Poets of the Harlem Reniassace: The Poems that Spoke on Their Own
Communication in Female Poems
Differentiating between the male poems, the females during this time used poetry as a way to communicate to their audience about male domience, being a Negro at the time, being prideful and the feeling of freedom as a female African-American. They used this form of communication to their advantage to speak everything that was on their mind without disrupting the flow of this era.
Georgia Douglas Johnson
"Calling Dreams", Georgia Douglas Johnson, The Crisis Volume 22-24, 1922-1924, Google Books
"She wrote this poem as a message to others to always follow your dreams or you’ll regret it later on in life. She had big dreams to do things, but those dreams began to fill her heart with sorrow and grief because she never achieved them as time went by"~ Prezi, Georgia Douglas Johnson
Anne Spencer
"In "Before the Feast of Shushan" Spencer insists that patrarchy and love cannot co-exsist"
~ "Anne Spencer's Feminist Modernist Poetics" by Jenny Hyest
“Before the Feast Of Shushan” leaves behind the America of 1920, transporting the reader to the world of the biblical Book of Easter. Nevertheless, Spencer uses the remote setting to address familiar themes of power and inequality"~ The Uncommon Wealth c. 2020
"Before The Feast Of Shushan", Anne Spencer, The Crisis Feb. 1920, The Uncommon Wealth
Gwendolyn B. Bennett
"She explains her thoughts and the excitement she feels that women are no longer forced to play the role of silent sheep. She compares the old traditions that women used to have to follow to the new traditions that they were beginning to write for themselves. Bennett encourages all women to be brave and take this very important step toward the equalization of women" ~ Tej Myrick, Feminism in the Jazz Age, c. 2010
"To Usward", Gwendolyn B. Bennett, The Crisis May 1924, Vol. 28 No.1, Google Books
"Heritage" Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, Vol 1 No.12, Hathi Trust Digital Library
"The "Heritage" theme is that there are no limits for a person to reach their potential. This theme is used to express the suppression of African American culture"~ Melissa Villarreal, c. 2014