In one of my courses this semester, we focused on African American literary art, including the following 29 poems by and about black women. The class was comprised of first-year black women college students. I noticed that they were especially drawn to the poems by Maya Angelou, Kelly Norman Ellis, Nikki Giovanni, Allison Joseph, Jessica Care Moore, and Evie Shockley. Some of their interest was prompted by how we read the poems out loud in class.
Maya Angelou – "Still I Rise," "Phenomenal Woman"
Gwendolyn Brooks – "kitchenette building," "a song in the front yard"
Lucille Clifton – "slaveship"
Jayne Cortez – "I am New York City"
Kelly Norman Ellis – "Raised by Women"
Mari Evans – "I am a Black Woman"
Nikki Giovanni – "Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)"
Frances E. W. Harper – "Bury me in a Free Land"
Essex Hemphill – "Soft Targets"
Langston Hughes – "Down and Out," "Mother to Son"
Tyehimba Jess – "When I Speak of Blues Be Clear"
Georgia Douglas Johnson – "The Heart of a Woman"
Helene Johnson – "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem"
Allison Joseph – "Thirty Lines about the Fro," "Sonnet for a Good Mood"
jessica Care moore – "The Black Statue of Liberty"
Tracie Morris – "Project Princess"
Sonia Sanchez – "Summer Words of a Sustuh Addict," "a/needed/poem for my salvation"
Evie Shockley – "“improper(ty) behavior"
Patricia Smith – "Hip-Hop Ghazal"
Margaret Walker – "“My Truth and My Flame," "For My People," "Kissie Lee," "Molly Means"
Phillis Wheatley – "On Being Brought From Africa to America"
Related:
• 100 Poems read & re-read in 2012
• 100-plus Poems I Read & Re-Read (online) in 2011
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