Post by Laurence Aikens

Countee Cullen (born Countee LeRoy Porter; May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was a poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. After graduating from high school, he entered NYU. He won second prize in the Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry contest, which was sponsored by the Poetry Society of America; his poem was entitled "The Ballad of the Brown Girl". He had some of his poetry published in national periodicals: Harper's, Crisis, Opportunity, The Bookman, and Poetry, and he began to earn a national reputation. The ensuing year he again placed second in the contest, and in 1925 he won. He competed in a poetry contest sponsored by Opportunity and came in second with "To One Who Says Me, Nay". Langston Hughes's poem "The Weary Blues" won. Sometime thereafter, Cullen graduated from NYU and was one of eleven students selected to Phi Beta Kappa. He entered Harvard to pursue a MA in English, about the same time his first collection of poems, Color, was published. Written in a careful, traditional style, the work celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism. The book included "Heritage" and "Incident", probably his most famous poems. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha