Provided by: Bre’Ana Wilson, Otranto Road Library
CHARLESTON, S.C. - If you are looking for a quick read, poetry can tell a story in the richest, but simplest form. Many people read poetry for motivation or to sense others experiences through word play and imagery.
When thinking of African American poetry, a few of the greats come to mind- Maya Angelou, whose voices paints a picture in history; Nikki Giovanni, whose style ranges from black power to poems of intimacy and personal statements; Langston Hughes, whose works allow us to experience the Harlem Renaissance Movement and gives us hope that dreams do come true. Recently, poetry’s popularity has grown in Charleston. Writers use poetry to release their ideas and share experiences with the world. Whether it is reflecting on culture, experience, or social justice issues. Reading a good poetry book may give you the motivation to tell your own story. Below are some that may help to inspire you to write your own. If you do, why not enter the work into our Black History Month Poetry Contest. You may even win a gift card!
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning.
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman wrote and performed "The Hill We Climb" to celebrate the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. The poem celebrates the U.S. not as a "perfect union," but as a country that has the grit to struggle with its all-too-real problems.
The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur
The Rose That Grew from Concrete written by a famous rapper and actor of America is a symbolic poem in which the poet describes the journey of Rose from the darkness in the concrete to fresh air and sunlight. However, the poem also represents his own journey from a poor ghetto to a successful life.
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou
Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf: a Choreopoem by Ntozake Shange
Tells the stories of seven women who have suffered oppression in a racist and sexist society. As a choreopoem, the piece is a series of 20 separate poems choreographed to music that weaves interconnected stories of love, empowerment, struggle, and loss into a complex representation of sisterhood.
Black Poets: a New Anthology edited by Dudley Randall
"The claim of The Black Poets to being an anthology is that it presents the full range of Black-American poetry, from the slave songs to the present day. It is important that folk poetry be included because it is the root and inspiration of later, literary poetry. Not only does this book present the full range of Black poetry, but it presents most poets in depth, and in some cases presents aspects of a poet neglected or overlooked before. Gwendolyn Brooks is represented not only by poems on racial and domestic themes but is revealed as a writer of superb love lyrics. Turning away from White models and returning to their roots has freed Black poets to create a new poetry. This book records their progress."--from the Introduction by Dudley Randall
Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith
Don't Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth.
I Am the Rage by Martina McGowan
Martina McGowan, a doctor, and grandmother who has been a victim of and an advocate against social, racial, and sexual injustices, uses powerful free verse poetry to express the range of emotions, thoughts, and grief she had following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, and the ongoing attacks against the Black community.
If They Come For Us: Poems by Fatimah Asghar
In Asghar's latest collection of poetry, If They Come for Us, the speaker explores her identity as a marginalized orphan in a world that consistently tells her that she does not belong. The collection deliberates themes of racism, gender politics, and sexuality.
Promise That You Will Sing About Me: the Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar Lewis by Miles Marshall
In Promise That You Will Sing About Me, pop culture critic and music journalist Miles Marshall Lewis explores Kendrick Lamar's life, his roots, his music, his lyrics, and how he has shaped the musical landscape.
Incendiary Art: Poems by Patricia Smith
One of the most magnetic and esteemed poets in today's literary landscape, Patricia Smith fearlessly confronts the tyranny against the black male body and the tenacious grief of mothers in her compelling new collection, "Incendiary Art." She writes an exhaustive lament for mothers of the "dark magicians," and revisits .
The Birth of All Things Poems by Marcus Amaker
The Birth of All Things is a book about Black fatherhood, joy, racism, anxiety, Bjork, Star Wars, and more. The Birth of All Things is an eclectic mix of poems from Marcus Amaker, the first Poet Laureate of Charleston, SC. Amaker is an award-winning graphic designer, musician, and performance poet.
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate, and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language.