The 100 Best African American Poems

Hear voices contemporary and classic as selected by New York Times bestselling author Nikki Giovanni Award-winning poet and writer Nikki Giovanni takes on the impossible task of selecting the 100 best African American works from classic and contemporary poets. Out of necessity, Giovanni admits she cheats a little, selecting a larger, less round number. The result is this startlingly vibrant collection that spans from historic to modern, from structured to freeform, and reflects the rich roots and visionary future of African American verse. These magnetic poems are an exciting mix of most-loved classics and daring new writing. From Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes to Tupac Shakur, Natasha Trethewey, and many others, the voice of a culture comes through in this collection, one that is as talented, diverse, and varied as its people. African American poems are like all other poems: beautiful, loving, provocative, thoughtful, and all those other adjectives I can think of. Poems know no boundaries. They, like all Earth citizens, were born in some country, grew up on some culture, then in their blooming became citizens of the Universe. Poems fly from heart to heart, head to head, to whisper a dream, to share a condolence, to congratulate, and to vow forever. The poems are true. They are translated and they are celebrated. They are sung, they are recited, they are delightful. They are neglected. They are forgotten. They are put away. Even in their fallow periods they sprout images. And fight to be revived. And spring back to life with a bit of sunshine and caring. -Nikki Giovanni Read Gwendolyn Brooks Kwame Alexander Tupac Shakur Langston Hughes Mari Evans Kevin Young Asha Bandele Amiri Baraka Hear Ruby Dee Novella Nelson Nikki Giovanni Elizabeth Alexander Marilyn Nelson Sonia Sanchez And many, many, more Nikki Giovanni is an award-winning poet, writer, and activist. She is the author of more than two dozen books for adults and children, including Bicycles, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Racism 101, Blues: For All the Changes, and Love Poems. Her children’s book-plus-audio compilation Hip Hop Speaks to Children was awarded the NAACP Image Award. Her children’s book Rosa, a picture-book retelling of the Rosa Parks story, was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Both books were New York Times bestsellers. Nikki is a Grammy nominee for her spoken-word album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection and has been nominated for the National Book Award. She has been voted Woman of the Year by Essence, Mademoiselle, and Ladies’ Home Journal. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where she teaches writing and literature. An Excerpt From the Introduction: Poems are like clouds on a June morning or two scoops of chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone in August…something everyone can enjoy. Or maybe poems are your cold feet in December on your lover’s back…he is in agony but he lets your feet stay…something like that requires a bit of love. Or could it be that poems are exactly like Santa Claus…the promise, the hope, the excitement of a reward, no matter how small, for a good deed done…or a mean deed from which we refrained. The promise of tomorrow. I don’t know. It seems that poems are essential. Like football to Fall, baseball to Spring, tennis to Summer, love Anytime. Something you don’t think too much about until it is in Season. Then you deliciously anticipate the perfection. African American poems are like all other poems: beautiful, loving, provocative, thoughtful, and all those other adjectives I can think of. Poems know no boundaries. They, like all Earth citizens, were born in some country, grew up on some culture, then in their blooming became citizens of the Universe. Poems fly from heart to heart, head to head, to whisper a dream, to share a condolence, to congratulate, and to vow forever. The poems are true. They are translated and they are celebrated. They are sung, they are recited, they are delightful. They are neglected. They are forgotten. They are put away. Even in their fallow periods they sprout images. And fight to be revived. And spring back to life with a bit of sunshine and caring. These poems, this book, admit I cheated. The idea of this and no more would simply not work for me. I needed these plus those. My mother’s favorite poem by Robert Hayden, plus James Weldon Johnson beginning a world that included the longing of the unfree for a loving God. My own fun “Ego Tripping” reaching to embrace Margaret Walker’s “For My People.” “Train Rides” and “Nikki-Rosa” read by old and loving friends. But also the newness: Novella Nelson lending that sultry voice to the youngsters; Ruby Dee bringing her brilliance to the Gwendolyn Brooks cycle. My Virginia Tech Family wanted to participate: our president Dr. Charles Steger reading “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” recognizing all our souls “have grown deep like the rivers.” We celebrate our Hips; we See A Negro Lady at a birthday celebration. Our friends from James Madison University and West Virginia University came to celebrate poetry with us, too. I love these poems so much. The only other thing I would have loved is Caroline Kennedy reading “A Clean Slate.” At the end of a loving day of laughter in Jeff Dalton’s studio, when Clinton’s makeup had taken forty years off some of us and twenty-five off others, we all came together with one last great cry: the Dean of our College; the Director of Honors; young, old, professional, professor, and recited in one great voice “We Real Cool.” Yeah. We are. This book says Poetry Is For Everyone. What a Treat to be Snowbound with The 100* Best African American Poems (*but I cheated). I did cheat. It’s true. But I did not lie. Nikki Giovanni Poet 12 December 2009 Table of Contents Dedication: The Aunt: xxi — Track 1 Mari Evans 1. For My People: 1 — Track 2 Margaret Walker 2. Leroy: 3 Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) 3. Ars Poetica: Nov. 7, 2008: 4 L. Lamar Wilson 4. Ka’Ba: 8 Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) 5. When You Have Forgotten Sunday: The Love Story: 9 — Track 3 Gwendolyn Brooks 6. The Sermon on the Warpland: 11 — Track 4 Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool: 12 — Track 5 Gwendolyn Brooks 7. Jazz Baby Is It In You: 13 Antoine Harris “I Fade Into the Night”: 14 Adam Daniel 8. Old Lem: 15 — Track 6 Sterling A. Brown 9. I Am Accuse of Tending to the Past: 17 — Track 7 Lucille Clifton 10. I Am A Black Woman: 18 — Track 8 Mari Evans 11. Who Can Be Born Black?: 20 — Track 9 Mari Evans 12. Nikka-Rosa:21 — Track 10 Nikki Giovanni 13. Knoxville, Tennessee: 23 — Track 11 Nikki Giovanni 14. The Dry Spell: 24 — Track 12 Kevin Young 15. Those Winter Sundays: 26 — Tracks 13 & 14 Robert Hayden 16. Frederic Douglass: 27 Robert Hayden 17. The Negro Speaks of Rivers: 28 — Track 15 Langston Hughes 18. Choosing the Blues: 29 Angela Jackson 19. My Father’s Love Letters: 30 Yusef Komunyakaa 20. The Creation: 32 — Track 16 James Weldon Johnson 21. A Negro Love Song: 36 Paul Laurence Dunbar 22. Lift Every Voice and Sing: 37 James Weldon Johnson 23. Go Down Death: 39 James Weldon Johnson 24. Between Ourselves: 42 Audre Lorde 25. The Union of Two: 45 Haki R. Madhubuti 26. Ballad of Birmingham: 46 Dudley Randall 27. A Poem to Complement Other Poems: 48 Haki R. Madhubuti 28. No Images: 51 Waring Cuney 29. Between the World and Me: 52 Richard Wright 30. Theme for English B: 54 Langston Hughes 31. Harlem Suite Easy Boogie: 56 Langston Hughes Dream Boogie: 57 Langston Hughes Dream Boogie: Variation: 58 Langston Hughes Harlem: 58 Langston Hughes Good Morning: 59 Langston Hughes Same in Blues: 60 Langston Hughes Island: 61 Langston Hughes 32. The Blue Terrance: 62 Terrance Hayes 33. The Mother: 64 — Track 17 Gwendolyn Brooks A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon: 66 Gwendolyn Brooks — Track 18 The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till: 72 Gwendolyn Brooks A Sunset of the City: 73 — Track 19 Gwendolyn Brooks 34. Things I Carried Coming to the World: 75 Remica L. Bingham 35. Topography: 77 Remica L. Bingham 36. Beneath Me: 79 Jericho Brown 37. Autobiography: 80 Jericho Brown 38. Parable of the Sower: 82 Pamela Sneed 39. Heritage: 86 Countee Cullen 40. Yet I Do Marvel: 91 — Track 20 Countee Cullen 41. Incident: 92 — Track 21 Countee Cullen 42. We Wear the Mask: 93 — Track 22 Paul Laurence Dunbar 43. Triple: 94 Georgia Douglas Johnson 44. The Heart of a Woman: 95 — Track 23 Georgia Douglas Johnson 45. Woman With Flower: 96 Naomi Long Madgett 46. The Idea of Ancestry: 97 Etheridge Knight 47. Don’t Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat: 99 Larry Neal 48. Cleaning: 105 Camille T. Dungy 49. Boston Year: 106 — Track 24 Elizabeth Alexander 50. She Wears Red: 107 Jackie Warren-Moore 51. Commercial Break: Road-Runner, Uneasy: 110 Tim Seibles 52. Before Making Love: 114 Toi Derricotte 53. Be-Bop: 115 Sterling Plumpp 54. Personal Letter No. 3: 116 — Track 25 Sonia Sanchez 55. Poem at Thirty: 117 — Track 26 Sonia Sanchez 56. A Poem for Sterling Brown: 118 — Track 27 Sonia Sanchez 57. Marchers Headed for Washington, Baltimore, 1963: 120 Remica L. Bingham 58. And Yeah…This is a Love Poem: 123 Nikki Giovanni 59. The Carousel: 123 Gloria C. Oden 60. Only Everything I Own: 127 Patricia Smith 61. Lot’s Daughter Dreams of Her Mother: 128 — Track 28 Opal Moore 62. The Girlfriend’s Train: 131 Nikky Finney 63. Back from the Arms of Big Mama: 136 Afaa Michael Weaver 64. Mama’s Promise: 139 — Track 29 Marilyn Nelson 65. Bop: A Whistling Man: 142 Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon 66. Homage to My Hips: 144 — Track 30 Lucille Clifton 67. Train Ride: 145 Kwame Dawes 68. Train Rides: 148 — Track 31 Nikki Giovanni 69. A Great Grandaddy Speaks: 153 Lamonte B. Steptoe 70. Eddie Priest’s Barbershop & Notary: 154 Kevin Young 71. View of the Library of Congress From Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: 156 Thomas Sayers Ellis 72. Drapery Factory, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1956: 159 — Track 32 Natasha Trethewey 73. Some Kind of Crazy: 161 Major Jackson 74. From: 163 A. Van Jordan 75. Freedom Candy: 165 E. Ethelbert Miller 76. The Supremes: 167 Cornelius Eady 77. Jazz Suite Nikki Save Me: 169 Michael Scott “Nikki, If You Were a Song…”: 170 — Track 33 Kwame Alexander Haiku: 170 DJ Renegade Untitled: 170 Nadir Lasana Bomani “I Wish I Could’ve Seen It…”: 171 Leodis McCray 78. That Some Mo’: 174 DJ Renegade 79. Sometime in the Summer There’s October: 175 Tony Medina 80. Dancing Naked on the Floor: 178 Kwame Alexander 81. Harriet Tubman’s Email 2 Master: 180 Truth Thomas 82. A River That Flows Forever: 181 — Track 34 Tupac Shakur 83. The Rose that Grew from Concrete: 181 — Track 34 Tupac Shakur 84. Rochelle: 182 Reuben Jackson 85. All Their Stanzas Look Alike: 183 Thomas Sayers Ellis 86. From the Center to the Edge: 185 Asha Bandele 87. The Subtle Art of Breathing: 187 Asha Bandele 88. Southern University, 1963: 192 Kevin Young 89. Poetry Should Ride the Bus: 195 Ruth Forman 90. Blues for Spring: 197 Colleen J. McElroy 91. The Bicycle Wizard: 198 Sharon Strange 92. Bicycles: 199 Nikki Giovanni 93. A Clean Slate: 200 Fred D’Aguiar 94. Song Through the Wall: 201 Akua Lezli Hope 95. A Seat Saved: 203 Shana Yarborough 96. Sunday Greens: 205 Rita Dove 97. The Untitled Superhero Poem: 206 Tonya Maria Matthews 98. Mercy Killing: 209 — Track 35 Remica L. Bingham 99. If You Saw a Negro Lady: 210 June Jordan 100. Ego Tripping (There May Be a Reason Why): 212 — Track 36 Nikki Giovanni