Reading books by Black writers is important in helping us better understand the world around us as well as what it means to be Black. We learn by understanding the fullness of human experience and by exposing ourselves to new perspectives. Black literature, more importantly Black poetry, helps break down barriers of inequality, stereotypes, and bias.
Joshua Bennett is a professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. I came to know of Bennett in 2009 when he was invited to perform a spoken word poem for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House Poetry Jam. Jesse McCarthy is an assistant professor in the English and African American Studies departments at Harvard University. As scholars, they frequently come across amazing poets of the past in out-of-print collections.
Minor Notes, Volume I is an initiative curated by Bennett and McCarthy, intended to recover archival materials from understudied Black poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. They have found that many of these poets have been neglected or entirely ignored, even by scholars of Black poetry. The goal of Minor Notes is to bridge scholarly interest with a growing general audience who reads, writes, and circulates poetry within that tradition.
By recovering and curating the work of these poets, Minor Notes aims to shed light on the rich history and tradition of Black poetry and to inspire new generations of poets and poetry enthusiasts.
The work of contemporary Black poets is best understood through the lens of a tradition of the poet as a witness, as a visionary, as a communal writer, and as a scholar of everyday life. The poets featured in this collection include George Moses Horton, Fenton Johnson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, David Wadsworth Cannon Jr., Anne Spencer, and Angelina Weld Grimke.
As a poet, I understand the necessity of Black poets being awake to the times in which we live, as well as being attuned to the past. Black poetry is inextricably linked to the experience of Black people through their history in America, from slavery to segregation and the equal rights movement. Today, society looks to poets to speak truth to power and to not be afraid to say the things that need to be said, using their voices to challenge convention and unravel tradition.
Who are, who were, the Black minor poets? This book aims to shift the focus and burden away from proving these poet’s validity as Black poets to caring for their work.
George Moses Horton was a Black poet from North Carolina who was enslaved until the Emancipation Proclamation reached North Carolina. Horton is the first African-American author to be published after the United States gained independence. His poetry explores faith, love, and slavery while celebrating the home where he spent much of his life.
Fenton Johnson was a poet, essayist, author of short stories, editor, and educator. Johnson came from a middle-class Black family in Chicago, where he spent most of his career. His work is often included in anthologies of 20th-century poetry, and he is noted for early prose poetry.
Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson, was one of the earliest Black women playwrights and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
Henrietta Cordelia Ray was a Black poet and teacher. Her parents were notable abolitionists and had worked for the Underground Railroad in Manhattan.
David Wadsworth Cannon Jr. lived a brief life as a poet, musician, educator, and promising scholar. Cannon was writing poetry during his time at Virginia State College. Upon his death, his mother gathered all of his writings and posthumously published his poetry collection, Black Labor Chant in 1939. It includes brief lyrics, songs, meditations, and protest poems.
Anne Bethel Spencer was an American poet, teacher, civil rights activist, librarian, and gardener. She was a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance, also known as the “New Negro Movement,” despite living in Virginia for most of her life, far from the center of the movement in New York.
Angelina Weld Grimké was a Black journalist, teacher, playwright, and poet. By ancestry, Grimké was three-quarters white — the child of a white mother and a half-white father — therefore, considered a woman of color. She was one of the first Black women to have a play publicly performed.
Tracy K. Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States, mentioned in the foreword of this book that language is one place where the continuum of Black life can be perceived and where we can hear ourselves talking to one another across generations. Black poetry reminds us that we are living in harmony with others elsewhere and with traditions that are beyond our own.
I give Minor Notes, Volume I 5.0/5.0 stars. I highly recommend it as research and reference material for poets, as well as a Black history lesson for everyone.
Minor Notes, Volume I is being released April 11, during National Poetry Month. It can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.
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