands raw. We honor their strength, their endurance, and their legacy. May we never forget where we come from as we continue to move forward. ✊🏾

[uwmspeccoll]

Copper Sun

Last week we brought you Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen's (1903-1946) first major poem The Ballad of the Brown Girl. Today we present Cullen's second collected book of poetry, Copper Sun, published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1927, with illustrations by the same artist who illustrated Ballad, the unrelated Art Deco artist Charles Cullen (1887-?). Copper Sun is a collection of over fifty poems that explore race, religion, and sexuality in Jazz Age America, and particularly the possibility of unity between white and black people, as exemplified in the two Cullens, one black, the other white.

View more work by Countee Cullen.

View other books illustrated by Charles Cullen.

View other Black History Month posts.

[geminicorrects]

the other day

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Wanda Coleman

Wanda Coleman was born in 1946 in Los Angeles, California. Coleman wrote twenty books of poetry and prose. Her writing, regarded as prescient and innovative, focused on racism and on the marginalization that came with living in poverty in her home state of California. Coleman is considered a transformative figure in the literary landscape of LA. Her book Bathwater Wine won the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and her book Mercurochrome was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award for Poetry.

Wanda Coleman died in 2013 at the age of 67.

[leyllethecreator]

Writing Tip #2: Sometimes you've just gotta be like Nike

The best cure for writers' block I've found is to keep writing even when you have no inspiration. Push through the garbage, and you'll often find that ideas start coming to you, but if you insist you're uninspired, you will be. This is part of the reason why it's so great to write to prompts. Game-fying the struggle gets you out of your head a bit.

Go for a walk and tell yourself you have to pick one random thing to write about. Open the dictionary, select a word off the page you opened to and try to do something with that. As Isaac Asimov said, sometimes doing something mindless like watching a movie helps.

Basically the more stimuli you surround yourself with, the more likely you are to find inspiration. You can generate that stimuli yourself just by yeeting words onto a page - you 100% can inspire yourself.

And remember that nobody ever said you have to keep the draft. If it's garbage, it's not like you suddenly destroyed your story idea for good - it's been poisoned by one bad draft and is dying of failure-itis.

I'm creating new prompts every week you can check out every Saturday if you're looking for inspo. I also highly suggest watching a show you like or a new show, listening to music or "the dictionary method" if you're ever feeling stumped.

[blkgirlsreadfanfic2]

hello, gorgeous

for black girls, by black girls

stranger things

series

who you gon' call? (steve harrington x black!fem!oc)

headcanons

dating jonathan byers headcanons

[sporclechezchunklets]

American poet Nikki Giovanni (1943-Present). (Image Source)

[nickysfacts]

All racism has ever done is slow down the creation of beauty🖋️

🇺🇸👩🏽‍🦱📖

[riverofthought]

Art and Literature National Museum of African American History and Culture: Black women, navigating the intersections of race and gender in their daily lives, faced their own unique struggles for empowerment. Through art and literature, black women created new platforms to make their voices heard, express their identities, and affirm their shared experiences and commitment to liberation and justice. We have to create an art for liberation and for life. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀elizabeth catlett

A scoff releases from my lips as the chambers echo with the wallowing sound of silence. It comes as no surprise to me that no one is willing to bite back. Sink their teeth into the soft white underbelly of a truth so harsh it leaves behind a bitter after taste on their tongues. The subtle realization is enough to encourage the curt smirk currently twitching at the corners of my lips. I'd say it were a job well done, but there was still more hard work for me to endure beyond the constraints of these four walls. As much as I desired to encounter the consequences of whatever awaited me at the end of this rat race, its path would never be free of obstacles nonetheless. So I chose to bite the hand that fed me any chance I got. Ravage the remnants of sustenance that was now beginning to feel more like poison to the mind; brain rot. It was becoming clear, that to some degree, I would be alone in this fight. There was no amount of empathy or reasoning that could break this camel's back. Mutilate their lack thereof and transmute it into something more that heightened the worth of those less fortunate. Suddenly, I'm no longer under the microscope of my fellow counterparts’ scrutiny. I'm seated on the edge of my childhood bed, mattress sunken in beneath my body weight. My father's next to me, and I can hear his favorite sentiment ring throughout my eardrums clearly: be the change you wish to see in the world. I once highly favored this quote, but the older I got, the less impactful it felt. In the end, it made me ponder, but at what cost? When the world has already molded me into an image of someone incapable, unworthy of existing in that context?

[zadry]

W O M A N

by Nikki Giovanni

she wanted to be a blade

of grass amid the fields

but he wouldn't agree

to be a dandelion

she wanted to be a robin singing

through the leaves

but he refused to be

her tree

she spun herself into a web

and    looking for a place to rest

turned to him

but he stood straight

declining to be her corner

she tried to be a book

but he wouldn't read

she turned herself into a bulb

but he wouldn't let her grow

she decided to become

a woman

and though he still refused

to be a man

she decided it was all

right

(📷 Portrait Of Nikki Giovanni by Jack Robinson)

Nikki Giovanni was a prominent American poet, writer, educator, and activist known for her powerful voice on issues of race, social justice, and personal identity. Born on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Giovanni gained prominence in the 1960s during the Black Arts Movement, a cultural and artistic extension of the Civil Rights Movement. Her work often addresses themes of African American heritage, empowerment, love, and the complexities of human relationships.

Giovanni's poetry collections, such as Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People (1973), and Love Poems (1997), showcase her lyrical style and unapologetic exploration of black pride and resilience. Beyond poetry, she has written essays, children’s books, and spoken word recordings, earning her multiple accolades, including Grammy and NAACP Image Award nominations.

As a professor at Virginia Tech, Giovanni has inspired countless students with her passion for literature and advocacy for self-expression. Her candid and dynamic personality made her an influential figure in contemporary American literature and culture.

[yourdailyqueer]

Angelina Weld Grimké (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 27 February 1880  

RIP: 10 June 1958

Ethnicity: African American, white

Nationality: American

Occupation: Journalist, writer, teacher, playwright, poet

Note: First African-American women to have a play publicly performed.

[originalbydondria]

It is a weird this

This purgatory between grateful and lamenting

Waking up in the morning

Preparing and wondering why

Moving forward and wishing for stillness

Because decisions made were wrong

Decisions unmake-able are weights

And there is no body of water to fall in and end it

And the ankles in a cruel joke will not break

Nor does the persistence of days

Grateful in the glow

Lamenting under its rays

D. Ondria

01152025