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He published a book of poetry so acclaimed that critics compared him to Keats, and he was only twenty two years old when it came out.
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He published a book of poetry so acclaimed that critics compared him to Keats, and he was only twenty two years old when it came out.
Countee Cullen became one of the most celebrated poets of the Harlem Renaissance almost immediately after graduating from New York University, publishing his first collection, Color, in 1925 to widespread critical acclaim that established him, alongside Langston Hughes, as one of the movement's defining literary voices while he was still barely into his twenties. Cullen deliberately wrote within classical, traditional poetic forms, sonnets and formal verse in the tradition of Keats and other Romantic poets, a choice that put him in quiet tension with contemporaries who felt Black poetry should break from European forms entirely, but Cullen argued that mastering those traditional forms while writing unmistakably about Black experience and identity was its own form of defiance. His poem Heritage, which opens by asking what Africa means to him, became one of the most widely studied poems of the entire Harlem Renaissance, wrestling openly with questions of identity and inheritance that many of his contemporaries were only beginning to articulate. Cullen went on to teach, write, and mentor younger writers for the rest of his career, and his early, meteoric rise remains one of the fastest ascents to literary prominence in the movement's history.
He wrote inside the oldest, most traditional poetic forms in the English language and used them to ask questions no one had used them to ask before.
What's a piece of art you think gets more powerful, not less, specifically because of the traditional form the artist chose to work within?
#CounteeCullen #HiddenBlackHistory #HarlemRenaissance #BlackPoetry #ForgottenVoices
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THE iNTENTIONS OF tHUNDER
“Smith has been inspired to write poetry by the soulful sound of Motown music, by the tragic death of her own father, and the traditions of a heritage from which at first she found herself separated.”
In our featured review, Beth Brown Preston assesses The Intentions of Thunder.
The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems by Patricia Smith
Poet, scholar, educator, and community builder Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of the award-winning “Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde” and “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals,” is back at the Baltimore Book Festival next weekend to talk about her brand new book exploring sisterhood, creativity, and community “Primary: After and With Alma Thomas,” in conversation with Joël Diaz of The Clifton House!
Saturday September 19th
3:00 pm
on the 32nd Street Stage outside of Red Emma's
Compose Write to B Anthony Marable
