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African American Poets & Poetry
The earliest African American poets were Jupiter Harmon, George Moses Horton, and Phillis Wheatley all slaves who usually wrote poetry with religious themes. Following the Civil War Paul Laurence Dunbar achieved fame with lyric and dialect poems for the most part. Both he and William Stanley Braithwaite avoided any mention of any racial injustice in their writing.
During the Harlem Renaissance James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen all won recognition as major poets.
Contemporary poets have included Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Jay Wright, and Maya Angelou. Dove won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her 1986 book Thomas and Beulah, and is currently the poet laureate of the U.S.
Learn more about a few popular contemporary poets from the Sankofa Literary Society family and a few artists you may not know but who are visionaries in the field of poetry.
Poems By SLS Poet Laureates
What is a Poet Laureate? A poet or spoken word artist who is unofficially regarded as holding an honorary position in a particular group or region. SLS seeks artists that produce poetry and the spoken word that is meant to enrich, enlighten, inspire and empower. SLS offers a forum to showcase the work of self-published authors, writers and spoken word artists from some of the world's newest and freshest voices. We seek original poems, short stories and essays in the following genres: inspirational, motivational, lyrics, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction titles. Readers post your original work here >>>
Meet Sankofa Literary Poet Laureates:
The Masters
Paul Laurence Dunbar
(1872-1906), African American poet, often remembered for his dialect poetry. Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote this poem, "The Poet," three years before his death in 1906 at the age of 34. Its words may express his own regrets about the direction of his literary career. Dunbar was the most famous African American poet, and one of the most famous American poets, of his time. His career brought him international fame and by any measure was a tremendous success. Although Dunbar felt his best work was his poetry in standard English, he was celebrated almost exclusively for his folk poetry about African Americans written in dialect—the "jingle in a broken tongue."
Eloise Bibb (1878-1928?), the daughter of Catherine Adele and Charles H. Bibb. Eloise Bibb was seventeen when she made her literary debut with Poems (1895), published by Monthly Review Press in Boston. This delicate collection includes "To the Sweet Bard of the Women's Club," a tribute to another native of New Orleans, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, whose Violets and Other Tales was published by the same publisher and in the same year as Bibb's Poems.Eloise Bibb never expected to live off her writing, but plotted a course to be a teacher. After attending Oberlin College's Preparatory Academy (1899-1901), she taught in the New Orleans public school system. In 1903, she left home again: this time for Washington, D.C., where she enrolled in Howard University's Teacher's College. Bibb graduated from Howard in the winter of 1908, and a few months later became head resident of the university's Colored Social Settlement House.
Rita Dove, an exceptional poet, story writer, and script writer, started seriously making her career as a writer in 1980 when she wrote her first book, The Yellow House on the Corner. She became very successful for many reasons. In her childhood days, Dove loved to read for countless hours on end. Her passion for reading, and for books in general, led her to want to write herself. Her parents encouraged her to read as much as she could, which helped her develop as a writer of both poems and stories.
Dove was raised in Akron, Ohio in an African American household consisting of herself, two younger sisters, an older brother and her mother and father. Her parents were very bright and encouraged her intellectually. They were always there for Dove to make sure that she got the best education possible. Her father was the first black research chemist who broke the race barrier in the tire industry. This gave her even more confidence because she figured since her father could reach for his goals, why couldn’t she? As she explains, “My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends, and isn't that great.”
Dove kept exploring her interest in writing as her life progressed. In 1970, she was accepted by the White House as a Presidential Scholar and was recognized as one of the hundred best high school students in the United States. She then attended Miami University in Ohio, and then went overseas to attend the Universitaet Tuebingen in West Germany on a Scholarship from 1974-1975. After graduating from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1977, she knew that she was not going to deny her dream of becoming a writer and poet.
When Dove was 34 she received the Pulitzer for Thomas and Beulah, a book about her grandparents, “a collection of poems that dealt with their lives: first his side and then her side of the story”. She remembers it as “the first moment that really stood out in terms of public excitement and recognition.” Dove’s second big surprise was when she became the youngest person at the age of 40, and first African American to be honored as U.S. Poet Laureate in 1993 and held the title until 1995. In these few years she was also appointed Poet Laureate in 1994, an award she thought was only given to much older poets. Dove went on to receive many more prestigious awards such as the National Humanities Award in 1996.
Her poems interest readers because they can read them and picture her life as a girl. We are able to imagine my own childhood and relate to her life. “When I was young, I ran the day to its knees./ There were trees to swing on, crickets for capture./ I can remember the trees I climbed and the noisy crickets out my window at night.” This is a perfect example of the reader’s connection to Dove's work. Dove deserves the many awards she has received. She has studied and worked hard to become such a talented poet and writer.
Wanda Phipps is a poet, journalist, dramaturgy, translator as well as a singer/songwriter. You can reach her at: phipps.wanda@gmail.com. She was born in Washington, D.C. and studied theater and English literature at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City, acting at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, CA and poetry at Naropa Institute in Boulder, CO.
Wanda Phipps is the author of Wake-Up Calls:66 Morning Poems (Soft Skull Press), the chapbooks Lunch Poems (Boog Literature), Your Last Illusion or Break Up Sonnets (Situations), After the Mishap (Faux Press e-chapbooks) and the CD-Rom Zither Mood (Faux Press); the co-author of Shanar: Dedication Ritual of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia (Parabola).
Wanda Phipps poems have been published over 100 times in journals such as Agni, Exquisite Corpse, The World, Hanging Loose, Sensitive Skin, Long Shot, and the webzines How2: Contemporary Innovative Writing by Women, POETIC VOICES, milkmag, Jack, $lavery: Cyberzine of the Arts, The East Village, Shampoo and Brooklyn Review Online.
She has performed her work live all over the U.S. as well as on PaperTiger, an Australian CD-ROM journal, the CDs State Of The Union (EMF) produced by Elliott Sharp, New Word Order, Compilation CD, Tomato/Rhino/WEA Records and the audio cassette journal We Magazine. Her work can currently be found in the anthologies Oblek: Writing From The New Coast, Unbearables (Autonomedia), Valentine, Verses That Hurt: Pleasure and Pain from the Poemfone Poets (St. Martin's Press), and The Portable Boog Reader (Boog Literature).
Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. After preparatory university studies in 1954 at Government College in Ibadan, he continued at the University of Leeds, where, later, in 1973, he took his doctorate. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, "The 1960 Masks" and in 1964, the "Orisun Theatre Company", in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.
During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. For this he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until 1969. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words.
As dramatist, Soyinka has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer, J.M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe-the Yoruba-with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongi's Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinka's serious philosophic plays are (apart from "The Swamp Dwellers") The Strong Breed (performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King's Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), he has rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in Opera Wonyosi (performed 1977, publ. 1981), bases himself on John Gay's Beggar's Opera and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka's latest dramatic works are A Play of Giants (1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985).
Soyinka has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a complicated work which has been compared to Joyce's and Faulkner's, in which six Nigerian intellectuals discuss and interpret their African experiences, and Season of Anomy (1973) which is based on the writer's thoughts during his imprisonment and confronts the Orpheus and Euridice myth with the mythology of the Yoruba. Purely autobiographical are The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972) and the account of his childhood, Aké ( 1981), in which the parents' warmth and interest in their son are prominent. Literary essays are collected in, among others, Myth, Literature and the African World (1975).
Soyinka's poems, which show a close connection to his plays, are collected in Idanre, and Other Poems (1967), Poems from Prison (1969), A Shuttle in the Crypt (1972) the long poem Ogun Abibiman (1976) and Mandela's Earth and Other Poems (1988).
New Poetry Book Released
POEMS IN THE KEY OF LIFE PRE-RELEASE
"don jackson" donj3@sbcglobal.net
PJ Rhae & Don Jackson, authors and owners of Senoj Publishing are proud to announce the pre-release of the much anticipated debut book "Poems in the key of Life". This collection of poems has something everyone can identify with. It's divided into four categories entitled: Motivation & Inspiration, Spiritual, Love & Relationships, and Life & Drama. Here is an excerpt for your review:
FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS
I've always had dreams of success
Only to go through many a test
It doesn't matter what people say
I'm going to follow my dreams anyway
I'm living with my purpose in mind
But my dreams are so hard to find
My purpose is deep down inside of me
'cause I know my dreams wouldn't dare lie to me
I must stay focused and organized
In order for my dreams to be realized
I'll work hard-and just won't quit
'cause I know my dreams are to damn legit
My dreams are constantly on my mind
Always searching-all the time
I don't care what people say
Dreams do come true everyday
If I believe-they will come here
Because they've always been near
Now that I've found the key
I can be anything that I dream to be
For more excerpts and pre-sales information please visit us on our website at www.senojpublishing .com . Please help to spread the word and email this to your friends. When you get to the site drop us a email and give us some feedback.
Call to all poets. If you would like to share your original works with our readers please join our Literary Group and submit your work. Submit your poetry for review to our Reader's Forum >>>>
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Poetry and Spoken Word Spotlight Submissions
If you would like us to consider your work for a spotlight on SLS, please send a one-page query letter addressed to the poetry editor with a brief work sample from your poetry submission. In this one-page query letter and work sample, please include:
-- a paragraph containing relevant biographical information of the author or artist;
-- a brief description of the submission; complete contact information;
-- a list of published works (books, magazines, anthologies, online sources) if applicable;
-- if it is a book or on a CD, please include cover art in jpeg form;
-- a sample from the submission ;
-- a list of all distributors; sites hosting your product; and/or your site
Email the Poetry Editor: sankofa_literary_society@yahoo.com
