LibGuides: Africana Studies: Literature

Collections at the John Hay Library

Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays
Particular strengths include works by African American authors from Phillis Wheatley through the present time, along with sheet music pertaining to both minstrelsy and later African American performers.
J. Saunders Redding Papers
Brown Class of 1928 (and A.M. 1932), Saunders Redding was the first African American to teach at an Ivy League school. The collection includes much of his own creative writing.
Rudolph Fisher (Brown Class of 1919) Papers
Brown Class of 1919. Trained at Brown as a biologist and later as a radiologist, Fisher became one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Caroline D. Murray Collection on Robert Hayden and his Poetry
Comprises correspondence, photographs, bibliography and study guides devoted to understanding Hayden's poetry in the context of his Baha'i faith over the course of his life.

Collections at Other Institutions

Online Literature (Licensed Full text)

Black Drama, Second Edition. This link opens in a new window
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Contains 1,462 plays by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries, 1850-present
1850-present; Black Drama, Second Edition contains approximately 1,462 plays from the mid-1800s to the-present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Includes nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the 18th and 19th centuries
African American Poetry contains nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a comprehensive survey of the early history of African American poetry, from the earliest published African American poems to the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American poet to achieve national success and recognition.
African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Includes nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the 18th and 19th centuries
African American Poetry contains nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a comprehensive survey of the early history of African American poetry, from the earliest published African American poems to the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American poet to achieve national success and recognition.
Twentieth-Century African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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A collection of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century.
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.

Exhibits

Langston Hughes: The Black Bard at 100 (John Hay Library)
Imamu Amiri Baraka (John Hay Library)
Celebrating Harper (John Hay Library)
All The Stories Are True: African American Writers Speak (Smithsonian/Anacostia Community Museum)
Writings of Consequence: The Art of John A. Williams (University of Rochester)
Includes an online finding aid to the Williams papers at Rochester