Literature

Blacks who influence the written word, novelist, poets, playwrights, etc.

Frank Walker, a voice and writer of reason


Frank X. Walker

Frank X. Walker was born on this date in 1961. He is an African-American writer, administrator, poet, and educator.

Walker is a native of Danville, Ky., the eldest son of seven children of Faith and Frank Walker, Sr. As a youngster in school, he asked one of his teachers why there weren’t more books by Black authors in their library. Her response was

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Afro-Cuban, Lydia Cabrera, writer and activist


Lydia Cabrera

Lydia Cabrera was born on this date in 1899. She was an Afro Cuban writer and literary activist.

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Carolyn Rodgers, an interesting poet.


Carolyn Rodgers

Carolyn Rodgers, an African-American writer, poet, and educator, was born on this date in 1945.

Born in Chicago, Carolyn Marie Rodgers attended the University of Illinois in 1960, but transferred to Chicago's Roosevelt University one year later and received her BA in 1965. She began writing as a college freshman. In 1980, she earned a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago. She achieved a national reputation as a writer whose works largely relate to her concern with feminist issues and a particular concern for Black women.

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American's first black Poet Laureate, Robert Hayden!


Robert Hayden

*Robert Hayden was born on this date in 1913. He was an African-American poet.

Born Asa Bundy Sheffey, Hayden was raised in the poor Paradise Valley neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. He had an emotionally turbulent youth and was shuttled between the home of his parents and that of a foster family, who lived next door. Childhood events would result in times of depression he would call 'my dark nights of the soul'. A nearsighted boy, he was often ostracized by his peers and was excluded from many physical Hobbies. Reading on the other hand occupied a great deal of his time.

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Toi Derricotte, one of Michigan's finest


Toi Derricotte

Toi Derricotte was born on this date in 1941. She is an African-American writer.

From Hamtramck, Michigan, "toy dare-i-cot"; Derricotte is the daughter of Benjamin Sweeney Webster and Antonia Webster Cyrus. She studied special education at Wayne State University, where she earned a B.A., and studied English literature and creative writing at New York University, where she received her M.A.

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Henry Dumas, a legacy carried on


Henry Dumas

Henry Dumas was born on this date in 1934. He was an African-American teacher and writer.

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Marcus B. Christian, Bayou poet and teacher


Marcus B. Christian

*Marcus B. Christian was born on this date in 1900. He was an African-American poet, and educator.

From Mechanicsville (Houma), LA, he was the son of Emanuel and Rebbecca (Harris) Christian, Sr. Marcus Bruce Christian was educated at Houma Academy in New Orleans, from 1906-1913. He and his family moved to New Orleans in 1919. Christian also started Bluebird Cleaners in 1926. From 1932-1976, his writing career began and flourished with the Louisiana Weekly, New Orleans, as poetry editor and as a special feature writer.

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From Kentucky to the World, writer Margaret Danner!


Margaret Danner (portrait)

Margaret Danner, an African-American writer, was born on this date in 1915.

Born in Kentucky, Danner and her parents moved to Chicago when she was young. When Margaret Esse Danner was in the eighth grade, she wrote her first prize-winning poem, "The Violin." Although it would be many years before her first book of poetry was published, the image and theme of the violin reappeared many times in later works.

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Johari Amini, a theater director and teacher


Johari Amini

Johari Amini (her name may also appear as JohariCourts-Amini, JCourts-Amini, JohariC) was born on this date in 1948. She is an African-American teacher of theater, director of several outstanding plays, an educator, a writer, and an administrator.

She was born in Richmond, Va. In 1966, Johari Courts-Amini received her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Drama, Hampton Institute, and her Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, in 1970.

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An African writing voice, Willie Kgositsile.


Willie Kgositsile

*Willie Kgositsile was born on this date in 1938. He is an African poet, educator, and activist.

From South Africa, Keorapetse Willie Kgositsile taught for many years at the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Gaborone. He left home in 1961 as one of the first young African National Congress (ANC) members instructed to do so by the leadership of their liberation movement. He was a founding member of the ANC Department of Education as their Arts and Culture department.

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