Race

“Heritage” by Countee Cullen (1925)

“Heritage” is another poem in which the speaker grapples with the issue of race and its place in creative work. Published during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the poem captures the difficulty of being a Black poet in a society that rejects Black excellence. “Heritage” and “Race” both address the importance of place to Black poets and Black identity.

“Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni (1968)

The speaker in “Nikki-Rosa” explores the tension between how they remember childhood in a Black family and how writers outside of their racial community see Black childhood. While outsiders may assume that “childhood remembrances are always a drag / if you’re Black” (Lines 1-2), the speaker’s family and community meant that she had a happy childhood because “Black love is Black wealth” (Line 30). Like the speaker in “Race,” the speaker in this poem reassesses memories of family life to critique the way that common literary conventions for representing Black identity distort it.

“Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander (2009)

Alexander read “Praise Song for the Day” during Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 as America’s first Black president. As she does in “Race,” Alexander addresses the theme of Black ancestors and our relationship to them in the present.