Color

by Countee Cullen, Mint Editions (Contribution by)

Overview

Color (1925) is a collection of poems by Countee Cullen. Published the same year Cullen entered Harvard to pursue a masters in English, Color was a brilliant debut by a poet who had already gained a reputation as a leading young artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Deeply personal and attuned to poetic tradition, Cullen’s verses capture the spirit of creative inquiry that defined a generation of writers, musicians, painters, and intellectuals while changing the course of American history itself.

“Over three centuries removed / From the scenes his fathers loved, / Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, / What is Africa to me?” In “Heritage,” Cullen investigates his relationship with the past as a black man raised in a nation his people were forced to build. His question bears a dual sense of genuine wonder and cynical doubt, and ultimately produces no easy answer. For Cullen could have just as easily asked “What is America to me?”, to which his poem “Incident” might respond: “I saw a Baltimorean / Keep looking straight at me. / […] / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, ‘Nigger.’ / […] Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I can remember.” In these lines, a single memory serves to define an entire city; an entire childhood, even, is defined by the violent response of a white man consumed with hatred. Cullen’s relationship to place, whether Africa, America, or Baltimore, is inextricably linked to his experience of racial violence. With this knowledge, he navigates the spaces between these places, inhabiting a language and a poetic tradition thrust upon him at birth. For Cullen, poetry is as much a means of survival and self-invention as it is a form of art—without it, where would he be?

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513282381
Publisher:	Mint Editions
Publication date:	03/24/2021
Series:	Black Narratives
Pages:	110
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Countee Cullen (1903-1946) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. In his youth, Cullen moved frequently with his mother Elizabeth Thomas Lucas before settling in Harlem at the age of nine, where he was raised by his grandmother Amanda Porter. In 1917, following her death, he was adopted by Reverend Frederick A. Cullen of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, who led the largest congregation in Harlem and would later become president of the local NAACP chapter. He excelled in high school, graduating with honors to enroll at NYU, where he gained a reputation as a prize-winning poet whose works appeared in Harper’s, Crisis, and Poetry. In 1925, he went to Harvard for a masters in English just as his first collection, Color (1925), was published to popular and critical acclaim. He graduated in 1926, after which he published two more collections—The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927) and Copper Sun (1927)—cementing his reputation as a leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen was known for his friendly and professional associations with such figures as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, and Alain Locke, defining artists and intellectuals of their generation. Throughout his life, Cullen struggled with his sexuality and shy demeanor, pursuing relationships with men and women alike. He received a 1928 Guggenheim Fellowship, using it to write The Black Christ and Other Poems, a controversial collection for its comparison of the crucifixion to the lynching of black Americans. Despite the backlash, he continued to write and publish for the next two decades, turning to plays and children’s fiction at the end of his career and, at one point, mentoring a young James Baldwin. His translation of Euripides’ tragedy Medea is considered the first of its kind by a black American writer. Often overshadowed by his more outspoken peers, Cullen’s legacy is that of a master of traditional poetic forms who used his voice and tremendous intellect to uplift and examine the lives of all African Americans.

Table of Contents

To You Who Read My Book 11

Color

Yet Do I Marvel 17

A Song of Praise 18

Brown Boy to Brown Girl 19

A Brown Girl Dead 20

To a Brown Girl 21

To a Brown Boy 22

Black Magdalens 23

Atlantic City Waiter 24

Near White 25

Tableau 26

Harlem Wine 27

Simon the Cyrenian Speaks 28

Incident 29

Two Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses) 30

Two Who Crossed a Line (He Crosses) 31

Saturday's Child 32

The Dance of Love 33

Pagan Prayer 34

Wisdom Cometh With the Years 35

To My Fairer Brethren 36

Fruit of the Flower 37

The Shroud of Color 38

Heritage 44

Epitaphs

For a Poet 51

For My Grandmother 52

For a Cynic 53

For a Singer 54

For a Virgin 55

For a Lady I Know 56

For a Lovely Lady 57

For an Atheist 58

For an Evolutionist and His Opponent 59

For an Anarchist 60

For a Magician 61

For a Pessimist 62

For a Mouthy Woman 63

For a Philosopher 64

For an Unsuccessful Sinner 65

For a Fool 66

For One Who Gayly Sowed His Oats 67

For a Skeptic 68

For a Fatalist 69

For Daughters of Magdalen 70

For a Wanton 71

For a Preacher 72

For One Who Died Singing of Death 73

For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty 74

For Hazel Hall, American Poet 75

For Paul Lawrence Dunbar 76

For Joseph Conrad 77

For Myself 78

All the Dead 79

For Love's Sake

Oh, For a Little While Be Kind 83

If You Should Go 84

To One Who Said Me Nay 85

Advice to Youth 86

Caprice 87

Sacrament 88

Bread and Wine 89

Spring Reminiscence 90

Varia

Suicide Chant 93

She of the Dancing Feet Sings 94

Judas Iscariot 95

The Wise 98

Mary, Mother of Christ 99

Dialogue 100

In Memory of Col. Charles Young 101

To My Friends 102

Gods 103

To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time 104

On Going 106

Harsh World That Lashest Me 107

Requiescam 108