Make me a grave where’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill,
Make it among earth's humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.

"Bury Me in a Free Land"
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper


African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song edited by Kevin Young is a Library of America Publication.  Young was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. He studied under Seamus Heaney and Lucie Brock-Broido at Harvard University and, while a student there, became a member of the Dark Room Collective, a community of African American writers. He was awarded a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University and later earned an MFA from Brown University.

This analogy presents the poetry in separate sections, but reading the collection all the way through, which usually isn't done, the poetry becomes a tree.  The roots are firmly planted in slaveholding America, both North, and South.  From there, it develops and branches out.  Freedom and religion forming the first branching in the poetry.  There is a connection to America even though the troubles run deep. Phillis Wheatley, the first black poet to publish a collection of poetry, earned fame in England and the Colonies.  She received the praise of George Washington as well as writing him a letter/poem when he was still a general in the army.  That event came around again in 1993 with Maya Angelou's inaugural poem at President Clinton's ceremony in 1993.  There is an investment in America that not only can't be repaid but is often just ignored:

""My history-moulding ancestors
Planted the first crops of wheat on these shores,
Built ships to conquer the seven seas,
Erected the Cotton Empire,
Flung railroads across a hemisphere,
Disemboweled the earth's iron and coal,
Tunneled the mountains and bridged rivers,
Harvested the grain and hewed forests,
Sentineled the Thirteen Colonies,
Unfurled Old Glory at the North Pole,
Fought a hundred battles for the Republic.""

Melvin B. Tolson, "Dark Symphony"




After the First World War and the experience of real freedom and equality from the French, but not Americans, a new breed of poetry evolves.  Jazz and the Rise of the Harlem Renaissance bring new poets and a new boldness.  Langston Hughes, although thoroughly modern, pays tribute to the past in language, which contemporary society saw as crudeness rather than a homage to the past. He remains modern but connected to the roots of African-American poetry.  The following section is the Chicago Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement.  Poets like Gwendolyn Brooks and beat poet Bob Kaufman rise in popularity and new branches grow.  The fifteen years between 1960 and 1975 is an outburst of political poetry lead by Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez.  The poetry then moves to the more complex with poets like Yusef Komunyakaa and (Pulitzer Prize winner) Rita Dove.  

The anthology ends with more current poets.  There is a blossoming of talent that reminds us of the past-- both in failures in society and tributes to the heroes.  Kevin Young wrote his introduction on Juneteeth, 2020, and closes with thoughts on racist violence that still exist in America.  The reader may think if only he waited, maybe this could be fixed in the next election in a few months. But, it has been a few months for two hundred and fifty years.  An excellent collection of poetry that is also the American history we like to forget.

A wonderful and excellent selection of poetry that I hope I can explore with my students in the coming years. It has been such a beautiful read over the past few days and loved the array of styles and voices throughout the anthology.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the most definitive African American poetry anthology I have read. The collection contains some familiar and often anthologized poems and poets. It is the not so familiar poems and poets that are within this anthology that are the most intriguing. The anthology is divided into eight sections. Each of the sections covers a time period characterized by the types of poems produced during the era. Editor, Kevin Young explains each of these sections masterfully in the introduction of the anthology. He also describes how each time period influenced or was influenced by other periods. For anyone interested in African American poetry, this is a must have anthology!

I was given the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

Editor Kevin Young has assembled both a breadth and depth of poetry in this volume that represents a range of African American experiences over time. Highly recommended as both a personal and classroom resource, and packed with amazing work.