Anne Spencer (1882-1975) (
video tribute from the State Library of Virginia) was a Harlem Renaissance poet, a gardener, a librarian, and an activist. Her work was influential among her peers and successors - as was her legendary and beloved
garden in Lynchburg, Va, where she lived for her entire adult life. She wrote only 50 known poems - 25 to 35 of which were published in her lifetime - on topics that were important to her - the beauty of nature, racism and equality, and her faith, including
these 8 of her better-known poems ,
Before the Feast of Shushan, and
Lady, Lady. Many of her poems were reprinted in anthologies, but the controversial
White Things (c. 1918, published c. 1923, inspired by a particularly horrible lynching of a pregnant woman) was never reprinted.
[more inside]
posted by julen
on Apr 20, 2010 -
7 comments
