From 250 Years to 250 Years of African American Poetry

When the full title of the anthology Kevin Young was editing was released, I immediately recalled another anthology. Young's African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (2020) reminded me of Jerry W. Ward Jr.'s Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African-American Poetry (1997). 

I've written about Young's anthology. I also wanted to compile a list of collections including or showcasing poems by Black poets, from Ward's 1997 collection to Young's 2020 collection. 

• 1997: Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African-American Poetry. Ed. Jerry W. Ward, Jr. 

• 1997: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay 

• 1997: Spirit & Flame: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. Ed. Keith Gilyard 

 • 1998: Catch the fire!!! : a cross-generational anthology of contemporary African-American poetry. Ed. Derrick I.M. Gilbert 

 • 1998: Call & Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition. Ed. Patricia Liggins Hill et al. 

 • 2000: The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Rochelle Smith and Sharon L. Jones 

• 2000: The Vintage Book of African American Poetry: 200 Years of Vision, Struggle, Power, Beauty and Triumph from 50 Outstanding Poets. Ed. Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton&nbsp

• 2000: Step into a World: A Global Anthology of New Black Literature. Ed. Kevin Powell 

• 2000: Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers. Ed. Kevin Young

• 2001: bum rush the page: A Def Poetry Jam. Eds. Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera 

• 2002: Making Callaloo: 25 Years of Black Literature. Ed. Charles H. Rowell

• 2002: Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century. Ed. E. Ethelbert Miller

• 2002: Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art. Eds. Samiya Bashir, Lansana, Quraysh Ali, and Tony Medina

• 2003: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Second Edition. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay 

• 2003: The Spoken Word Revolution (Slam, Hip Hop and the Poetry of a New Generation). Ed. Mark Eleveld

• 2003: Blues Poems: Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series. Ed. Kevin Young 

• 2004: African American Literature. Eds. Keith Gilyard and Anissa Wardi 

• 2004: Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present. Ed. Joanne V. Gabbin

• 2005: Dream of a Word: The Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology. Ed. Quraysh Lansana and Asante Lightfoot 

• 2005: Rainbow Darkness: An Anthology of African American Poetry. Ed. Keith Tuma 

• 2006: Jazz Poems: Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series. Ed. Kevin Young 

• 2006: Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade. Eds. Toi Derricotte, Camille T. Dungy, and Cornelius Eady

• 2006: Every Goodbye Ain't Gone: An Anthology of Innovative Poetry by African Americans. Eds. Lauri Ramey and Aldon Lynn Nielsen 

• 2006: Black Writing from Chicago: In the World, Not of It? Ed. Richard Guzman

• 2006: The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Ed. Arnold Rampersad 

• 2007: The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. Ed. Nikky Finney

• 2007: The Spoken Word Revolution Redux. Ed. Mark Eleveld

• 2009: Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Ed. Camille T. Dungy 

• 2010: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. Ed. Kevin Young 

• 2010: The Anthology of Rap. Eds. Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois 

• 2010: So Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival. Eds. Colin Channer and Kwame Dawes

• 2010: The 100 Best African American Poems (*but I Cheated). Ed. Nikki Giovanni 

• 2011: Home Is Where: An Anthology of African American Poetry from the Carolinas. Ed. Kwame Dawes 

• 2011: The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Ed. Rita Dove

• 2012: The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink. Ed. Kevin Young 

• 2013: Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. Ed. Charles Henry Rowell

• 2014: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Third Edition. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Valerie Smith 

• 2014: The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Gene Andrew Jarrett 

• 2014: Black Gold:  An Anthology. Ed. Ja A. Jahannes.  

• 2014: SOS—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader. Eds. John H. Bracey, Jr., Sonia Sanchez, and James Smethurst 

• 2015: What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America. Eds. Lauri Ramey and Aldon Lynn Nielsen 

• 2015: The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. Eds. Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Nate Marshall 

• 2016: Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin. Eds. Philip Cushway and Michael Warr

• 2016: Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch the Sky. Ed. Tony Medina

• 2017: Black Lives Have Always Mattered:  An Anthology of Essays, Poetry, and Stories.  Ed. Abiodun Oyewole, 

• 2017: One Window's Light: A Collection of Haiku. Ed. Lenard D. Moore

• 2018: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. Eds. by Jamila Woods , Mahogany L. Browne,, Idrissa Simmonds

• 2019: Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era. Eds. Tiffany Austin, Sequoia Maner, Emily Ruth Rutter, darlene anita scott 

• 2019: The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks. Eds Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar, Patricia Smith

• 2020:All the Songs We Sing: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Carolina African American Writers' Collective Ed. Lenard D. Moore

• 2020: Soul Sister Revue: a Poetry Compilation. Ed. Cynthia Manick

• 2020: African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song. Ed. Kevin Young

Related:

• A notebook on anthologies