Poetry

Creator of the "Create-In" at the Oakland Museum, University of California instructor Sarah Fabio, artist-in-residence for the day, blends her voice in black poetry as her sone Leslie Fabio, Tennessee State student and purple heart veteran, beats congo drums and UC student Leon Williams plays "Old Black Magic" on flute
Influential scholar and poet Sarah Webster Fabio (1928-1979) reads at the "Create-In" at the Oakland Museum as her son Leslie Fabio (right) and UC Berkeley student Leon Williams (left) play "Old Black Magic," circa 1970s, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Black poetry : a supplement to anthologies which exclude Black poets / Edited by Dudley Randall
Black poetry : a supplement to anthologies which exclude Black poets / Edited by Dudley Randall, Detroit, Mich. : Broadside Press [1969]
"Ima talken bout the Nation of Islam," Sonia Sanchez
"Ima talken bout the Nation of Islam," Sonia Sanchez [signed], 1971, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection, MS 179, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.

This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to African American poets and poetry. See also the related resource guide on Writers & Literature.

It highlights holdings in the following areas:

● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO

Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.

Portrait of David Henderson, author of De Mayor of Harlem
Co-founder of the Black Arts Movement and the Umbra Poets, David Henderson moved to Berkeley, California in the late 1960's. In his work with University Without Walls, a community-based alternative college, he acted as artistic advisor to the Oakland Unified School District and Berkeley Public Schools. Portrait of David Henderson, 1971, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Selected Library Materials

Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nineteenth Century / by Joan R. Sherman

Literary Prose and Poetry in San Francisco's Black Newspapers / by Jan Batiste Adkins

Black California: a Literary Anthology / edited by Aparajita Nanda

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry / edited by Camille T. Dungy

The Harlem Renaissance in the American West : the new Negro's western experience / edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Cary D. Wintz

Black Poetry : a Supplement to Anthologies Which Exclude Black Poets / by Dudley Randall

Soulscript : Afro-American Poetry / edited by June Jordan

Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, 1960-1995 / by Julius Eric Thompson

"After Mecca" : Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement / by Cheryl Clarke

Calafia, the California Poetry / by Ishmael Reed

Heaven: Collected Poems, 1956-1990 / by Al Young

Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman

Felix of the Silent Forest / by David Henderson

Movement in Black / by Pat Parker

Undercover or Overexposed: An Anthology of Poetry / edited by Phavia Kujichagulia

Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin / by Judith Tannenbaum

When Lions Roar and Bobcats Growl: the Poetry of West Oakland's Youth (California Poets in the Schools Project)

Portrait of Marvin X, 1973
Portrait of Marvin X/El Muhajir holding copy of Woman, Man's Best Friend (Proverbs, Parables, Poems, Songs), 1973, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Portrait of William Nauns Ricks
Portrait of William Nauns Ricks, undated, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Selected Archival Collections

African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Includes various correspondence and writings by William Nauns Ricks (1876-1948) and biographical sketches and research files on "William Nauns Ricks : an early Berkeley voice," by T.L. Malone (undated). Ricks was born in Wytheville, Virginia, on September 6, 1876, and came to California in 1889. An African American veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Ricks worked at the information desk in the lobby of California Packing Corporation, but his chief occupation and interest was writing. Other selected items include:

  • Material related to "A night with Negro poets and artists" held at the Oakland Auditorium (1928)
  • Programs for Langston Hughes at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland (1948)  
  • Flyers for "Black Poets Speak featuring the Soledad Prison Poets" held by the Garvey Institute and The Black House (1973)
  • Assorted material related to "Poetry in the griot tradition: Oakland and West African poets"
  • Copies of the Journal of Black Poetry
  • Books of poetry by Larry Neal, Sonia Sanchez, and others

Maxine and Roy C. Blackburn Papers. An Oakland native, Roy C. Blackburn (1912-2000) attended the University of California at Berkeley. During the early 1930s, he worked as Langston Hughes's resident secretary when Hughes was writer in residence at Noël Sullivan's Carmel beach house estate, Ennesfree. Blackburn and Hughes remained friends throughout their lives, exchanging correspondence documented in the Selected Letters of Langston Hughes. Photographs of Blackburn and Hughes at Ennesfree are included in the African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph Collection.

Langston Hughes, Bill Rowell [?], Noel Sullivan, and Roy Blackburn on horseback in Carmel, California
Langston Hughes, Bill Rowell [?], Noël Sullivan, and Roy C. Blackburn on
horseback in Carmel, California, 1934, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Faricita Hall Wyatt Papers. Educator, poet, and artist Faricita Hall Wyatt (1912-1993) published two books of poetry, The River Must Flow (1965) and By the Banks of the River (1974), and was also an accomplished painter. Beginning in 1962, Wyatt taught history, literature, and creative writing courses at Skyline High School in Oakland, California until her retirement in 1975. The Faricita Hall Wyatt Papers include correspondence, poetry manuscripts, photographs, awards, and guest books that document the life and career of Faricita Hall Wyatt.

Ruth Acty Papers. Educator, author, and actor Ruth Acty (1913-1998) was the first African American teacher hired by the Berkeley Unified School District in 1943. Over the course of her career, she worked within the Berkeley Unified School District at various schools, including Lincoln School, Garfield Junior High School, Burbank Junior High School, and Berkeley Adult School as a drama, English, French, and English as a Foreign Language teacher until her retirement in 1991. The papers include essays written by Acty on contemporary American poets and poetry, including her 1947 thesis "A study of the life and poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks." Also included are Acty's lecture notes and curriculum handouts (circa 1970s) related to the teaching of poetry at her various teaching assignments with the Berkeley Unified School District.

Portrait of poet June Jordan
Portrait of June Jordan, 1971, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Ruth Beckford Papers. Dancer, teacher, and author Ruth Beckford (1925-2019) founded and directed the first recreational modern dance program in the country, teaching dance classes for the Oakland Recreation Department at DeFremery Recreation Center. She would lead the dance program for twenty years while also performing with Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop dance companies. The papers include drafts of poetry written by Beckford between 1972-1992. Also included are books of poetry by Sarah Webster Fabio, M’Wile Yaw Askari, and various titles published by independent presses associated with the Black Arts Movement.

Mildred Pitts Walter Papers. Includes the Black Anti-Defamation League press releases “LeRoi Jones & Godfrey Cambridge Join Others in Protesting Nat Turner Book” (1968).

Calbert Family Papers. Includes a self-published book of poetry by Sadie Hackett Calbert, poet laurete of Cooper African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (Oakland, Calif.).

Thelma Gibson Radden Papers. Nurse and educator Thelma Gibson Radden (1903-2004) was born on February 18, 1903 in Oakland, California to Charles Nelson Gibson and Maude Esther Gibson. She was a fourth-generation Californian with her family tracing their roots in the state to 1864. The papers include drafts of original poetry by Radden. 

Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005 feature many noted African American poets and authors including Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Sarah Webster Fabio, Ishmael Reed, June Jordan, David Henderson, Jon Eckels, and others.

Jon Eckels of the Mills College English faculty giving a dramatic reading of his poetry at 'A Black Experience' program
Jon Eckels gives a reading at 'A Black Experience' program, Mills College, 1970, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
The whistle maker, and other poems / by William Nauns Ricks
The whistle maker, and other poems / by William Nauns Ricks, San Francisco, CA : Press of Althof & Bahls [1914]

Additional Information

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