James Weldon Johnson achieved many high marks in his life, including becoming chosen as the first Black Executive Secretary of the NAACP. The co-author of the “Negro National Anthem” was born June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida. Their musician mother exposed Johnson, and his brother, composer John Rosamond Johnson, to music and literature at an […]
Nikki Giovanni is without a doubt one of the most celebrated poets of the last 50 years, earning countless awards and accolades for her work. The Knoxville, Tenn. native was born on June 7, 1943. Giovanni was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Junior, but Nikki stuck after her sister reportedly began calling her the nickname at […]
Friday morning, a video of the late, great, and ever-so-eloquent Dr. Maya Angelou surfaced where she corrects a young woman who her calls her “Maya.” And for some reason, the internet has become divided over it. https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1106623698956505088 In the clip, the young woman tells the moderator she has a question for “Maya” regarding interracial relationships. […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Playwright, poet and author Ntozake Shange, whose most acclaimed theater piece is the 1975 Tony Award-nominated play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” died Saturday, according to her daughter. She was 70. Shange’s “For Colored Girls” describes the racism, sexism, violence and rape experienced by seven […]
On Saturday, the Obie winner died in her sleep in her Maryland home.
Ntozake Shange exploded onto the creative scene with her debut poem “for colored girls who considered suicide/when the rain is enuf,” and became a Black feminist icon in the process. Today is the award-winning playwright and poet’s 70th birthday. Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in Trenton, New Jersey in 1948, moving to St. Louis […]
Frank Yerby became one of the leading novelists of the 20th Century after releasing a series of novels between the ’40’s and early ’70’s. Today is the pioneering author’s birthday. Frank Garvin Yerby was born in 1916 in Augusta, Ga. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Paine College and a master’s degree from Fisk University. […]
Newark Public Library The name Hughes Allison isn’t widely known but at a time, he was one of the most promising Black writers of his era. Allison’s most notable milestone as a writer is that he crafted the first Black detective story, which was part of his larger aim to shatter Black stereotypes in mainstream […]
“I love a good cry” – Poet Nikki Giovanni Twelve years ago, I sat in a classroom at Virginia Tech and watched poet and educator Nikki Giovanni inspire a group of black male students, all college football players who had dreams of ascending to the NFL. Giovanni was teaching the young men humility, patience, how […]
William Wells Brown was a former slave who went on to become, by most accounts, the first African-American novelist to publish a novel and the first African-American playwright to publish a play. This came after a dramatic escape from slavery and the assistance of a good Samaritan. Brown was born into slavery around 1814. At […]
Jupiter Hammon was the first Black poet and writer in the United States, with his first work published at the age of 50 in 1761. Hammon was born on this day in 1711, and was enslaved for his entire life. Hammon was born to his enslaved parents in Long Island, New York, living under the […]
NEW YORK (AP) — On publication day for his new book, Ta-Nehisi Coates had personal and political thoughts to share. The award-winning author and journalist spoke before hundreds of people gathered Tuesday night at the New School in Manhattan, discussing his rise from obscurity to fame over the past few years and the country’s transition […]
