Therese Neis - Extraordinary African-American Poets

Poetry Rocks!

For over two centuries, African-American poets have written about their struggles to find a place in society. Their poems explore many basic questions such as: Who am I? Do I fit in? Extraordinary African-American Poets profiles eight of the greatestfrom Phillis Wheatley, a Revolutionary War-era slave, to Jay Wright and Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Extraordinary African-American Poets is a very useful introduction to some of the key contributors to American literature.

About the Author

Author Therese Neis is a professional resume writer, and is working on her first novel. This is her first book for Enslow Publishers, Inc.

Writing poetry can be lonely work. Poets often sit by themselves in quiet rooms with only pens and paper for company. They struggle to find just the right words to express their most private thoughts. But the poems they write take on much broader meanings when other people read them.

For more than two centuries, African-American poets have written about their struggles to find an equal place in society. They have written of their pride and of their frustration with a society that often rejects them. Their poems explore many basic questions: Who am I: African, American, or both? How can I fit in? Do I want to? Do I want society to know my true feelings? Why and how do I matter? How can I help make the world a better place for all?

According to Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walden, editors of The Vintage Book of African-American Poetry, This quest for identity and a belonging that will not compromise itself is the theme, if there can be said to be one theme that runs throughout the history of African-American poetry.

The first two African Americans to publish books of poetry were slaves.

Phillis Wheatley lived in Boston during the Revolutionary War period. Her owners were kind. They taught her to read. They raised her alongside their own daughters. Many open-minded readers in New England enjoyed her poems.

George Moses Horton, on the other hand, lived in North Carolina during the Civil War era. He taught himself to read. He wrote love poems for students at Chapel Hill. His owner let him keep the money he made selling these poems. Horton tried, unsuccessfully, to buy his freedom by selling copies of his first book of poems, The Hope of Liberty. He remained a slave until 1865. Following the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery, Horton was helped by General Will H. S. Banks of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, who persuaded the William B. Smith Publishing Company of Raleigh to print a second book of Hortons poetry.

Hundreds of African captives were loaded onto each slave ship and forced to sit or lie side by side with no room to move and little space to breathe.

Both poets lived at a time when most African Americans were legally prohibited from learning to read. The few northern slaves who could read usually werent allowed to spend their time writing poetry. Many white readers didnt believe that African Americans were smart enough to write literature. Phillis Wheatley and George Moses Horton had to prove to these doubters that African Americans were intelligent and could create true works of art.

After the Civil War, African Americans were no longer enslaved. But they did not have as much freedom as whites. Many learned to read and write, but they still faced huge problems. Their hopes for full freedom were crushed by Jim Crow laws. Two famous poets active at the turn of the nineteenth century were Paul Laurence Dunbar and James Weldon Johnson. Both wrote of their struggles to find a place in the world. But they also wrote about the dashed hopes of former slaves.

A major turning point for African-American poets came during the period called the Harlem Renaissance. This artistic movement took place between the 1920s and 1930s. It was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City (with offshoots in Chicago and Washington, D.C.). Members of this movement created enduring masterworks of African-American art, literature, and music. Poets from this era were proud of their African heritage. This pride inspired them to write very personally. It also moved them to demand justice for all people. During this period, white publishers began to print volumes of African-American literature.

Langston Hughes was the best-known poet of this generation. He made the world aware of the joys and disappointments of African-American life.

Gwendolyn Brooks started writing after the Harlem Renaissance, but was influenced by its ideas. She told the stories of poor African Americans in her elegant poems. In 1950, she became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Life has changed dramatically for African Americans since World War II. They finally began to win true freedom during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. But they continue to face racism and prejudice in their daily lives.

Many African-American poets have become famous during the past fifty years. Yet they take such different approaches to writing that it is hard to put them into any single category. Some write about finding acceptance. Others write about the conflicts they still face. Poets such as Jay Wright continue to write in traditional American styles. Others, such as Amiri Baraka, are radical. Baraka sought to link his poetry to jazz forms, while making the civil rights movement the subject of much of his poetry. He is the founder of the black arts movement.

Today, African-American writers have earned a new acceptance. In 1993, three women of color received top writing awards. Rita Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United States. More recently, Elizabeth Alexander was the official poet celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

Captive Africans were chained together and marched to the coast to be sent in slave ships to America.

Meanwhile, African-American language, including its slang, has become a component of speech for the larger community. Popular songwriters brought the language of the street to all types of American homes. Popular poets have followed suit. Nikki Giovanni uses inner-city phrases and realistic images to create poems that reflect African-American life. By doing so, she has brought poetry to the people.

African-American poetry has come a long way. Once, leading intellectuals debated whether the Negro was even capable of creating meaningful works of art. Now, African-American poetry has become an important part of our national culture.

Poetry often looks hard to read at first glance. The line breaks, stanzas, and odd phrases can seem confusing. The best way to understand poetry is to hear it read out loud. Try doing this yourself, or ask someone else to read a poem aloud to you.

Do not automatically stop at the line endings or stanza breaks. Often a phrase will be spread out over two lines, or two stanzas. Instead, follow the punctuation marks, even if that means stopping in the middle of one line and making no stop at the end of another.

If you are reading a modern free-verse poem with little punctuation, look at the capital letters. Sometimes a writer will start a new idea with a capital letter, even if there is no period before it.