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- Maya Angelou. Acclaimed American poet, author and activist Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Often referred to as a spokesman for African Americans and women through her many works, her gift of words connected all people who were “committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.”
- James Baldwin. Though he spent most of his life living abroad to escape the racial prejudice in the United States, James Baldwin is the quintessential American writer.
- Amiri Baraka. Born in 1934, poet, writer and political activist Amiri Baraka used his writing as a weapon against racism and became one of the most widely published African American writers.
- Octavia Butler. In a genre known for being traditionally white and male, Octavia Butler broke new ground in science fiction as an African American woman.
Below, we introduce just ten of the very best poems by African-American poets, covering over 250 years. Which important poet or poets have we missed off? For a good anthology of African-American poetry, we recommend African American Poetry: A Library of America Anthology (The Library of America).
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- Angelou, Maya. Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning African American poet. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 8 1928 and died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on May 28, 2014.
- Hughes, Langston. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and newspaper columnist.
- Shakur, Tupac. Tupac Shakur, born in New York City, New York on June 16, 1971, was an American rapper. Shakur sold over 75 million albums worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world.
- Walker, Alice. Alice Walker is an American poet, activist, author and feminist. She is one of the most celebrated in modern history.
- Tyehimba Jess on "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. "We Real Cool" is the poem so many of us know from grade school: the Seven (that sacred number of the seeker, the thinker, the mysterious) at the Golden Shovel (the shovel be golden but be ready to dig your grave).
- Safiya Sinclair on "won't you celebrate with me" by Lucille Clifton. What a balm and a blessing this poem has been to me. I have carried this sonnet—both an ode to the self and also an act of resistance—inside me like gospel, like armor.
- Rickey Laurentiis on "Heartbeats" by Melvin Dixon. “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off,” said Dickinson, “I know that is poetry.”
- Rowan Ricardo Phillips on "American History" by Michael S. Harper. Michael S. Harper’s “American History” is one of the great poems of our or any other language.
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- Langston Hughes
- Audre Lorde
- Rita Dove
- The Dark Room Collective
- Lucille Clifton
- June Jordan
- Cave Canem
- Derek Walcott
- Claudia Rankine
Brooks, who was the poet laureate of Illinois, became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her second collection, Annie Allen. Her keen insight and musical language make her writing required reading for students of poetry today. “We Real Cool” is a good place to begin.
“What happens to a dream deferred?” asked Hughesin one of his best-known lines. His name became synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance, and his work has inspired subsequent generations of black poets.
The unapologetic Lordeis equally known for her poetry and essays. In every medium, she transcended form and used words to dismantle systems of oppression.
A Pulitzer Prize winner and the country’s first black poet laureate, Dove deftly weaves together subject matter that is both personal and political. She continues to shape the conversation on modern poetryas an editor and professor.
This community of writers gave voice to the next generation of black American poets. It was founded nearly 30 years ago in Boston by Thomas Sayers Ellis, Sharan Strange and Janice Lowe, who were dedicated to nurturing and supporting black poetics. It grew to include Major Jackson, Carl Phillips, Tisa Bryant and Kevin Young, along with Pulitzer Priz...
Cliftonwon the National Book Award, was once the poet laureate of Maryland and earned two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work, legendary for its extremely modern minimalism, revolved around spirituality, womanhood and African-American identity.
As with Audre Lorde, Jordan’s political acts of speaking truth to power through creative expression were shaped in essays, poems and stories. Lorde, the founder of Poetry for the People, has continued to inspire students through her teaching since her death in 2002.
Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte are the founding visionaries behind this Brooklyn, N.Y.-based organization that showcases the brilliance of black poets. Together with founding faculty members Elizabeth Alexander, Afaa Michael Weaver, Michele Elliot, Terrance Hayes and Sarah Micklem, Cave Canemhosted its first retreat in 1996. During the past two ...
Walcott’s first poem, “1944,” consisting of 44 lines of free verse, was published when he was just 14 years old. For a lifetime of poetic expression, he received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992. The committee called his work “a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”
A razor-sharp intellect reinventing the lyric poem and the use of documentary style in poetry, Rankine often turns a close eye to the intricacies of macro- and microaggressions in the United States. Her latest book, Citizen: An American Lyric, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
- Hope Wabuke
By Langston Hughes. Introduction. Poet and writer Langston Hughes stood at the center of the Harlem renaissance, and advocated the preservation and communication of African American traditions across the genres of music, poetry, and theater. His own poetry often used the musical patterns of spirituals and the blues as received forms.
1 Langston Hughes. 2 Maya Angelou. 3 Paul Laurence Dunbar. 4 Audre Lorde. 5 Gwendolyn Brooks. 6 Nikki Giovanni. 7 Phillis Wheatley. 8 Lucille Clifton. 9 Robert Hayden. 10 James Weldon Johnson. 11 Claude McKay. 12 Rita Dove. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in February of 1901. Most of Hughes’ childhood was spent in Lawrence, Kansas.
