Black Poetry Day

[MiharuAya]

Black Poetry Day is celebrated annually in order to honor and appreciate the talented African American poets, both past and present. It is a day to celebrate black history, recognize the contributions of black poets to literature, and celebrate the black experience as retold in poetry.

History:
In 1970, a folk musician named Stanley A. Ransom, proposed that October 17 be set aside as a day to celebrate black culture and literature. However, it wasn't made official until 1985. It was created to honor the birth of the man popularly referred to as the father of African American literature, Jupiter Hammon, and call to the literary works and achievements of African-American writers. attention

Hammon was born during the time of slavery on October 17, 1711, at the Lloyd Manor on Long Island. The Lloyds allowed him to receive some education through the Anglican Church, and Hammon to advantage of this to create beautiful poetry layered with metaphors and symbolism. In 1761, Hammon became the first published black poet in the United States of America when he published his first poem called "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries." Then, eighteen years later, Hammon got a second poem published, "An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley." Wheatley was the first published black female author. Who he admired and encouraged with his poem.

Hammon acknowledged the need to support and encourage other black writers like himself, especially when black writers rarely received support similar to their white counterparts. Now, there are hundreds of thousands of talented black poets around the world writing about both the shared black experience and their own unique experiences through different forms including written poetry, rap, and spoken-word poetry.

Task:
In the comments below, please post about your favorite African American poet or post your favorite poem by an African American author.

Links

Black Poetry Day — October 17.

 

[marcy]

Tell them my people are a garden

Rising out of the rancid rituals of ruin

Tell them tell them in the dry season

Leaves will dry and fall to fertilize the land

Whose new flowers black green and gold

Are a worker's song of fidelity

To the land that mothered you

"New Age" by Keorapetse Kgositsile, also known as Bra Willie; a famous South African poet and father to Thebe, aka Earl Sweatshirt. =p