Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Poems that explore the African-American experience.
American IncomeAfaa Michael Weaver
Unholy WomenChris Abani
Nina's BluesCornelius Eady
won't you celebrate with meLucille Clifton
Letter to Brooks: Spring GardenMajor Jackson
CanaryRita Dove
Ma RaineySterling A. Brown
Praise Song for the DayElizabeth Alexander
EllipticalHarryette Mullen
Caged BirdMaya Angelou
A Negro Love SongPaul Laurence Dunbar
Booker T. and W.E.B.Dudley Randall
First FireCamille T. Dungy
Lothar’s WifeColleen J. McElroy
The Birth of John HenryMelvin B. Tolson
For My PeopleMargaret Walker
Ode to Big TrendTerrance Hayes
The Laws of MotionNikki Giovanni
“For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers”Reginald Dwayne Betts
Testament
Carolyn M. Rodgers
Carolyn M. Rodgers
Take Me Out to the Go-GoThomas Sayers Ellis
skinny-dippin’ in the gene poolThulani Davis
Black Boys Play the ClassicsToi Derricotte
A Black Man Talks of ReapingArna Bontemps
Yet Do I MarvelCountee Cullen
My Country ’Tis of TheeW.E.B. Du Bois
I, TooLangston Hughes
Harlem ShadowsClaude McKay
Georgia DuskJean Toomer
DebridementMichael S. Harper
FlounderNatasha Trethewey
Gwendolyn BrooksHaki Madhubuti
RewardKevin Young
The Things in Black Men’s ClosetsE. Ethelbert Miller
Alameda StreetDouglas Kearney
Song of the Andoumboulou: 60Nathaniel Mackey
About God & ThingsWanda Coleman
Lonely EaglesMarilyn Nelson
The Gospel of Barbecue
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
FEATURED ARTICLES
- 200 Years of Afro-American Poetry
- By Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes and the Broadway Blues
- by Franklin Bruno
- The Black Poet as Canon-Maker
- by Elizabeth Alexander
- The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
- By Langston Hughes
- With A Little Help from Dr. Angelou
- By The Editors
- Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood
- By June Jordan
- Jazz as Communication
- By Langston Hughes
- She Could Tell You Stories
- Lucille Clifton interviewed by Hilary Holladay
- Confronting the Warpland
- by Ed Herrmann
