Photo by Shocphoto Imagery Ernestine Johnson is beautiful, talented, and a phenomenal poet. Raised in Los Angeles, Calif., Johnson is touching the world without her hands, but instead by using her words. Her appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show took the world by storm as she performed her poem, “Average…
Poet Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most influential American writers and poets of the 20th century. Based primarily in Chicago, Illinois, a center of Blues and Jazz cultures, her poems often carry a musical quality, and many catalog the black experience. Brooks was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize…
Poet Phyllis Wheatley
Photo: PBS.org America’s first African American poet, Phyllis Wheatley, was born in 1753 in Senegal, Africa. When she was seven years old, she was taken from Africa to the colonies of America and sold to John and Susannah Wheatley in Boston, Massachusetts. She was first going to be the attendant…
This day in history: first black poet is published
Jupiter Hammon (October 17, 1711 – before 1806) was a black poet who became the first African-American published writer in America when his poem appeared in print on December 25,1760. He was a slave his entire life, and the date of his death is unknown. He was living in 1790…
Krissy Poet Rants About Online Dating Usernames
Upcoming songwriter, producer, and entertainer Krissy Poet has taken to YouTube to rant about the types of usernames that men select for their online dating profile. These are the sexually suggestive ones, but rather the “what?” ones like “duckdynastyhomeboy”. What makes this video great — and will ultimately be the…