African American poets

throughout the book to understand the underlying meanings of poems as a whole. In line five, the speaker uses the sun in a negative way, “and the sun that heats it all to boiling” (5). The sun is usually used as a bright and happy symbol in poems. The poet uses the sun to symbolize an…

women is, “An African American female who has been exposed to many players, liars, manipulators and cheats that her original gentle loving, caring, nurturing , spirit has been diminished to a blackened heart, hard exterior and bitter disposition at times to the point of no recovery,” (urban dictionary 2017). This definition time and time again has diminished black women and their accomplishments to just being angry and bitter. This has also set forth a stereotype of African American Women and…

racism, African Americans found beauty in their heritage, creating a more cohesive community. In Langston Hughes's poem, "Mother to Son", the mother informs her son of the cruelty of life for the African American but stresses the importance for persistence when desiring change. Furthermore, Hughes's poem "I, Too" criticizes segregation and offers a more hopeful outlook on the future. In both poems,…

Die” by Claude McKay The Harlem Renaissance was a period of time during the 1920s and 30s in which African American had a significant cultural influence. Claude McKay was a poet and writer who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance movement. His poem, “If We Must Die”, was a sonnet written in response to what became known as the Red Summer of 1919 where many hate crimes and murders of African Americans took place. The poem addresses the injustice and struggle that people of his color face,…

Mid 1950s to late 1960s, African Americans struggled. African Americans wanted to be equal to whites including employment opportunities, education opportunities, and much more. This is known as the Civil Rights Movement. Maya Angelou heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak and was instantly intrigued (Maya Angelou Research ). After hearing him speak, Maya committed to promoting black civil rights. She was to examine racial oppression, progress and integration. Maya Angelou was ready to…

Exploring African-American Culture: The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance started in 1920, in Harlem, New York. The Harlem Renaissance created a big uproar of the African American Culture when they emigrated from the south to north. It expressed the African American culture and brought it alive. The Harlem Renaissance unified other races, making African American culture, a trend. The Harlem Renaissance contributed to the growth of the emerging African American culture in the post slavery…

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, an american poet, editor, writer, and activist. Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 07, 1943 to Yolande Cornelia, Sr. and Jones “Gus” Giovanni. Giovanni shared an unique relationship with her forthright, maternal grandmother, who nurtured her of their African-American heritage. This abundant disclosure of her personal heritage resulted in further appreciation, and inspiration to take on her career as a poet. When Giovanni was still a young girl…

The Great Migration was the movement of approximately 6 million African Americans out of the South to the North that occurred between 1910 and 1970. Jacob Lawrence created The Migration of the Negro in 1940-1941 to represent the relocation of African Americans from the South to the North. In his sixty panels, he was able to depict the social struggles in both the North and South and the people’s dreams and frustrations of one day obtaining better education and economic equality in the North.…

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement in the 1920s focusing on African-American literature, music, and art. Langston Hughes was an American author, poet and playwright and is known as one of the main literary contributors to the Harlem Renaissance. His main focus in writing was African American culture and he was among the first writers to “use jazz music and dialect to depict the life of urban blacks in his work” (A&E Network). Langston Hughes was born as James Mercer Langston Hughes…

favorite poets and writers Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. better known as Nikki Giovanni. Nikki Giovanni is renowned as one of the pioneers of the Black Art’s movement of the late 1960’s. Although some may have viewed her work as controversial, she is one of the most influential poets of the Black Movement era. She is famously known for “her unabashed advocacy of murderous militancy as a proper black response to white oppression.”(pg.2096) Her writings express her love of the African American…