Poetry is powerful. It gives a voice to those who feels voiceless. Among the many genre and branches of literature, poetry is one of the most complex genre. It is not just about scribbling your thoughts on a clean sheet of paper, but it is about expressing your heart out using the least number of words possible. There are different types of poetry — which means the level of intricacy also vary depending on the kind of poetry one desires to create, such as narrative, epic, haiku, free verse, blank verse, rhymed, sonnet, and more.
There are people who opt to write poetry because there is just so much you can do and express in the smallest amount of words. Also, criticisms and discrimination is less in poetry. In fact, there are a lot of poets which belong to different races that found poetry — and literature, as their safe haven. One of the best races that has been reigning in literature is the African-American race. There are several novels and poetry books written by remarkable African-American authors and poets. Thus, listed below are the notable African-American poets that have given pride and appreciation to literature:
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri as Marguerite Annie Johnson. She was an outstanding poet, writer, and civil rights activist. Having experienced terrible things growing up, Angelou turned these ugly experiences into beautiful pieces of literature. Earlier in her life Maya Angelou already suffered horrible matters, such as witnessing their parents’ marriage come to an end, living in different households, being raped and sexually abused by her mother’s lover, and feeling the guilt for the death of her abuser for how many years. Her career as an author and poet was not until her experience of being a nightclub dancer, performer, fry cook, and sex worker. Some of her notable works of poetry includes Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, A Brave Startling Truth, and more.
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes, also known as Langston Hughes, is a remarkable figure in literature. Hughes is a poet who delve into another face of poetry, which is jazz poetry. He is also an activist, columnist, author, and playwright. Langston was born on February 01, 1901 in Joplin, Missouri and was raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. Amidst the heat of racial discrimination, his grandmother has implanted a strong sense of racial dignity. For that reason, Hughes has given glory and pride to people of his race through his wonderful works — examples are Dreams, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, Life is Fine, Night Funeral in Harlem, etc. He also had put some hints of his true sexuality in his poems, based on the beliefs of numerous biographers that the poet was homosexual.
Gwendolyn B. Bennett
Gwendolyn Bennett Bennett is the daughter of Joshua Robbin Bennett and Mayme F. Bennett. She was born in Giddings Texas on the 8th of July in 1902. She is one of the most notable African-American poet, journalist, artist, and writer during the Harlem Renaissance period. Bennett also became a strong and good influencer that fights for the rights of African-American women on the said era. Moreover, she has written a wide array of poems, nonfiction, and short stories — Nocturne, Heritage, The Ebony Flute, Poets Evening, Wedding Day, and more, that was published in different publications and anthologies in her era.
Raymond Quattlebaum
Raymond Quattlebaum is one of the many promising poets in the contemporary period of literature. He is an African-American poet that is currently residing in upper Westside of Manhattan, New York City. The strong passion for writing is the reason for the creation of Quattlebaum’s poetry book titled The Color of Love. Aside from poetry, he also loves going to the gym to workout, listening to music, as well as partying in clubs. He opted to write about love because for him, love is one of the reasons why the world constantly turns around. What inspired Raymond Quattlebaum to pursue poetry is because of the Earth Wind & Fire singing group.
R.H. Sin
Reuben Holmes, also known as r.h. Sin, is a popular poet of the contemporary period. He is born on March 22, 1989 in New Brunswick, New Jersey and presently lives in New York. “r.h.” in Holme’s pen name is the initials of his name while the “Sin” is a reference for the Mesopotamian moon god because he likes writing during the peak hours of the night. He has been into so much pain growing up. In 2014, Sin began writing brief poems of satire and posted them on social media, like Twitter. The character limit that Twitter offers has taught Sin to make the most of the least, thus harnessed his poetry skills. Whiskey Words & a Shovel, Rest in the Morning, Planting Gardens in Graves, and Algedonic are amongst his prominent works.
Alex Writes 