Lima Barreto: Brazil’s Sad Visionary
Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881–1922) was a distinguished Brazilian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer renowned for his incisive social criticism and satirical depictions of...
Category : Literature
Black authors, poets and playwrights. Literary Quotes and Poems.
Mazisi Kunene: Poet Laureate of Africa
How will I ever forget you, magic leaf Tormented as I am by your taunts The prodding jeers and the branding iron You command, “[Captive],...
Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Poet of the Tides
Edward Kamau Brathwaite — born Lawson Edward Brathwaite on May 11, 1930 — was a Barbadian poet, historian, linguist and cultural theorist who became one...
Jayne Cortez: Firespitter of the Black Arts Movement
Jayne Cortez (born Sallie Jayne Richardson) was a visionary African American poet, performer, and cultural activist whose fierce, music‑driven poetics made her a defining voice...
Rudolph Fisher: A Renaissance Man of Science and Story
Rudolph Fisher (1897–1934) was a physician, radiologist, writer, musician, and orator whose remarkable, though brief, life had a profound impact on the Harlem Renaissance and...
A Free Black Man in Captivity: Reflections of Mumia Abu-Jamal
“I am a thinker, writer, activist, creative being, man, dad, husband, grandpop, and son. But just to keep it simple: I’m a free Black man living in...
The Trees Fall, the Forest Speaks: The Life of Jacques Stephen Alexis
Jacques Stephen Alexis (1922–1961) was a Haitian novelist, neurologist, and Marxist political activist whose life and work came to embody the intertwined struggles for culture,...
Ottobah Cugoano – The Poem
This summer, I embarked on a 21-day trip to Ghana, motivated by my deep admiration for Ottobah Cugoano, an important historical figure whose legacy is...
There It Is by Jayne Cortez
My friendthey don’t careif you’re an individualista leftist a rightista shithead or a snakeThey will try to exploit youabsorb you confine youdisconnect you isolate youor...
Gwendolyn B. Bennett: The Harlem Renaissance Writer and Painter
Gwendolyn B. Bennett was an African-American poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. Although she never published her own volume of poetry, she was one of...