Great Poems for Black History Month

The Huffington Post's "Books" page is celebrating Black History Month with recommendations from Baratunde Thurston that range from how best to explore a "post-racial" society, to why this site should change its name to "The Blackington Post."

To supplement this advice from the vigilante pundit, I humbly offer a brief selection of classic and contemporary poems from the Poetry Foundation archive that explore and celebrate the rich tradition of African-American poetry. These poems range from the familiar (Langston Hughes' "I, Too") to the emergent (Thulani Davis' "skinny-dippin' in the gene pool"), and they're doubtlessly only a fraction of what has been studied, celebrated, and recited over the years. In any case, February is a great excuse to showcase them and to talk about other poems that celebrate and explore African-American history.

Do you have favorites that I've forgotten to mention? If so, please offer up your favorite selections in the comments section below, and in the meantime, stay tuned to Baratunde's twitter feed for more February suggestions.

American Income

Afaa Michael Weaver

Unholy Women

Chris Abani

Nina's Blues

Cornelius Eady

won't you celebrate with me

Lucille Clifton

Letter to Brooks: Spring Garden

Major Jackson

Canary

Rita Dove

Ma Rainey

Sterling A. Brown

Praise Song for the Day

Elizabeth Alexander

Elliptical

Harryette Mullen

Caged Bird

Maya Angelou

A Negro Love Song

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Beautiful Black Men

Nikki Giovanni

Booker T. and W.E.B.

Dudley Randall

Take Me Out to the Go-Go

Thomas Sayers Ellis

skinny-dipping in the gene pool

Thulani Davis

Black Boys Play the Classics

Toi Derricotte

A Black Man Talks of Reaping

Arna Bontemps

Yet Do I Marvel

Countee Cullen

My Country 'Tis of Thee

W.E.B. Du Bois

I, Too

Langston Hughes

Harlem Shadows

Claude McKay

Georgia Dusk

Jean Toomer

Debridement

Michael S. Harper

Flounder

Natasha Trethewey

Gwendolyn Brooks

Haki Madhubuti

Reward

Kevin Young

The Things in Black Men's Closets

E. Ethelbert Miller

The Gospel of Barbecue

Honore Fanonne Jeffers

No Images

William Waring Cuney

Song of the Andoumboulou: 60

Nathaniel Mackey

Lothar's Wife

Colleen J. McElroy

The Birth of John Henry

Melvin B. Tolson

For My People

Margaret Walker

Ode to Big Trend

Terrance Hayes

First Fire

Camille T. Dungy

Alameda Street

Douglas Kearney

 

 

 

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