#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

[thegoodpoetry]

"Bars Fight"

by Lucy Terry(1733 – 1821) August ’twas the twenty-fifth,Seventeen hundred forty-six;The Indians did in ambush lay,Some very valiant men to slay,The names of whom I’ll not leave out.Samuel Allen like a hero fout,And though he was so brave and bold,His face no more shalt we beholdEteazer Hawks was killed outright,Before he had time to fight, –Before he did the Indians see,Was shot and killed…

[yourdailyqueer]

Alice Dunbar Nelson (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 19 July 1875

RIP: 18 September 1935

Ethnicity: African American

Occupation: Poet, journalist, activist

[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🖋️

🇺🇸👩🏽‍🦱📖

[shanaspeare]

The World is Yours

"Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage." Killmonger, Black Panther

Originally posted on TikTok: @/vitxate

[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.

[bbeeew]

howdy gamers

Small delema

I'm writing a book called "where's my hair" and all the different ways people style it (specifically curly hair). One problem, I need background information on why people style their hairs and how they do it

And I want specifics. Tell me about how you shave your head until it's only an inch tall and you braid it into 5 foot strands to stand up for yourself for being told it was weird and wrong

Tell me about how you have hair so thick that the only way to maintain it is when it's impossibly short

Tell me about girlies with 4c hair that grow it out so that they can die it any color of the rainbow because they love the colors

Tell me about the pale girls with hair that just barely curls so people say they don't have curly hair.

But most importantly

Tell me your stories and reblog this so I can hear from everyone

[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.