Post by: AngelOfThyNight on February 02, 2021, 11:11:35 AM
Amid the phenomenal response to Amanda Gorman, who delivered a poem to wide acclaim at President Joe Biden's inauguration, lurked a bleaker current: responses that summoned for me the story of enslaved early American poet Phillis Wheatley. In 1773, Wheatley became not just one of the first Black women but one of the first American women to be published when her book of poems, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," was printed in London. Wheatley traveled to England with her master's son when her book was published, and according to biographer Vincent Carretta, probably returned to America only on the condition she be granted her freedom.
Source: Amanda Gorman's success stirs undercurrent (http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/7Qz80cpu9LU/index.html)