Resources to honor & celebrate Black American Poets & Authors
Provided by Black Education Matters
12 Poems to Read for Black History Month
by Poets.org
The Artists Dismantling the Barriers Between Rap & Poetry
Today, a new generation of artists, both rappers and poets, are consciously forging closer kinship between the genres. They draw from a common toolbox of language, use the same social media platforms to reach their audiences and respond to the same economic and political provocations to create public art. In doing so, rappers and the poets who claim affinity with them are resuscitating a body of literary practices mostly neglected in poetry during the 20th century. These ghost appendages of form — repetition, patterned rhythm and, above all, rhyme — thrive in song, especially in rap.
All text from “The Artists Dismantling the Barriers Between Rap and Poetry” article that was in print on March 7, 2021, Page 53 of T Magazine.
To create these letterpress posters, the Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott chose lines & lyrics from contemporary poets and rappers featured in the accompanying essay. Here, Scott’s “slave grammar Sampled” (2021), inspired by Nate Marshall’s poem “slave grammar” (2020)
Artwork by Dread Scott
Scott’s “FEAR. Sampled,” (2021), inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s song “FEAR.” (2017).
Artwork by Dread Scott.
Gucci Mane at his home in Atlanta in 2016
The beauty of rap, like that of poetry, is in its invitation to expression. Rap’s proximity to speech has always been its most democratizing element. Along with the fact that making it didn’t require access to expensive instruments or conservatory training, it meant that rap could travel to places that other music could never reach — a favela in Brazil, an encampment in the West Bank, a rec room in the South Bronx and beyond.
Rapsody performing in 2019 at the Shed in NYC
For example, can hear Rapsody’s precision on her most recent release, 2019’s “Eve,” a concept album where each song is named after and thematically inspired by an influential Black woman. On one of the standout tracks, “Serena,” Rapsody unleashes a run of syllables that challenges your mind even as you bob your head.
“That’s Shakur life, Giovanni wrote it. Nikki, that’s a real poet Black life, we still going. They mad, we still flowing. Black joy, euphoria. We wanna smile like Gloria.
The poet Reginald Dwayne Betts in 2019 in NYC
For both poets and rappers, sampling can become a political act. Betts, who is 40 and lives in New Haven, Conn., used sampling as the organizing principle of his collection “Bastards of the Reagan Era” (2015).
Taken together, rap and poetry provide the means to do exactly what the events of this past year have proven we need most: to amplify the voices of people who’ve gone unheard — and perhaps, one day, to bring us together under a common groove.
Poet Rappers.
Through music comes the power of storytelling, of giving space to those who seek universal liberties and demand a deeper understanding from those around them. Music is one of the most widely used devices in the toolbox of society, spanning across generations and cultures, with musical instruments that date back to 43,000 ago. Today, in the spirit of activism and social change, here are artists skilled in rap and spoken word poetry. Some are more recognizable than others.
List & listening clips provided by: Gehen Press
Black poetry generally refers to poems written by Black African Americans in the United States. In the US, early Black poets include Jupiter Hammon, Lucy Terry and Phillis Wheatley, who were primarily active in the 18th century. Paul Laurence Dunbar is perhaps the most famous black poet from the 19th century.
The Harlem Renaissance in the 20th century saw Black African Americans making great strides in poetry, among other things. Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were the leading Black poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
Since the movement, Black poetry has been on a rise and a number of black poets of the 20th century are among the best known poets in the world. Authors such as Nikki Giovanni, Maya A, are some of the most famous poets in the last couple of decades, but as our Black experience grows, so does the emergence of new authors, artists, and poets such as Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer. Here are 10 famous Black poets and their best known works, as well as some lesser known works & poets.
Claude McKay, born Festus Claudius McKay in Sunny Ville, Jamaica in 1889, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s
Born Fatimah Nyeema Warner, NONAME is a Chicagoan rapper and poet.
"A Talk to Teachers" Article. By James Baldwin. October 16, 1963. Baldwin addresses the challenges of education to prepare children to grapple with the myths and realities of U.S. history.
Resources to Honor the Life of Poet Maya Angelou
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Amanda Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice.