Occupation-Writer-Poet
Aida Cartagena Portalatin (1918-1994)
Aida Cartagena was a prominent Afro-Latina poet, novelist, scholar, and public intellectual. She was born in Moca, Dominican Republic on...
Felipe Luciano (1947- )
Philip “Felipe” Luciano, poet, activist, musicologist, and journalist was born November 24, 1947 in East Harlem to Aurora Olmo Luciano,...
Francis Williams (Jamaica) (1700-1770)
Francis Williams is reputed to be the first person of African ancestry to graduate from Cambridge University. Williams was born...
Clarence Major (1936- )
Clarence Lee Major is a distinguished poet, novelist, painter, anthologist, lexicographer, memoirist, and teacher. His creative output encompasses a wide range of artistic and intellectual...
Samuel W. Allen (1917-2015)
Samuel W. Allen was an accomplished lawyer, translator, academic, and poet who wrote his African-inspired poetry under the pseudonym Paul Vesey. He...
Tyehimba Jess (1965- )
Nationally acclaimed poet Tyehimba Jess was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1965. His father worked in the City’s Department of Health and served as...
Ishmael Reed (1938- )
Ishmael Reed is an African American poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, songwriter, cartoonist, editor, publisher, lecturer, and public media commentator. Born...
Ora Mae Lewis Martin (1918–2005)
Newspaper columnist and poet Ora Mae Lewis was born March 29, 1918, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Nathan Leopold...
Wanda Evans Coleman (1946-2013)
Wanda Evans Coleman was an American poet and writer who won critical acclaim for her avant-garde work, but remained relatively...
