LibGuides: African American Women Writers: Angelina Weld Grimké

Although Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1956) never published a volume of poetry, she often found publishers for her poems in local newspapers and in prominent journals, such as Opportunity and The Crisis. During the 1920s, she was recognized as one of the leading female poets of the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro movement, and her poetry was included in the main anthologies of the period. Grimké began writing at a young age, and, as early as 1893 at the age of 13, she received public praise for her first published poem. Also known for several polemical plays against lynching, one of which, Rachel, was staged in 1916 and later published in 1920, and for several short stories, the majority of which also deal with the lynching theme, Grimké is recognized primarily for her contribution to American poetry.*

Genre: Poetry

More about Angelina Weld Grimké at ProQuest One Literature

*Rhyne, J. (2001). Angelina Weld Grimké 1880-1956. In E. L. Haralson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of American poetry: the twentieth century. Routledge. Credo Reference.

By Angelina Weld Grimké

Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimké
Rachel is a young, educated, middle-class woman. But she is born into an African-American family in the early 20th century--a world in which ignorance and violence prevail. While her family and neighbours find different ways to survive, Rachel's dreams of getting married and becoming a mother collide with the tragic events of her family's past as she confronts the harsh reality of a racist world. Written exactly midway between the American Civil War and the end of slavery, and the explosion of Civil Rights in the 1960s, this hauntingly beautiful and profoundly shocking play still asks urgent questions for today.

About Angelina Weld Grimké

Harlem's Glory: Black women writing, 1900-1950 by Lorraine E. Roses (Editor); Ruth E. Randolph (Editor)
This text unfolds a tradition of writing by African-American women from the first half of the 20th century, hitherto mostly hidden. Each text is placed in historical context, with special emphasis on matters of race and gender. This amalgam of prose, poetry, non-fiction and fiction includes the words of luminaries like Zora Neale Hurston and Georgia Douglas Johnson as well as previously unpublished writings by figures like Angelina Weld Grimke, Elise Johnson McDougald, and Regina Andrews.
Aphrodite's Daughters: three modernist poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Maureen Honey
Maureen Honey paints a vivid portrait of three African American women--Angelina Weld Grimké, Gwendolyn B. Bennett, and Mae V. Cowdery--who came from very different backgrounds but converged in late 1920s Harlem to leave a major mark on the literary landscape.
Color, Sex, and Poetry: three women writers of the Harlem Renaissance by Gloria T. Hull
A biographical/critical study of three Harlem Renaissance poets--Angelina Weld Grimké, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Georgia Douglas Johnson--during a rich and colorful period. Writing from a black feminist critical perspective, Hull recovers these black foremothers and in the process shakes up the traditional black literary canon.