• A Poem by Angelina Weld Grimké

    Featured in Kevin Young's New Anthology of African American Poetry

    The Black Finger

    I have just seen a most beautiful thing
    Slim and still
    Against a gold, gold sky,
    A straight black cypress,
    Sensitive,
    Exquisite,
    A black finger
    Pointing upwards.
    Why, beautiful still finger, are you black?
    And why are you pointing upwards?

    ___________________________________

    African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song

    Excerpted from African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young. Compilation copyright © 2020 by Library of America. Used by permission of the publisher.


    Angelina Weld Grimké
    Angelina Weld Grimké
    Angelina Weld Grimké (1880–1958) b. Boston, MA. Named after her great-aunt, the abolitionist and suffragist Angelina Grimké Weld. Attended Cushing Academy and the Carleton School. First published poems appeared in periodicals after the turn of the twentieth century. Anti-lynching play Rachel was staged in Washington, DC, in 1916 and published in 1920.





    Read More

    Revisiting Philippa Perry's Parenting Advice from Pre-Pandemic Days

     Damian Barr's Literary Salon tempts the world's best writers to read exclusively from their latest greatest works and share...