The history of Black poetry is a rich and complex tapestry that spans continents and centuries. In the United States, African American poetry has long played a crucial role in both shaping the cultural landscape and challenging inequities. Engaging with Black poets can prompt us to reflect on Black history and the Black experience in particular. While Black History Month reminds us of the importance of Black history, these great poets deserve to be read all year round.
From Langston Hughes to Gwendolyn Brooks, June Jordan to Maya Angelou, Black poets throughout American history have penned poems that inspire readers to reflect, resist, and understand. Poetry has often provided an important space for Black resistance. Even under the oppression of slavery, poetry gave voice to the African American experience.
Here are some famous African American poets whose work is accessible, beautiful, and highly regarded:
The Voices
Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
There isn’t a single person in the world who hasn’t heard of the iconic Maya Angelou. The Black poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist is an influential figure who helped shape the Golden State. Angelou’s poems are so epochal that they’re considered the anthems of African Americans. Her works explore several themes, including love, loss, music, discrimination, racism, and struggle.
Like her autobiographies, Angelou speaks on behalf of her entire race and gender in her poems. She kept this poem’s promise to “rise.” And by the time she passed away in 2014, Angelou was a multi-hyphenate powerhouse: author, playwright, activist, singer, songwriter, producer, director, civil rights activist, and of course, poet.
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Some of her most notable works include I Know the Caged Bird Sings (1969), And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems (1978), and The Heart of a Woman (1969).
One of her famous quotes is:
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman made everyone’s heads turn when she delivered “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021. Born in Los Angeles, Gorman enjoyed reading and writing as a child and was further encouraged by her mother to pursue her passion. Soon, she began writing poetry focused on issues of oppression, feminism, race, marginalization, and the African diaspora.
Some of her most notable works include Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem (2021) and Call Us What We Carry (2021). Her first poetry book, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, was published in 2015.
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One of her famous quotes is:
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid. The new dawn balloons as we free it. For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most well-known, and prolific African American poets born in the 20th century. She published so much work, much of it about the Black experience in America, there’s no doubt you will find something in her poetry that resonates and inspires.
She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Her work discusses inequality, racism, and drug use along with feminist topics revolving around motherhood, art, and the woman’s experience. After all, Gwendolyn Brooks published her first poem at 13 and kept going until her death 70 years later.
Some of her most notable works include the poem “We Real Cool” (1959), and the books Maude Martha (1953) and Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956).
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One of her famous quotes is:
Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, ‘Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night. ’You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Langston Hughes
Of course, I have to include Langston Hughes in this list. Hughes was a writer, with a capital W. He wrote novels, plays, newspaper articles and essays. But I think in his soul, he was a poet. He certainly was most known for his poetry, despite all of the other words he put out into the world.
One of the reasons Hughes’ poetry is so accessible, is because he was often writing about and for the everyman. Like Zora Neale Hurston, he was often criticized for writing about the common Black man, but he refused to change his style. Hughes’ poems aren’t overdone and the language is simple and precise.
One of my favorite Langston Hughes poems is, I, Too.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Audre Lorde was an activist whose words were (and still are) an instrument for justice. Born in 1934 to parents who immigrated from Grenada, Lorde grew up in Manhattan and showed interest in poetry from an early age. Her work reflected the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality where she lived her life. Following a breast cancer diagnosis, Lorde also spoke to the challenges of cancer treatment. Sadly, she died of cancer in 1992.
Some of her most notable works include The Black Unicorn: Poems (1995), Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982).
One of her famous quotes is:
For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears.
Tracy K. Smith
In my humble opinion, Tracy K. Smith was put on this earth to be a poet. Her work is mesmerizing and welcoming. She tells stories with her poems and she writes about the every day in ways that makes life seem both magical and mystical.
Some of her most notable works include Duende (2007), Life on Mars (2011), and Wade in the Water (2018). She teaches at Harvard University, where she is a professor of English and of African and African American Studies and the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Smith served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. Smith also won the Pulitzer Prize for Life on Mars and the James Laughlin Award and the Essense Literary Award for Duende.
One of her famous quotes is:
Once upon a time, a woman told this to her daughter: Save yourself. The girl didn’t think to ask for what? She looked into her mother’s face and answered Yes. Years later, alone in the room where she lives, The daughter listens to the life she’s been saved from: Evening patter. Summer laughter.
Other Notable African American Poets
- Al Young
- Alice Walker
- June Jordan
- Morgan Harper Nichols
- Shonda Buchanan
- Tongo Eisen-Martin
- Wanda Coleman
- Thea Matthews
Awards and Recognition
The numbers of awards, fellowships, and poets have increased over the decades. Or put another way, poets have far more opportunities to win (and lose) prizes during the early 21st century as opposed to the late 20th century.
Here are some notable African American poets and their awards:
| Poet | Awards |
|---|---|
| Natasha Trethewey | 12 |
| Lucille Clifton | 9 |
| Rita Dove | 8 |
| Tracy K. Smith | 8 |
| Elizabeth Alexander | 8 |
| Marilyn Nelson | 7 |
| Terrance Hayes | 6 |
Conclusion
The contributions of Black poets have irreversibly enriched the literary world. Whether they’re telling stories about loss, joy, grief, beauty, or racism, there’s no denying that.
I invite you to explore Black history and culture each day through the words of Black poets. For me, growing up Black meant memorizing and reciting the works of Black poets. These poems have shaped how I see God, myself, and others.
