African American Poetry

Derek Walcott in 1992, the year he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Derek Walcott receives the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1992

“
Half my friends are dead.
I will make you new ones, said earth.
No, give me them back, as they were, instead,
with faults and all, I cried.
‍
“Sea Canes”
Derek Walcott, 1976

“
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow,
I will give you no hiding place down here.

“On the Pulse of Morning”
Maya Angelou, 1993

1993

President Bill Clinton congratulates Maya Angelou after presenting her with the National Medal of Arts in Washington, DC, on December 20, 2000.

Maya Angelou reads her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

Toni Morrison, 1992.

Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“
I bit sweet power to the core [...]
The taste! The taste undid my eyes
And led me far from the gardens planted for a child
To wildernesses deeper than any master's call.

“Eve Remembering”
Toni Morrison, 2002

“
'Good' hair has no body
in this country; like trained ivy;
it hangs and shines. Mine comes out
in clusters.

“Protection”
Rita Dove, October 1992

Rita Dove at the Venice Literary Festival in Venice, Italy, on April 3, 2014.

Rita Dove is named Poet Laureate of the United States.

Yusef Komunyakaa, 1998.

Yusef Komunyakaa receives the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

1994

“
They have women's names,
With mouths like where
Babies come from.

“Venus's-flytraps”
Yusef Komunyakaa, 2001

“
Susan Smith has invented me because
Nobody else in town will do what
She needs me to do.

“My Heart” (from Brutal Imagination)
‍Cornelius Eady, 2001

1996

Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady at the 67th National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City on November 16, 2016.

Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady found the Cave Canem Foundation, an organization dedicated to the promotion of African American literature.

Lucille Clifton wins the National Book Award for Poetry for Blessing the Boats, a collection that includes her poem “jasper texas 1998”—a response to the brutal, racially-motivated murder of a Black man there.

2000

“
why and why and why
should i call a white man brother?
who is the human in this place,
the thing that is dragged or the dragger?

“jasper texas 1998 (for j. byrd)” Lucille Clifton, 2000

“
I carried my life, like a stone,
in a ragged pocket, but I
had a true weaving song, a sly
way with rhythm, a healing tone.

“The Healing Improvisation of Hair”
Jay Wright, 2000

Jay Wright becomes the first Black writer to receive the Bollingen Prize in Poetry.

Natasha Trethewey in Washington, DC, in 2014, when she was the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress.

Natasha Trethewey wins the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poems Native Guard.

2007

“
I wander now among names of the dead:
My mother's name, stone pillow for my head.

“Graveyard Blues”
Natasha Trethewey, 2006

“
All of the books in my head
have made me cynical and distant, but there’s a choir
in him that calls me forward my disbelief built as it is
from the bricks of his belief not in any America
you might see on network news or hear heralded
before a football game but in the quiet
power of Sam Cooke singing that he was born
by a river that remains unnamed that he runs
alongside to this day, some vast and future country [. . .]

“America Will Be”
Joshua Bennett, 2018

2008

The official portrait of President-elect Barack Obama in January 2009.

Barack Obama is elected as the first Black president of the United States.

PrAisesONgs for tHe DaY

1990 - 2008