Heavenly belated birthday wishes Lucille Clifton! Born June 27, 1936, Lucille Clifton was a poet, author, and educator. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She died in 2010.
Heavenly belated birthday wishes Gerald Barrax! Born June 21, 1933, Gerald William Barrax was an African American poet and the first African American professor at North Carolina State University. He was the author of five poetry collections. One of the poetry collections, Another Kind of Rain: Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970),was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award. He died in 2019. Here are a few of his works:
Heavenly birthday wishes Beatrice M. Murphy! Born June 25, 1908, Beatrice M. Murphy Campbell was an African American poet and editor known for being the founder of the Negro Bibliographic and Research Center as well as the editor of its journal, Bibliographic Survey: The Negro in Print. All of her published works are under the name Beatrice M. Murphy. She died in 1992.
You can read some of her poetry.
Heavenly birthday wishes James Weldon Johnson! Born June 17, 1871, James Weldon Johnson was an author, poet, civil rights activist and co-composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing. He died in 1938.
Belated happy birthday Porsha Olayiwola! Born June 11, Porsha Olayiwola is native of Chicago who writes, lives and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University’s 2019 Heimark Artist -In -Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 poet laureate fellow with the Academy of American poets.
Happy birthday Frank X. Walker! Born June 11, Frank X. Walker is an African American poet from Danville, Kentucky. Walker coined the word “Affrilachia”, signifying the importance of the African American presence in Appalachia: the “new word … spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region’s African-American culture and history”. He was the winner of the 2025 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection for his book Load in Nine Times.
Belated heavenly birthday wishes Nikki Giovanni! Born June 7, 1943, Nikki Giovanni was an award winning poet, author, activist, professor and so much more! Her body of work is historical, social, political, and relevant today as it was it was written. She passed away in 2024. Here is just a little of her notable works:
Heavenly birthday wishes Gwendolyn Brooks! Born June 7, 1917, Gwendolyn Brooks was an award winning author, poet, and United States Poet Laureate. My favorite poem is “We Real Cool”. She passed away in 2000. Here are some of her classic poetry books.
Belated heavenly birthday wishes Albery Allson Whitman! Born May 30, 1851, Albery Allson Whitman was egroan African-American poet, minister and orator. Born into slavery, Whitman became a writer. During his lifetime he was acclaimed as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race.” He passed away in 1901. Here are a few of his notable works.
Belated birthday wishes Elizabeth Alexander! Born May 30, Elizabeth Alexander is an African American poet, writer, and literary scholar who has served as the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2018. Here are some of her notable works:
The CamaraIfe Maktaba 