Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books
The Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture provides access to primary source materials created by and about Black people. This page highlights personal papers of poets, records of poetry groups, and a selection of poetry books from our Rare Books collection. The lists below are not comprehensive and represent some highly used, rare, and influential items in our collections. Poets and poems can be found throughout many of our collections. For more information on materials and collections in their division, please email schomburgarchives@nypl.org.
Harlem Renaissance Poets
- Caroling dusk : an anthology of verse by Negro poets byCall Number: Sc Rare F 82-32Publication Date: 1927
- Claude McKay letters and manuscripts Author, poet. Born in Jamaica. Correspondence and manuscripts of McKay's works, both published and unpublished, including "Banjo," "Banana Bottom," "Harlem Glory," and "Romance in Marseilles." Included are letters with Max Eastman, from Louise Bryant, Arrack Johns, director of the Federal Writers' Project, and to Carl Van Vechten, 1941.Call Number: Sc Micro R-1233
- Four Negro poets ... byCall Number: Sc Rare 811.08-L (Locke, A. Four Negro poets)Publication Date: 1927
- God's trombones : seven Negro sermons in verse by Seven sermons in verse inspired by memories of sermons by Black preachers heard by Mr. Johnson in childhood. The sermons are patterned after traditional African-American religious oratory.Call Number: Sc Rare 811-J (Johnson, J. W. God's trombones)Publication Date: 1927
- Helene Johnson poems Helene Johnson was one a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Boston University and Columbia University, the latter in in New York City in 1926. Johnson was the youngest of the African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance. She published approximately twenty-five poems which appeared in such magazines as Opportunity, Fire!!, and Vanity Fair, as well as in The New Negro. Her writings were mainly concerned with life in the ghetto and a strong identification with her racial heritage.Call Number: Sc MG 133
- Martha Pryor Anderson papers Martha Pryor Anderson was an African American woman poet and dramatic performer. This collection consists of correspondence, notebooks, programs, printed matter, and scrapbooks documenting Anderson's activities as a poet and diseuse.Call Number: Sc MG 510
- Selections from the poetic meditations of Marcus Garvey byCall Number: Sc Rare 821-G (Garvey, M. Selections from the poetic meditations of Marcus Garvey)Publication Date: c 1927
Archival Collections
- "Right On!" collection by The collection contains poems recited in the film, contracts, newspaper ad layouts, advertisements, press releases, a press kit, foreign correspondence regarding theater inquiries, national and international reviews of the film, articles about the cast members and legal documents relating to the suit brought by Hassan, et al.Call Number: Sc Mg 682
- Amiri Baraka collection of unpublished poetry Amiri Baraka's collection of unpublished poetry consists of over two hundred poems, which, according to Baraka, were written between 1959 and 1965. With the exception of three poems, all are unpublished. Most items bear holograph corrections, changes, and deletions, and most are short poems of one page in length.Call Number: Sc MG 280
- The Caribbean poetry of Derek Walcott & the art of Romare Bearden. by The poems were selected by the artist from various published collections of the poet's work. "Romare Bearden created eight original lithographs which were hand-printed on Rives paper ... Each book contains one lithograph; the edition size of each lithograph is 250"--Colophon.Call Number: Sc Rare+ G 89-3Publication Date: c. 1983
- Joe Johnson papers Joe Johnson (1940-2019) was a poet and writer who was a member of the Umbra Poets Workshop, a group of young Black writers who met on New York City's Lower East Side from 1962 to 1965 to conduct readings and discuss writing and politics. The Joe Johnson papers consist largely of writings—mostly poetry and fiction, with some drama and nonfiction—by Johnson, as well as notebooks, personal and professional files, and printed material.Call Number: Sc MG 982
- Léon-Gontran Damas papers This collection consists of personal papers, professional and literary correspondence, office files, research notes, and printed matter documenting the professional and literary activities of Léon-Gontran Damas, an author, lecturer, and acting-chairman of the department of African Studies and Research Program at Howard University (1975-1976). The collection contains poems written by Damas.Call Number: Sc MG 302
- Maya Angelou papersCall Number: Sc MG 830
- Patricia Spears Jones papers Patricia Spears Jones (born in 1951 in Forrest City, Arkansas) is a Black American poet, playwright, writer, educator, editor, and publisher. Her papers date from the 1970s to the 2010s, and chronicle Jones' career and personal life through correspondence; publishing contracts; drafts of poems; notebooks; ephemera; interviews; press clippings; photographs; and recorded poetry readings and performances. The collection illuminates her development as a social justice and environmental activist through her work as a poet, educator, volunteer, and non-profit development officer and administrator.Call Number: Sc MG 975
- Piri Thomas papers Piri Thomas was an author, poet, and playwright. The Piri Thomas papers document several areas of Thomas's professional activities, including his writings and his work with and involvement in social justice organizations, from 1957 to 1982Call Number: Sc MG 180
- Quincy Troupe papers Quincy Troupe (born 1939) is a poet, author, and editor, perhaps best known for co-writing Miles: The Autobiography (1989) with the influential jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. His father, Quincy Trouppe, Sr., was an all-star catcher in Negro league baseball. The Quincy Troupe papers, dating from 1915 to 2008, mainly document Troupe's career from the mid-1970s to 2008. They also hold the scrapbooks of Quincy Trouppe, Sr.Call Number: Sc MG 635
- Umbra Poets Workshop collection The Umbra Poets Workshop was a group of young African-American writers who met on New York City's Lower East Side from 1962 to 1965 to conduct readings and discuss writing and politics. The Umbra Poets Workshop collection consists of oral history interviews with fourteen of the poets along with letters relating to the formation of Umbra and Calvin Hernton's activities.Call Number: Sc MG 538
Relevant Search Terms and Subject Headings
Use these subject headings as a guide to making searching in NYPL's Research Catalog and Archives Portal.
African American poets
American poetry -- African American author
American poetry -- African American authors -- 18th century.
American poetry -- African American authors -- 19th century.
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American poetry -- African American authors -- 20th century. African American women poets -- 20th century
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18th & 19th Century Poetry
- Poems on various subjects, religious and moral by A collection of 39 poems written by enslaved poet Phyllis Wheatley. Wheatley was the first Black woman to be published in America and widely considered the first African-American poet. Copy in Sc Rare 811-W (copy 2) (accession no. B547525) is part of the original collection purchased from Arthur A. Schomburg in 1926.Call Number: Sc Rare 811-W (Wheatley, P. Poems on various subjects, 1773)Publication Date: 1 September 1773
- Jupiter Hammon, American Negro poet : selections from his writings and a bibliography byCall Number: Sc Rare 811 (Hammon)-W (Wegelin, O. Jupiter Hammon)Publication Date: 1915
- Poems by a slave in the island of Cuba, recently liberated by Translated from the Spanish, by R.R. Madden, M.D. ; with the history of the early life of the negro poet, written by himself ; to which are prefixed two pieces descriptive of Cuban slavery and the slave-traffic, by R.R.M.Call Number: Sc Rare 861-M (Manzano, J. F. Poems...)Publication Date: 1840
- The life and works of Paul Laurence Dunbar; containing his complete poetical works, his best short stories, numerous anecdotes and a complete biography of the famous poet by The life and works of Paul Laurence Dunbar; containing his complete poetical works, his best short stories, numerous anecdotes and a complete biography of the famous poet. By Lida Keck Wiggins, and an introduction by William Dean Howells. Profusely illustrated with over half a hundred full page photo and half-tone engravings.Call Number: Sc Rare 810.81-D (Dunbar, P. Life and works)Publication Date: c 1907
Queer Poets
- Akasha Hull papers Akasha Gloria Hull (born 1944) is a writer, poet, and Black feminist scholar. The Akasha Hull papers, mostly dating from the 1970s to the 2000s, document Hull's writing projects, including poetry and scholarly works, her involvement in the Combahee River Collective, and her academic career as a professor of literature and women's studies, primarily at the University of Delaware and University of California, Santa Cruz.Call Number: Sc MG 977
- Alexis De Veaux papers Alexis De Veaux (born 1948, New York City) is a writer, poet, and playwright. The Alexis De Veaux papers, which date from the 1960s to 2020s, consist of writings, correspondence, and journals documenting her personal life and career.Call Number: Sc MG 802
- Assotto Saint papers Born Yves Francois Lubin in Haiti in 1957, Assotto Saint was a New York-based gay activist, poet, and performance artist who edited two anthologies of black gay poets in the early 1990s. He founded a publishing house, Galiens Press, which published his book of poems Stations and the anthologies Here to Dare and The Road Before Us.Call Number: Sc MG 556
- Azalea : a magazine by and for third world lesbians.Call Number: Sc Rare D 15-5
- Brad Johnson papers Brad Johnson was a gay African American poet and writer. The Brad Johnson papers include biographical materials, published and unpublished poems, and correspondence.Call Number: Sc MG 844
- Cheryl Boyce-Taylor papers The Cheryl Boyce-Taylor papers, 1982-2014, partially document the artistic and personal life of poet, visual and teaching artist, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor. The collection contains biographical material, such as correspondence and interview transcripts; writing material, such as manuscripts, drafts; and printed matter, such as programs, flyers, and clippings.Call Number: Sc MG 919
- Cheryl Clarke papers Cheryl Clarke is a Black lesbian poet, writer, critic, scholar, and activist. This collection is a testament to her life's work as a Black, lesbian, feminist activist and demonstrates her commitment to promoting Black lesbian visibility and voices through writing as activism.Call Number: Sc MG 642
- Donna Allegra papers Donna Allegra was an African-American lesbian writer, poet, essayist, and dancer. The Donna Allegra papers, 1981-2002, contain twenty-five published essays, short stories, and poems spanning across Allegra's writing career.Call Number: Sc MG 792
- Essex Hemphill and Wayson Jones collection The Essex Hemphill and Wayson Jones Collection documents the collaboration and friendship of poet (Hemphill) and musician (Jones), and their artistic endeavors to foreground the experiences of Black gay life in the United States.Call Number: Sc MG 832
- Jewelle Gomez papers Jewelle Gomez is a self-identified "Black", "Native", lesbian feminist poet and playwright. She has published nine books, including three books of poetry, a novel, a play, an essay collection, and two books of collaboration.Call Number: Sc MG 790
- Reginald Harris papers Reginald Harris (1960-) is an African American poet, author, editor, and library administrator. Harris's experience as a gay man is a frequent subject of his writing. His papers date from 1970 to 2016 and document Harris's creative work, professional career and personal life through journals, correspondence, and files of his writing and public poetry readings.Call Number: Sc MG 805
Appointments
For information on how to book an appointment to look at the materials in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books division, please visit the guide for the division or email schomburgarchives@nypl.org