American poets

“And we shall organize them, we shall drill them, we shall marshal them for the victory! We shall bear down the opposition, we shall sweep if before us—and Chicago will be ours! Chicago will be ours! CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!” Persuading people to accept socialism was Upton Sinclair’s purpose when he wrote The Jungle, a third person narrative story written about a fictional family in the oh-so very realistic world of Chicago. “I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”…

American playwright August Wilson was born on April 27, 1945 in the poor neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was raised in a small apartment with his mother and five siblings. His mother was an African American cleaning woman, and his father was a German immigrant (“August Wilson Biography”) who became a baker. His father left shortly after Wilson’s birth. His mother remarried, and the family moved to the predominantly white Hazelwood area. At his new high school, Wilson faced bigotry…

contemporary African American Literature. Angelou is well known for "I know why the Caged Bird Sings", one of her volumes of poetry published in 1970. Her poetry highlights her triumph over social obstacles and finding her identity. Angelou was not always a poet. She was a singer, performer, and civil rights activist. "Angelou's poems are a continuum of mood and emotion. They go from the excitement of love to outrage over racial injustice, from the pride of blackness and African American…

American poet and Pulitzer Prize Winner, Gwendolyn Brooks, National Book Award Winner, Ai Ogawa, and Emmy Award Winning Poet, Kwame Dawes are all essential components of the time of which they wrote. Writer Gwendolyn Brooks is a unique poet who is publishing poems that withstands the Civil Rights Movement. The poem “We Real Cool”, written by Gwendolyn, talks about seven young pool players whom left school to live the fast life and die young trying. Ai Ogawa develops poems with substantial…

that he imagined an America in which black and white men would eat at the same table and be viewed as equal Americans. The setting of the poem is "all over the place America" that trusted that black men were not Americans or equal to the white men as human creatures. The narration is first individual with the poet as the narrator. Hughes was viewed as the first of the Harlem Renaissance poets. When he composed or talked, the black man listened in light of the fact that what Hughes said was…

Poet laureate Tracy K. Smith develops the themes of hatred, discrimination, and injustice through her collection of poetry, “Life on Mars,” and more specifically through her poem, “They May Love All That He Has Chosen and Hate All That He Has Rejected.” In this poem specifically, Smith “addresses issues in popular culture and current events, drawing attention to the helplessness she feels toward violence in the world” (Malone). The author enlightens her readers about social injustice and…

Social activist, Marcus Garvey in his essay, “The Future as I See It,” explains how it is essential for the African American race to overcome their struggles to advance in society. He develop his claim by encouraging the African American race. Garvey states, “We are organized for the absolute purpose of bettering our condition, industrially, commercially, socially, religiously, and politically. We are not organized to hate other men, but to lift ourselves, and to demand respect to all…

Marge Piercy Marge Piercy is an American poet and novelist. Born in the city of Detroit Michigan in 1936, Marge spent her first years of life with her family struggling through the depression. She went on to be the first of her family to attend college and even won a scholarship to the University of Michigan. She eventually earned a MA from Northwestern University. In the 1960’s she was actively involved in various political movements such as the Students for a Democratic Society also known as…

was an African American movement that consisted of inspiring black literature, drama, art, music, and more. Countee Cullen was a motivating author and poet, who helped influence the Harlem Renaissance movement. His works were used during this time to help empower African Americans and to help demand equality. He showed the true cruelty and pain that African Americans suffered, yet he did not speak negatively of the white ethnic group. Cullen embraced not only the African American culture, but he…

be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose. (Hughes (1926))” As one of the most persistent figures, poets, during the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes’ work reached a wide range of viewers. He wanted to “express contemporary Harlem by borrowing from the ‘current of Afro-American popular music . . . jazz, ragtime, swing, blues, boogie-woogie, and be-bop.’ (Kelly 170)” In poems such as – Bad Luck Card, Could Be, Down and Out, Late Last…