“Poetry is life distilled.”
-Gwendolyn Brooks
Read about life distilled in poems from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement and more:
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010
Funk Lore: New Poems 1984-1995 by Amiri Baraka
The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks
On the Bus With Rosa Parks: Poems by Rita Dove
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Black American Poets and Dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance
Black American Poets and Dramatists : Before the Harlem Renaissance
African-American Poets. Volume 1, 1700s-1940s
African-American Poets. Volume 2, 1950s to the Present
You can find more poems to celebrate Black History Month at the Poetry Foundation’s website and download free poetry ringtones from the Academy of American Poets.